Defence of India Act
Also called: Defence of India Rules · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"
Meaning
The Defence of India Act was an emergency law passed in 1915 during the First World War. It gave the colonial government special powers to arrest people and hold them without trial. It also allowed the government to control the press. It was meant to last only for the war. When the war ended, the Rowlatt Act of 1919 kept these powers going. A similar Defence of India Act was passed again in 1939, at the start of the Second World War.
Example
During the First World War, under the Defence of India Rules, 22 Indian newspapers were forced to pay money deposits, called securities. A newspaper could lose this money if it printed anything the government disliked.
Don't confuse with
- Rowlatt Act (1919): This law continued wartime detention without trial in peacetime. It was passed over the united opposition of Indian members and set off Gandhi's 1919 satyagraha.
Related concepts
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Gandhi in South Africa
- Natal Indian Congress
- Indian Opinion
- Phoenix Settlement
- Tolstoy Farm
- Indian National Congress
- Moderates
- Extremists
- Lal Bal Pal