CAUSES OF THE UPHEAVAL.
“Bombay, April 20.—We have passed through the most anxious ten days that India has known for half a century. We have further anxious days in store, for although in Bombay conditions are improving and Mr. Gandhi has publicly abandoned the passive resistance movement, while men of weight are rallying to the support of the Government, the situation in Northern India is disquieting.
“We may pause to enquire into this widespread manifestation of violence. How came it that passive resistance to the Rowlatt Act—never likely to be applied to the greater part of India, especially to Bombay, and nominally confined to the sale of proscribed literature of doubtful legality, which was waning—suddenly flamed into riot, arson, and murder at Delhi, Ahmedabad, Viramgam, Amritsar, and other parts of the Punjab on the prevention of Mr. Gandhi’s entry into Delhi? All day on April 11 Bombay stood on the brink of a bloody riot, averted only by the Governor, Sir George Lloyd’s prudent statesmanship and the great restraint of the police and military in face of grave provocation.
“The movement seems to have been twofold. In part it was the expression of the prevailing ferment. India is no less affected than other parts of the world by the social and intellectual revolution of the war, by expectations based on the destruction of German materialism and by ambitions for fuller partnership in the British Empire.