NON-CO-OPERATION.
��THE PUNJAB & KHILAFAT WRONGS
[In a public letter dated the 21st July, 1919, Mr. Gandhi an- nounced that in response to the warnings conveyed to him by the- Government of India and H. E. the Governor of Bombay that the resumption of civil disobedience was likely to be attended with serious consequences to public security and in response to the urgent pressure brought on him by Moderate leaders all over the country and some extremist colleagues, he decided not to resume civil resistence fearing a recrudescence of mob violence. But though further resis- tence was suspended, the course of events inevitably fed the rancour of the people. The disturbances which began in March at Delhi had spread to Lahore and Amritsar by the 10th April, where Martial Law was proclaimed on the 15th, Three other districts subse- quently came under the military regime. The tragedy of Jullian- wallah Bagh where an unarmed and defenceless crowd were ruthlessly massacied by General Dyer rankled in the minds of the people as an unwarrantable barbarity. Slowly again the cruelties and indignities of the Martial law regime with its crawling orders and thundering sentences for trivial offences, eked out and fed the flames of popular indignation. Meanwhile another specific grievance was added to the already long list. Nearly a year had elapsed since the declaration Of Armistice in November 1918 and the treaty with Turkey was yet in the making. British opinion was supposed to be inimical to Turkey and the anxiety of Indian Muslims increas- ed with the delay in the settlement. It was widely feared that the Allies wanted to deal a heavy blow on the suzerainty of the Sultan over Muslim peoples. The dismemberment of the Empire of the Khalifa is a thing unthinkable to the Muslim world. An Indian Khilafat movement was set on foot in which, somewhat to the embarrassment of many, Mr. Gandhi, who was already leading India in the Rowlatt and Punjab agitations, plunged with all the ardour of conviction. Thus the Punjab wrongs and the Khilafat question were the mainstay of a great agitation under the lead of
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