At the Lahore High Court continues...

On the first of April, 1919, the High Court of Lahore was inaugurated. Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the then Governor of the Punjab presided at the ceremony and administered the oath of office to Sir Henry Rattigan, who was the first Chief Justice. It is a sad commentary on the Punjab Bench and the Bar that whereas the first Chief Justice of Patna High Court had refused to allow the Lieutenant Governor of Bihar to perform the opening ceremony of the High Court, here the Lieutenant Governor not only presided at the function, but used it to proclaim the ‘higher’ status of the executive in the Punjab. At the tea party in the evening in the spacious lawns of the Lahore High Court, I happened to be sitting at the same table with Sir Michael O’Dwyer, and during the talk he said that he was strong enough to put a stop to any agitation that might take place in the Punjab.

The Rowlatt Acts intended to curb seditious activities, through independent tribunals against whose decision lay no appeal, and before whom the accused had no right to be legally represented, shocked the country. Mahatma Gandhi proclaimed a plan for a countrywide protest against their passage. As he was boarding the train which was bringing him to Lahore he was arrested. The news of his arrest stunned the Punjab and a hartal was immediately organised in most of the big cities in the Punjab. The hartal in Lahore continued for a number of days. One evening, in the company of Lala Faqir Chand Aggarwal, I was returning from the Punjab Association Club grounds after a game of tennis. When we reached the Nila Gumbad crossing. we found a huge procession coming from the Anarkali Bazar. We fell in with the processionists and followed it right up to Mool Chand’s shop from where the procession could cross on to the Mall. The processionists were in an excited mood and were shouting anti-Government slogans.

to be continued....

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)