Rowlatt Bills and After

The widespread discontent was further complicated by the Muslim demand for the continuance of the Khalif’s control over Arabia and the holy places of Islam which the Allies ignored. Gandhi took up the ‘Khilafat’ cause and made it a plank also for Hindu–Muslim unity. The personal letters in this chapter take us to the ‘inner’ thinking of the three friends and offer us a glimpse of how they were handling the growing crises of the times. Gandhi and his co-workers took a pledge for a sustained agitation against the Rowlatt Bills through civil disobedience of laws as and when needed. The earlier constitutional agitation for modest political rights was transformed overnight into a national struggle of the people versus the rulers.