1) It was as part of the British policy of rally the moderates and isolate the extremists' that the Indian Councils Act 1919 and the Rowlatt Act of the same year were promulgated.
2) Throughout the World War, the repressive measures against the terrorists and revolutionaries had continued. Many of them were hanged or imprisoned for long terms.
3) As the general mood was restive, the government decided to arm itself with more repressive powers.
4) Despite every elected member of the central legislature opposing the bill, the government passed the Rowlatt Act in March 1919.
5) This Act empowered the government to imprison any person without trial.

1) The peasants of Kheda district, due to the failure of monsoon, were in distress. They had appealed to the colonial authorities for remission of land revenue during 1918.
2) As per government's famine code, in the event of crop yield being under 25 percent of the average the cultivators were entitled for total remission.
3) But the authorities refused and harassed them demanding full payment. The Kheda peasants who were also battling the plague epidemic, high prices and famine approached the Servants of India Society, of which Gandhi was a member, for help.
4) Gandhi, along with Vithalbhai Patel, intervened on behalf of the poor peasants and advised them to withhold payment and 'fight unto death against such a spirit of vindictiveness and tyranny'. Vallabhbhai Patel, a young lawyer and Indulal Yagnik joined Gandhi in the movement and urged the ryots to be firm.
5) The government repression included attachment of crops, taking possession of the belongings of the ryots and their cattle and in some cases auctioning them.