The Ingress into India Ordinance, 1914, a law passed in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in September 1914, at the outset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, allowed the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...

to screen, detain, and restrict the movement of people returning to India. The main aim of the act was to detain and restrict

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

immigrants returning from Canada and the United States under plans made by the

Ghadar Party The Ghadar Movement was an early 20th century, international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India. The early movement was created by conspirators who lived and worked on the West Coast of the Unite ...

to initiate rebellion against British rule in India with help from Imperial Germany. It was first applied against the passengers of the ''

Komagata Maru was a Cargo ship, cargo steamship that was built in Scotland in 1890, was in German ownership until 1913, and then had a succession of Japanese owners until she was wrecked in 1926. She was launched as ''Stubbenhuk'', renamed ''Sicilia'' in 18 ...

'' upon her arrival at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, and subsequently against Ghadarites who attempted to return to India through other ports throughout the war. The ordinance was also used to detain and deport suspected Ghadarites as far away as

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

back to their villages in

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

for internment. Coordinating with British Intelligence services in North America led by W. C. Hopkinson, authorities in India were able to compile lists of suspected Ghadarites who had set sail from North America for India, and passengers disembarking at Indian ports were subjected to the ordinance. As a uniform rule all emigrants from North America as well as

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, Shanghai, and

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

were restricted. The ordinance was preceded and applied with a similar ordinance, the Foreigners Ordinance, which restricted the liberty of foreigners attempting to enter British India in a similar manner. Along with the

Defence of India Act 1915 The Defence of India Act 1915, also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an emergency criminal law enacted by the Governor-General of India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities ...

, the ordinance was applied in a large scale throughout the war to stave off the threat from the revolutionary movement in India. The

Rowlatt Committee The Rowlatt Committee was a Sedition Committee appointed in 1917 by the British Indian Government with Sidney Rowlatt, an Anglo-Egyptian judge, as its president. Background The purpose of the Rowlatt Committee was to evaluate political terrorism ...

estimated that between 1914 and 1917, the ordinance was used to intern nearly three hundred people, while a further two thousand two hundred were restricted to their villages, mainly in Punjab.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ingress into India act,1914 Legislation in British India 1914 in India 1914 in law Hindu–German Conspiracy