Miles Irving

Amritsar Following his demobilisation, Irving was appointed officiating deputy commissioner for Amritsar city and the surrounding district. In March 1919, the enactment of the Rowlatt Act, which imposed stricter press censorship, arbitrary and warrantless searches and detention without trial, triggered massive protests across India. In response to the Act's passage, Mahatma Gandhi called for a general strike (hartal) to begin on 30 March as part of a peaceful satyagraha. On 30 March, the Amritsar satyagraha movement was launched by a Dr. Satyapal, a local general practitioner, and his friend Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, a barrister who had studied at Cambridge University and was close to Gandhi, having known him since 1909. Though the hartal in Amritsar on 6 April passed peacefully, on 8 April Irving telegraphed the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer, reporting members of all three major faiths in the city - Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims - had united for the satyagraha. Characterising Satyapal and Kitchlew as agitators and troublemakers, Irving requested immediate reinforcements, including machine-gun units if possible.

With O'Dwyer giving his approval, on the morning of 10 April Irving invited Satyapal and Kitchlew to a private meeting at his official residence in the British cantonment, located in the Civil Lines area. Upon arrival, both were arrested and deported by car to Dharamshala in the United Provinces, where they were held without trial. After Kitchlew and Satyapal's followers were informed of their leaders' arrests, several barrister friends of Kitchlew's led a deputation towards Irving's residence, accompanied by a large crowd.