On May 26, 1907, Lord Minto, Viceroy and Governor General of India, put an end to one of the most intense popular peasant agitations in the Punjab Province by the exercise of a veto on the Colonisation Bill introduced in the Punjab Legislative Council in October 1906.
The veto effectively put the break on rural discontent which had spread across several districts of Punjab. The peasant agitation in colonial Punjab during the previous months had challenged the claim that paternalistic rule had succeeded in keeping the peasantry of the Province happy and contented. At the back of the veto was the realisation that the colonial regime alienating the Punjab peasantry – the primary recruiting ground for the British Indian Army – had serious implications, even as it brought back haunting memories of the 1857 revolt.
The immediate provocation for the agitation was the passage of the Colonisation Bill in 1906, which amended the 1893 Punjab Colonisation of Land Act. This Act had governed the regime of land distribution and allotments in the Canal Colonies, whereby vast tracts in the western districts, were brought under cultivation
— source thewire.in | Indu Agnihotri | 26/May/2021