Which of the following acts passed by the Britishers disallowed Indians from possessing arms?

The correct answer is The Arms Act, 1878.

 Key Points

• After the revolt of 1857, the attitude to freedom of the press changed.
• Enraged Englishmen demanded a clampdown on the ‘native’ press.
• As vernacular newspapers became assertively nationalist, the colonial government began debating measures of stringent control.
• In 1878, the Vernacular Press Act was passed, modeled on the Irish Press Laws.
• It provided the government with extensive rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular press.
• From now on the government kept regular track of the vernacular newspapers published in different provinces.
• When a report was judged as seditious, the newspaper was warned, and if the warning was ignored, the press was liable to be seized and the printing machinery confiscated.

Additional Information

•  The dissatisfaction with British rule intensified in the 1870s and 1880s.
• The Arms Act was passed in 1878, disallowing Indians from possessing arms. In the same year the Vernacular Press Act was also enacted in an effort to silence those who were critical of the government.
• The Act allowed the government to confiscate the assets of newspapers including their printing presses if the newspapers published anything that was found “objectionable”.
• In 1883, there was a furor over the attempt by the government to introduce the Ilbert Bill.
• The bill provided for the trial of British or European persons by Indians, and sought equality between British and Indian judges in the country.
• But when white opposition forced the government to withdraw the bill, Indians were enraged. 
• The event highlighted the racial attitudes of the British in India.