In the previous chapter we looked at the role of rumours in dislodging the image of the colonial state and the activities of various revolutionary parties in attempting to politicise the countryside in preparation for a revolutionary struggle. Let us now pan out of Bengal in this chapter to analyse the responses of the Government of India (GOI), as well as Gandhi, to the movement. In the following pages, I undertake an analysis of the different ideas and meanings of ‘responsibility’ for the movement, passed around between the GOI and Gandhi. Both tried to completely deny any sort of responsibility for the movement or the violence that ensued, but for different reasons. This then will give us an insight into the desperate situation that Britain found itself in the global context of the War as well as Gandhi's position at this critical juncture of anti-colonial politics. But before that, and since in the previous chapter we have studied the preparations made by the revolutionary parties, let us first take a look at how prepared exactly the GOI was in meeting any threat of civil disobedience from Gandhi and the Congress. This will also reveal subtle tensions between routes envisaged by the GOI and the British government, an aspect that continued to find echoes even in the post-war political scenario (see Conclusion).