The
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (
HindiStandard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a standardised register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 languages with official status in India, and is used, along with English, for administration of the central government.Standard Hindi is a sanskritised register derived...
: जलियांवाला बाग़ हत्याकांड جلیانوالہ باغ
Jallianwala Bāġa Hatyākāṇḍ), alternatively known as the
Amritsar Massacre, was named after the
Jallianwala BaghJallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab province of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 to commemorate the murder of peaceful celebrators on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre...
(Garden) in the northern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
n city of
AmritsarAmritsar is a city in the northwestern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering just over 3,695,077...
where, on April 13, 1919, 90
British Indian ArmyThe Indian Army , now sometimes called the British Indian Army to distinguish it from the modern army of the Republic of India, was the principal army of the British Raj in India during the last half-century before the partition of India in 1947.The Indian Army served both in India and,...
soldiers under the command of Brigadier-General
Reginald DyerBrigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer CB was a British Indian Army officer responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.-Early life and assignments:...
opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted for 10 to 15 minutes, until they ran out of ammunition. Official
British RajThe British Raj was the British colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; it can also refer to the period of dominion, and even the region under the rule...
sources placed the fatalities at 379, and with 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526
casualtiesA casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or trauma. The word casualties is most often used by the news media to describe deaths and injuries resulting from wars or disasters...
.
India during World War I
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
began with an outpouring of loyalty and goodwill towards the United Kingdom from within the mainstream political leadership of India, contrary to initial British fears of a revolt. India contributed massively to the British war effort by providing men and resources. About 1.3 million Indian soldiers and labourers served in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
,
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, while both the Indian government and the princes sent large supplies of food, money, and ammunition. However,
BengalBengal , is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent...
and
PunjabPunjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between India and Pakistan...
remained hotbeds of
anticolonial activitiesThe Revolutionary movement for Indian independence is often a less-highlighted aspect of the Indian independence movement -- the underground revolutionary factions. The groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category. The revolutionary groups were...
. Militant style attacks in Bengal, increasingly closely linked with the unrest in Punjab, were significant enough to nearly paralyse the regional administration. Also from the beginning of the war, the expatriate Indian population, notably in the United States, Canada, and Germany, headed by the
Berlin CommitteeThe Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence...
and the
Ghadar PartyThe Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Indians of the United States and Canada in June, 1913 with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
, attempted to trigger insurrections in India on the lines of the 1857 uprising with Irish Republican, German and Turkish help in a massive conspiracy that has since come to be called the Hindu-German conspiracy This conspiracy also attempted to rally
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
against British India. A number of failed attempts were made at
mutinyMutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly-situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an existing authority...
, of which the February mutiny plan and the
Singapore mutinyThe 1915 Singapore Mutiny, also known as the 1915 Sepoy Mutiny, or Mutiny of the 5th Native Light Infantry was a mutiny by 850 sepoys against the British in Singapore during the First World War, part of the 1915 Ghadar Conspiracy...
are the most notable. This movement was suppressed by means of a massive international counterintelligence operation and draconian political acts (including the
Defence of India act 1915The Defence of India act 1915 , also referred to as the Defence of India Regulations Act, was an Emergency Criminal Law enacted by the British Raj in India in 1915 with the intention of curtailing the nationalist and revolutionary activities during and in the aftermath of World War I...
) that lasted nearly ten years.
After the war
In the aftermath of World War I, high casualty rates, soaring inflation compounded by heavy taxation, a widespread
influenzaInfluenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals. The name influenza is Italian and means "influence"...
epidemic, and the disruption of trade during the war escalated human suffering in India. Indian soldiers smuggled arms into India to overthrow British rule. The prewar Indian nationalist movement revived as moderate and extremist groups within the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
submerged their differences in order to stand as a unified front. In 1916, the Congress succeeded in forging the
Lucknow PactLucknow Pact refers to an agreement between Indian National Congress and Muslim League...
, a temporary alliance with the
Muslim LeagueThe All-India Muslim League , founded at Dhaka, Bengal, in 1906, was a political party in British India that played a role in the Indian independence movement and developed into the driving force behind the creation of Pakistan as a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent...
over the issues of devolution of political power and the future of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
in the region. The costs of the protracted war in both money and manpower were staggering. In India, long the "jewel in the crown" of the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
, Indians were restless for independence, having contributed heavily to the war efforts in both money and men. Over 43,000 Indian soldiers had died fighting for Britain.
Post-war developments
Indians were expecting, if not freedom, at least more say in their governance; so the Indian Nationalist movement was marked by a clear domination of the more extreme rather than the moderate. In this charged atmosphere, Britain implemented the
Montagu-Chelmsford ReformsThe Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms were reforms introduced by the British Government in India to introduce self-governing institutions gradually to India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Samuel Montagu, the Secretary of State for India during the latter parts of World War I and Lord Chelmsford,...
. However, the provisions of the reforms were unsatisfactory enough for Madame Bhikaji Cama to call them unsuitable for Britain to offer and unworthy for Indians to accept, accelerating the tension already building in India.
Rowlatt Committee
The events of the
Ghadar conspiracyThe Ghadar Conspiracy was a conspiracy for a pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 formulated by Indian revolutionaries...
during World War I, the presence of Mahendra Pratap's
Provisional GovernmentA provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime. The early provisional governments were created to prepared for the return of royal rule...
in Afghanistan and its links to Bolshevik Russia and
Soviet DesignsThe Kalmyk Project was the name given to Soviet plans to launch a surprise attack on the northwest frontier of India via Tibet and other Himalayan buffer states in 1919-1920. It was a part of Soviet plans for destabilising Britain and the Western European powers through unrest in the Colonial...
on India, as well as a still active revolutionary movement especially in Punjab and Bengal, and worsening civil unrest throughout India, especially amongst the Bombay millworkers, led to the appointment of a
Sedition committeeThe Rowlatt committee was a Sedition Committee appointed in 1918 by the British Indian Government with Mr Justice Rowlatt, an English judge, as its president. The purpose of the committee was to evaluate political terrorism in India, especially Bengal and Punjab, its impact, and the links with the...
in 1918 chaired by Sydney Rowlatt, an English judge. It was tasked to evaluate German and Bolshevik links to the militant movement in India, especially in Punjab and Bengal.
Rowlatt Act
On the recommendations of the committee, the
Rowlatt ActThe Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending "emergency measures" enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy...
, an extension of the Defence of India act of 1915, was enforced in India. It vested the Viceroy's government with extraordinary powers to quell sedition by silencing the press, including detaining the political activists without trial, arrest without warrant of any individuals suspected of sedition or treason, as well as trial before special tribunals and
in cameraIn camera is a legal term meaning "in private". It is also sometimes termed in chambers or in curia.In camera describes court cases to which the public and press are not admitted...
. The passage sparked massive outrage within India.
Prelude to the massacre
The events that followed the passage of the Rowlatt Act in 1919 were also influenced by the events linked to the Ghadar conspiracy. At the time, British Indian Army troops were returning from the battlefields of Europe and Mesopotamia to an economic depression in India. The attempts at mutiny in 1915 and the Lahore conspiracy trials were still in public attention. News of young
MohajirSeveral indigenous peoples of the northwest of the Caucasus were forced into exodus at the end of the Caucasian War by victorious Russia. The exodus was launched even before the end of the war in 1864 and it continued into the 1870s, although it was mostly completed by 1867...
s who fought on behalf of the Turkish Caliphate and later fought in the ranks of the
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
during the
Russian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
was also beginning to reach India. The Russian Revolution had also cast its long shadow into India. It was at this time that
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, until then relatively unknown on the Indian political scene, began emerging as a mass leader.
Ominously, in 1919, the
third Anglo-Afghan warThe Third Anglo-Afghan War began on 6 May 1919 and ended with an armistice on 8 August 1919. While it was essentially a minor tactical victory for the British in so much as they were able to repel the regular Afghan forces, in many ways it was a strategic victory for the Afghans...
began in the wake of Amir Habibullah Khan's assassination and institution of
Amanullah KhanAmanullah Khan was the ruler of the Emirate of Afghanistan from 1919 to 1929, first as Amir and after 1926 as Shah. He led Afghanistan to independence over its foreign affairs from the United Kingdom, and his rule was marked by dramatic political and social change.Amanullah Khan was the third son...
in a system blatantly influenced by the Kabul mission. In addition, in India, Gandhi's call for protest against the
Rowlatt actThe Rowlatt Act was a law passed by the British in colonial India in March 1919, indefinitely extending "emergency measures" enacted during the First World War in order to control public unrest and root out conspiracy...
achieved an unprecedented response of furious unrest and protests. The situation especially in Punjab was deteriorating rapidly, with disruptions of rail, telegraph and communication systems. The movement was at its peak before the end of the first week of April, with some recording that "practically the whole of Lahore was on the streets, the immense crowd that passed through Anarkali was estimated to be around 20,000."
In Amritsar, over 5,000 people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh. This situation deteriorated perceptibly over the next few days. Michael O'Dwyer is said to have been of the firm belief that these were the early and ill-concealed signs of a conspiracy for a coordinated uprising around May, on the lines of the 1857 revolt, at a time when British troops would have withdrawn to the hills for the summer. The Amritsar massacre, as well as responses preceding and succeeding it, contrary to being an isolated incident, was the end result of a concerted plan of response from the Punjab administration to suppress such a conspiracy.
James Houssemayne Du BoulaySir James Houssemayne Du Boulay KCIE ; CSI. He was the son of James Thomas Houssemayne Du Boulay and Alice Mead Du Boulay ....
is said to have ascribed a direct relationship between the fear of a Ghadarite uprising in the midst of an increasingly tensed situation in Punjab, and the British response that ended in the massacre.
On April 10, 1919, a protest was held at the residence of the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, a city in Punjab, a large province in the northwestern part of the then unpartitioned India. The demonstration was held to demand the release of two popular leaders of the
Indian Independence MovementThe term Indian independence movement incorporates various national and regional campaigns, agitations and efforts of both nonviolent and militant philosophy. The term encompasses a wide spectrum of political organizations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending the British...
, Satya Pal and
Saifuddin KitchlewSaifuddin Kitchlew was an Indian freedom fighter and a Muslim Indian nationalist leader.-Early life:Saifuddin Kitchlew was born to Azizuddin Kitchlew and Dan Bibi on January 15, 1888, in Amritsar, Punjab. Kitchlew went to school in India, but obtained a B.A. from Cambridge University, and a Ph.D...
, who had been earlier arrested by the government and removed to a secret location. Both were proponents of the
SatyagrahaSatyagraha is a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi . Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr...
movement led by
Mahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
. The crowd was fired on by a military picket, killing several protesters. The firing set off a chain of violence. Later in the day, several
bankA bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities include borrowing and lending money.Many other financial activities were allowed over time. For example banks are important players in financial markets and offer financial services such as investment funds...
s and other government buildings, including the Town Hall and the railway station were attacked and set on fire. The violence continued to escalate, culminating in the deaths of at least 5
EuropeanThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
s, including government employees and civilians. There was retaliatory firing on the crowd from the military several times during the day, and between 8 and 20 people were killed.
For the next two days, the city of Amritsar was quiet, but violence continued in other parts of the Punjab. Railway lines were cut, telegraph posts destroyed, government buildings burnt, and three Europeans were killed. By April 13, the British government had decided to place most of the Punjab under
martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
. The
legislationLegislation is law which has been promulgated by a legislature or other governing body, or the process of making it. The term may refer to a single law, or the collective body of enacted law, while "statute" is also used to refer to a single law...
placed restrictions on a number of civil liberties, including
freedom of assemblyFreedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests...
, banning gatherings of more than four people.
The massacre
On April 13, thousands of people gathered in the
Jallianwala BaghJallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab province of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 to commemorate the murder of peaceful celebrators on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre...
(garden) near the
Golden TempleGolden Temple or Harmandir Sahib , informally referred to as The Golden Temple or Temple of God, is culturally the most significant place of worship of the Sikhs and one of the oldest Sikh gurdwaras...
in Amritsar, on Baisakhi, both a harvest festival and the
SikhSikh is the title and name given to an adherent of Sikhism. The term has its origin in the Sanskrit term , meaning "disciple, learner" or , meaning "instruction"....
religious new year. It was in 1699 during this festival that the tenth Sikh Guru,
Guru Gobind SinghGuru Gobind Singh was the tenth Guru of Sikhism. He was born in Patna, Bihar in India and became a Guru on 11 November 1675, at the age of nine years, succeeding his father Guru Tegh Bahadur...
created the
KhalsaKhālsā is a term of Persian origin which refers to the collective body of all baptized Sikhs. The Khalsa was originally established as a military order of "saint-soldiers" on March 30, 1699, by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru...
adding the name
SinghSingh is derived from the Sanskrit word Siṃha meaning "lion". It is a common title, middle name, or surname in North India, originally used in the 7th century by the Rajputs of the princely states of Rajputana...
or
KaurKaur in Sikhism is a mandatory last name for female Sikhs, in the same way as Singh is for male Sikhs.-History:Kaur, is term used by Sikh women either as the final element of a compound personal name or as a last name. It cannot be regarded as a true surname or family name...
to every Sikh's name. For more than two hundred years, this annual festival had drawn thousands from all over India. People had travelled for days, before the ban on assembly, anyway unknown to them.
An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 4:30 p.m., Brigadier Reginald
DyerDyer may refer to:*A person who works with dye as an occupationPlacesIn the United States:* Dyer, Arkansas, a town* Dyer, Indiana, a town* Dyer, Nevada, a village* Dyer, Tennessee, a cityPeople* Dyer...
marched
a group of 90 British Indian Army soldiers, mostly
GurkhaGurkha, also spelled as Gorkha or Ghurka, are people from Nepal and northern India who take their name from the eighth century Hindu warrior-saint Guru Gorakhnath. His disciple Bappa Rawal, born Prince Kalbhoj/Prince Shailadhish, founded the house of Mewar, Rajasthan...
, Punjab rifles, Pathans
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of the Combat Arms they are the backbone of armies...
,
DograThe Dogras are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group in South Asia. They live predominantly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir but also in adjoining areas of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Northeastern Pakistan...
regiment and Baluchi regiment, into the park accompanied by two armoured cars carrying machine guns. The vehicles were stationed outside the main gate being unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance.
The Jallianwala Bagh was bounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few narrow entrances, most of which were kept permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wider, but was guarded by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles. General Dyer ordered troops to open fire without warning or any order to disperse, and to direct fire towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the firing, approximately 1400 rounds in all, until ammunition was exhausted.
Apart from the many deaths directly from the firing, a number of deaths were caused by stampedes at the narrow gates as also people who sought shelter from the firing by jumping into the solitary well inside the compound. A plaque in the monument at the site, set up after independence, says that 120 bodies were plucked out of the well.
As a result of the firing, hundreds of people were killed and thousands were injured. British records put the figures at 379 killed (337 men, 41 boys and a six-week-old baby) and 200 injured, though the actual figure, likely much higher, is unknown precisely to this day. The wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, as a
curfewA curfew refers to one of the following:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time. It can be imposed to maintain public order , or suppress targeted groups...
had been declared. Despite the government's best efforts to suppress information of the massacre, news spread elsewhere in India and widespread outrage ensued.
Back in his headquarters, Brigadier-General
Reginald DyerBrigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer CB was a British Indian Army officer responsible for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.-Early life and assignments:...
reported to his superiors that he had been "confronted by a revolutionary
armyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
".
In a telegram sent to Dyer, British Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Sir
Michael O'DwyerSir Michael Francis O'Dwyer was Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab from 1912 until 1919. O'Dwyer supported General Reginald Dyer's action regarding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and termed it a 'correct action.' He was later assassinated by an Indian Sikh patriot Udham Singh.-Early life:O'Dwyer was...
wrote:
"Your action is correct. Lieutenant Governor approves."
O'Dwyer requested that
martial lawMartial law is the system of rules that takes effect when the military takes control of the normal administration of justice.Martial law is sometimes imposed during wars or occupations in the absence of any other civil government. Examples of this form of military rule include Germany and Japan...
be imposed upon Amritsar and other areas; this was granted by the
ViceroyA viceroy is a royal official who runs a country or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. His province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty. The relative...
,
Lord ChelmsfordFrederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GBE, PC was a British statesman who served as Viceroy of India from 1916 to 1921....
, after the massacre.
Dyer was called to appear before the Hunter Commission, a commission of inquiry into the massacre that was ordered to convene by
Secretary of State for IndiaThe office of Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was created in 1858 when Company rule in India ended and British India was brought under direct British administration ....
Edwin MontaguEdwin Samuel Montagu PC was a British-Jewish Liberal politician. He notably served as Secretary of State for India between 1917 and 1922.-Background and education:...
, in late 1919. Dyer admitted before the commission that he came to know about the meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh at 12:40 hours that day but took no steps to prevent it. He stated that he had gone to the Bagh with the deliberate intention of opening fire if he found a crowd assembled there.
- "I think it quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself." — Dyer's response to the Hunter Commission Enquiry.
Dyer said he would have used his
machine gunA machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rifle bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute...
s if he could have got them into the enclosure, but these were mounted on armoured cars. He said he did not stop firing when the crowd began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep firing until the crowd dispersed, and that a little firing would do no good. In fact he continued the firing till he ran out of ammunition.
He confessed that he did not take any steps to tend to the wounded after the firing. "
Certainly not. It was not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there," was his response.
The Hunter Commission's lenience towards the action failed to satisfy public opinion in India and the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
instituted a separate inquiry of its own, coming to conclusions that differed considerably from the Government's. The casualty figure quoted by the Congress enquiry, for instance, was more than 1500, with roughly 1000 dead.
Reaction
In the storm of outrage that followed the release of the Hunter Report in 1920, Dyer was placed on the inactive list and his rank reverted to
ColonelColonel is a military rank of a commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every country in the world. It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
since he was no longer in command of a Brigade. The then Commander-in-Chief stated that Dyer would no longer be offered employment in India. Dyer was also in very poor health, and so he was sent home to England on a
hospital shipA hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces or navies of various countries around the world, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones...
.
Some senior British officers applauded his suppression of "another Indian Mutiny". The
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
passed a measure commending him. The
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
, however, censured him; in the debate,
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
claimed: "The incident in Jallian Wala Bagh was an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation". Dyer's action was condemned worldwide. He was officially censured by the British Government and resigned in 1920.
However, many Britons in India and Britain, as well as the British press, defended Dyer as the man who had saved British pride and honour, some labelling him the "Saviour of the Punjab". A British newspaper,
The Morning Post started a sympathy fund for Dyer and received over £30,000. An
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
woman donated 100 pounds, adding "I fear for the British women there now that Dyer has been dismissed." Dyer was presented with a memorial book inscribed with the names of well-wishers.
Jawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru was an Indian statesman who was the first, and has been the longest-serving prime minister of India to date, having served from 1947 until 1964...
, in his autobiography, claimed that he overheard, from his curtained sleeping booth on a night train from Amritsar to Delhi, a military officer in loud voice to another "pointing out how he had the whole town at his mercy and he had felt like reducing the rebellious city to a heap of ashes, but he took pity on it and refrained." It turned out to be Dyer on his way to Delhi after the Hunter Committee meeting. In Delhi, Dyer descended from the train in pyjamas with bright pink stripes and a dressing gown. Nehru also remarked he heard soldiers discussing how the actions taken were a good thing because they would "teach the bloody browns a lesson."
In India, the massacre evoked feelings of deep anguish and anger. It catalysed the freedom movement in the Punjab against British rule and paved the way for Mahatma Gandhi's
Non-Cooperation MovementThe non-cooperation movement , was the first-ever series of nationwide people's movements of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress...
against the British in 1920. It was also motivation for a number of other revolutionaries, including
Bhagat SinghBhagat Singh was an Indian freedom fighter, considered to be one of the most influential revolutionaries of the Indian independence movement...
. The
NobelThe Nobel Prize is a Sweden-based international monetary prize. The award was established by the 1895 will and estate of Swedish chemist and inventor Alfred Nobel. It was first awarded in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace in 1901...
laureate
Rabindranath TagoreRabindranath Tagore , sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath. As a poet, novelist, musician, and playwright, he reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
returned his knighthood to the
King-EmperorA king-emperor, the female equivalent being queen-empress, is a sovereign ruler who is simultaneously a king of one territory and emperor of another...
in protest. S. Srinivasa Iyengar resigned as Advocate-General of Madras Presidency and returned his
Order of the Indian EmpireThe Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
. The massacre ultimately became an important catalyst of the Indian independence movement.
Monument and legacy
A trust was formed in 1920 to build a memorial at the site following a resolution passed by the
Indian National CongressThe Indian National Congress is a major political party in India. Founded in 1885 by Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinshaw Wacha, Womesh Chandra Bonnerjee, Surendranath Banerjee, Monomohun Ghose, and William Wedderburn, the Indian National Congress became the leader of the Indian...
. In 1923, the trust purchased land for the project. A memorial, designed by American architect
Benjamin PolkBenjamin Kauffman Polk was a notable American designer and architect, best known for his work in India and Nepal. Polk was raised by his parents, Harry Herndon Polk and Alice Kauffman in Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa...
, was built on the site and inaugurated by the then-President of India, Dr.
Rajendra PrasadDr. Rajendra Prasad was the first President of the Republic of India .He was an independence activist and, as a leader of the Congress Party, played a prominent role in the Indian Independence Movement. He served as President of the Constituent Assembly that drafted the constitution of the...
on 13 April 1961 in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders. A
flameAn eternal flame is a flame or torch that burns constantly. The flame that burned constantly at Delphi was an archaic feature, "alien to the ordinary Greek temple"....
was later added to the site.
The bullet holes can be seen on the walls and adjoining buildings to this day. The well into which many people jumped and drowned attempting to save themselves from the hail of bullets is also a protected monument inside the park.
The massacre is depicted in
Richard AttenboroughRichard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE is an English actor, director, producer, and entrepreneur. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes...
's 1982
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
GandhiGandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. They both won Academy...
with the role of Brigadier Dyer played by
Edward FoxEdward Charles Morrice Fox, OBE is an English stage, film and television actor. He is generally associated with the role of an upper-class Englishman...
. It is also depicted in Indian films
Rang De BasantiRang De Basanti is a 2006 Indian drama film written and directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It features an ensemble cast comprising Aamir Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Madhavan, Kunal Kapoor, Siddharth Narayan, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni and British actress Alice Patten in the lead roles...
and
The Legend of Bhagat SinghThe Legend of Bhagat Singh is a great martys..Bollywood historic biographical film about Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter who fought for Indian independence. It was directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and starred Ajay Devgan, Sushant Singh, and Ian Davies...
.
In 1997, the
Duke of EdinburghThe Duke of Edinburgh is a dukedom associated with Edinburgh, Scotland. There have been three creations since 1726 . The current holder is Prince Philip, the husband of and royal consort to Queen Elizabeth II.-History of title:The dukedom was first created in July 26, 1726, in the Peerage of Great...
, participating in an already controversial British visit to the Monument, provoked outrage in India with an offhand comment. Having observed a plaque claiming "This place is saturated with the blood of about two thousand
HindusHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
,
SikhsSikhism, founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev and ten successive Sikh Gurus in fifteenth century Punjab, is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world. This system of religious philosophy and expression has been traditionally known as the Gurmat or the Sikh Dharma...
and
MuslimsIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
who were martyred in a non-violent struggle.",
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observed, "That's a bit exaggerated, it must include the wounded". When asked how he had come to this conclusion, Prince Philip said "I was told about the killings by General Dyer's son. I'd met him while I was in the
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."
Assassination of Michael O'Dwyer
On 13 March 1940, an Indian revolutionary from Sunam, named
Udham SinghUdham Singh , born Sher Singh Jammu, , was an Indian independence activist, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in March 1940 in what has been described as an avenging of the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre.Singh was also known as Ram Mohammed Singh Azad, symbolizing the unification of the...
, who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and was himself wounded, shot dead
Michael O'DwyerSir Michael Francis O'Dwyer was Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab from 1912 until 1919. O'Dwyer supported General Reginald Dyer's action regarding the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and termed it a 'correct action.' He was later assassinated by an Indian Sikh patriot Udham Singh.-Early life:O'Dwyer was...
, believed to be the chief planner of the massacre (Dyer having died years earlier in 1927) at Caxton Hall in London.
The action of Singh was generally condemned, but many British and Indian people felt he had carried out an act of great bravery and some press, like nationalist newspaper
Amrita Bazar PatrikaAmrita Bazar Patrika was one of the the oldest newspapers in India; it is written Bengali . It debuted on 20 February, 1868. It was started by Sisir Ghosh and Moti Lal Ghosh, sons of Hari Naryan Ghose, a rich merchant from Magur, in District Jessore, in Bengal Province of British Empire in India....
, also held positive views. The common people and revolutionary circles glorified the action of Udham Singh. Most of the press worldwide recalled the story of Jallianwala Bagh and held Sir Michael O'Dwyer responsible for the massacre. Singh was called a "fighter for freedom" and his action was referred to in the
Times newspaper as "an expression of the pent-up fury of the down-trodden Indian People". In Fascist countries, the incident was used for anti-British propaganda:
Bergeret, published in large scale from
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at that time, while commenting upon the Caxton Hall assassination, ascribed the greatest significance to the circumstance and praised the courageous action of Udham Singh. The
Berliner Börsen Zeitung called the event "The torch of Indian freedom". German radio reportedly broadcast: "The cry of tormented people spoke with shots." Fortnightly reports of the political situation in
BiharBihar is a state in eastern India. Bihar is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at 38,202 sq mi , and 3rd largest by population. Close to 85 percent of the population lives in villages...
mentioned: "It is true that we had no love lost for Sir Michael. The indignities he heaped upon our countrymen in Punjab have not been forgotten." In its March 18, 1940 issue,
Amrita Bazar Patrika wrote: "O'Dwyer's name is connected with Punjab incidents which India will never forget." The
New Statesman observed: "British conservativism has not discovered how to deal with
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after two centuries of rule. Similar comment may be made on British rule in India. Will the historians of the future have to record that it was not the
NazisNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
but the British ruling class which destroyed the British Empire?"
Singh had told the court at his trial:
- "I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?"
Singh was hanged for the murder on July 31, 1940. At that time, many, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, condemned the action of Udham as senseless. However, later in 1952, Nehru applauded Udham Singh with the following statement which had appeared in the daily Partap: "I salute Shaheed-i-Azam Udham Singh with reverence who had kissed the noose so that we may be free." Having said this,
Udham SinghUdham Singh , born Sher Singh Jammu, , was an Indian independence activist, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer in March 1940 in what has been described as an avenging of the Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre.Singh was also known as Ram Mohammed Singh Azad, symbolizing the unification of the...
received the title of Shaheed, a name given to someone who has attained martyrdom or done something heroic in the name of their country or religion.
External links
- An NPR
National Public Radio is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed into law...
interview with Bapu Shingara Singh - the last known surviving witness.
- Churchill's speech after the incident.
- Amritsar Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh Listen to the Shaheed song of the Amritsar Massacre at Jallian Wala Bagh.
- A description of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
- The Amritsar Massacre A description of the Jallianwala Bagh
Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar in the Punjab province of India, and houses a memorial of national importance, established in 1951 to commemorate the murder of peaceful celebrators on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919 in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre...
Massacre.