Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre took place on 13^th April 1919, in which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in an open space, killing several hundred people and wounding hundreds more. It marked a turning point in India’s modern history. We present here some aspects of this horrific massacre to awaken you to historical truths.

Shaheed-i-Azam Udham Singh and Jallianwala Bagh

On 13^th March 1940, Michael O’Dwyer was scheduled to speak at Caxton Hall, London. Udham Singh entered the event with a revolver concealed inside a book. As the meeting concluded, Udham Singh shot O’Dwyer twice as he moved towards the speaking platform. One of these bullets passed through O’Dwyer’s heart.

On 4^th June 1940, his trial commenced at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey. When asked about his motivation, Udham Singh explained : ‘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 seek 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. I hope that in my place will come thousands of my countrymen to drive you dirty dogs out, to free my country.’

Udham Singh was convicted and sentenced to death. On 31^st July 1940, he was hanged at Pentonville Prison. In 1974, his remains were exhumed and repatriated to India. His ashes were divided into seven urns and distributed – one each to Haridwar, Kiratpur Sahib, Rauza Sharif, Sunam and the museum at Jallianwala Bagh.

Background of the massacre

During World War I (1914–18) the British Government of India enacted a series of repressive emergency powers that were intended to combat subversive activities. By the War’s end, expectations were high among the Indians that those measures would be eased and India would be given more political autonomy. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report, presented to the British Parliament in 1918, did in fact recommend limited local self-Government. Instead, however, the Government of India passed what became known as the ‘Rowlatt Act’ in early 1919, which essentially extended the repressive wartime measures.

The Act was met by widespread anger and discontent among Indians, notably in the Punjab region. In early April, Gandhi called for a one-day general strike throughout the country. In Amritsar the news that prominent Indian leaders had been arrested and banished from that city sparked violent protests on 10th April, in which soldiers fired upon civilians, buildings were looted and burned.

What happened on that fateful day ?

On the afternoon of 13^th April, a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women and children gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh.

Colonel Reginald Dyer assembled a force of 90 armed soldiers, backed up by two armoured carriers fitted with machine guns, to take on a peaceful, unarmed gathering of non-violent protesters. Dyer had to leave the armoured carriers behind as they could not enter the narrow lanes through which the soldiers had marched. About 700 people died on the spot while at least three times that number received injuries. Michael O’Dwyer was the Lt. Governor of Punjab at that time.

Corpses piled up in the vicinity of the podium and at the small openings in the surrounding walls, where the soldiers were ordered by Dyer to concentrate their fire on those attempting to flee in panic, especially those who tried to crawl and avoid being hit by the bullets. People who escaped with bullet injuries collapsed in the lanes outside Jallianwala Bagh.

Floggings and humiliations after the massacre

The shooting was followed by the proclamation of martial law in Punjab that included public floggings and other humiliations. Indian outrage grew as news of the shooting and subsequent British actions spread throughout the subcontinent. Poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore renounced the knighthood he had received in 1915. Gandhi was initially hesitant to act, but he soon began organising his first large-scale Satyagraha (1920-22).

The Government of India ordered an investigation into the incident (called the ‘Hunter Commission’), which in 1920 censured Dyer for his actions and ordered him to resign from the military. However, the reaction in Britain to the massacre was mixed.

The massacre split open several divides

Jallianwala Bagh marked several divides : 1. Between the European and Indian members of the Hunter Commission; 2. between the (British) Government of India and the British Government in London; 3. between the generality of opinion among the British in India and the home audience; 4. between the House of Commons and the House of Lords; and 5. between wings of the Tory party who were respectively appalled by what Dyer had done and others who applauded.

It also divided opinion among those who thought Dyer’s actions had forestalled another 1857 (First War of Indian Independence) and others who believed he had immorally undermined the ethics of the British Empire. But it did unite Indian opinion as had not been seen in the previous three-quarters of a century of Imperial rule.

The Hunter Commission

There were three Indians appointed by the British Government to the Hunter Commission. Of course, the Commission was neither a ‘Royal Commission’ nor a ‘Parliamentary Commission’, but a body nominated by the Government and headed by a former Solicitor-general of Scotland with no previous acquaintance with India.

The horrific confessions of Dyer

Dyer made the mistake of defending himself instead of through an attorney. He made horrific confessions to the Commission including : 1. ‘It did not take me thirty seconds to make up my mind … I was going to fire until they dispersed’; 2. ‘I thought it my duty to go on firing until it dispersed. If I had fired a little, I should have been wrong in firing at all … then they would come back and laugh at me’; 3. ‘I had made up my mind that I would do all the men to death if they were going to continue the meeting’; 4. ‘If the possibility had been there, the probability is that I would have opened fire … with the machine guns’; 5. ‘It was a merciful act though a horrible act and they ought to be thankful to me for doing it’.

The mentality of the Englishmen !

The London Morning Post set up a fund for Dyer that attracted a subscription of 26,000 Pounds Sterling, a huge amount for its time, while one Ms Florence Holland of Mussoorie (in India) issued a public notification for funds to present a ‘Sword of Honour and Purse’ to the ‘Saviour of Punjab’.

(Courtesy : ‘Tribune India and ‘Britannica’)

After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore renounced the knighthood he had received in 1915 !