Jalianwala Bagh Massacre (1919)

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The Amritsar massacre also known as Jalinawala Bagh Massacre. Where the British Indian army opened
re on gathering who gathered in Jalinawala Bagh for Bisakhi festival. According to o cial source 379
people were killed but according to private source number was much higher.

In 1919 after the Rowlett Act, Indian National Congress started mass movement across the sub-continent.
The peaceful political demonstration in Amritsar quickly transformed into violence. A crowd that had been
proceeding towards the residence of the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, to demand the release of two
popular leaders against whom deportation orders had been issued was red upon by a military picket.
Several banks, government and private property were set on re. Some foreigners were killed, railway
lines were cut, and telegraph and post were destroyed. Then British governor of Punjab Sir Michael
O’Dwyer declared martial law in Punjab and instructions were given ”no gathering of person, nor
procession of any sort will be allowed”.

On 13th April 1919 thousands of Indian gathered in the Jalinawala Bagh in the heart of Amritsar. The
occasion was of Bisakhi, a tradition had been established to gather in Amritsar to participate in the
Bisakhi festival. Those coming of the rural areas were unaware of events of Amritsar, as communications
were inadequate and highly underdeveloped in Punjab. The gathering in the Bagh was violation of order.

The Bagh was bounded on all sides by brick walls and buildings and had a single narrow entrance. The
British Indian army troops marched toward the bagh on vehicles. The vehicle was unable to enter the
park compound due to the narrow entrance. Dyer ordered his men to open re, and without any warning
to the crowd to disperse, the troops started ring. Sixteen hundred and fty rounds of ammunition were
spent; nearly 400 people, in the conservative estimate of the authorities themselves, were killed at the
spot. Since there was no exit except for the one already manned by the troops, people desperately tried
to climb the walls of the bagh. Some also jumped into a well inside the compound to escape the bullets.

A plaque in the monument says that 120 bodies were plucked out of the well. The wounded could not be
moved from where they had fallen, as a curfew had been declared. Dyer reported to his headquarters
that he had been ‘confronted by a revolutionary army,’ and had been obliged ‘to teach a moral lesson to
the Punjab.’ 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 India Edwin Montagu, in late 1919. In the
storm of outrage which followed, Dyer was retired, and placed on the inactive list. “I think it quite possible
that I could have dispersed the crowd without ring but they would have come back again and laughed,
and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself.” He said he did not stop ring when the crowd
began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep ring until the crowd dispersed, and that a
little ring would do no good. He confessed he did not take any steps to attend to the wounded after the
ring. “Certainly not. It was not my job.” Senior British o cers applauded his suppression of ‘another
Indian Mutiny. The Conservatives presented him with a jeweled sword inscribed “Savior of the Punjab.

On the other hand In India, the massacre evoked feelings of deep anguish and anger. It catalyzed the
freedom movement in the Punjab against British rule and paved the way for Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation
Movement against the British in 1920. In 1920 a trust was formed to build a memorial at the site following
a resolution passed by the Indian National Congress. A memorial was built on the site in 1961. The bullet
holes can be seen on the walls and 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 bagh. In 1940 an Indian
revolutionary, named Udham Singh, who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and was himself wounded,
shot dead Sir Michael O’Dyer, believed to be the chief planner of the massacre (Dyer having died years
earlier) in London. The action of Singh was generally condemned, but some, like Amrit Bazaar Patrika, had
di erent views. The common people and revolutionary circles glori ed the action of Udham Singh, and his
stance in court was it was my duty, sacri ced for my motherland. HE was hanged in 1940.Jawaharlal
Nehru applauded him in 1952 with following statement “I salute shahed a azam Udham Singh who had
kissed the noose so that we may be free”.