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| Jallianwala bagh firing April 1919 currentaffairs.adda247.com |
Come 13, April 2025 106 years ago under the British Raj a worst tragedy unfolded in the evening at the Jallianwala Bagh maidan close to the holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden temple at Amritsar city, Punjab India, resulting in the death of several hundred innocent people and more than that number severely injured. This massacre was committed by Brig. Gen. Reginald Dyer of the British India Army. Let us pay our homage to those unfortunate victims who gave their lives to see Free India.
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| Jallianwala Bagh, Punjab. ruralindiaonline.org |
Above Image: The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Punjab. Bullet holes on the wall............
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| Butcher of Amritsar Brig.Gen. R.Dyer amazon.in |
The legacy of British colonialism is marked by a profound complexity, balancing significant contributions to the modern world with deep-seated injustices and systemic abuses perpetrated on the soil of India. While Britain’s empire spanned across continents, bringing infrastructural, administrative, and educational advancements, its policies and actions in many regions reveal a darker narrative of exploitation, racial discrimination, and violence. They did these all for their country's growth, leaving the affected countries in the lurch.
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| .Well in the bagh, Punjaben.wikipedia.org |
Above image: Jallianwala Bagh, Punjab. 120 bodies were recovered from this well alone in the maidan; many people in the melee leapt into the wells there...........
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| Jallianwala Bagh memorial, Punjab.ourmyindia.com |
Above image: The Jallianwala Bagh Memorial, Amritsar came up only after the British had left India. Thanks to the late great nationalist Madan Mohan Malaviya (founder of Benares Hindu Uni. Khasi, UP) who made efforts in the colonial period (in the 1920s) to erect a permanent Memorial at the Bagh. Sri late Rajendra Prasad, first Indian President, inaugurated the memorial on April 13, 1961, in presence of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.The cost of memorial then was about Rs.9 lakhs............
It has often been said that Britain lost its Empire upon which the Sun has never set, when in India, the infamous and gruesome Jallianwala Bagh massacre on April 13, 1919, under Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, 55 epitomizes the brutality of colonial governance of oppression and blood-letting. The maniac Dyer commanding a regiment of 50 Gurkha and Baluchi riflemen ordered firing without any prior warning upon an unarmed crowd of 15000 (including women and children) Indians gathered at the place (not knowing the curfew was on) called the jallianwala Bagh, in Amritsar city, to celebrate Baisakhi festival day. People from many places gathered in large number to celebrate the spring festival. As fate had it people in a festive mood never thought they would suddenly face a frightening day.
On that fateful day after securing official order from the Punjab Governor Sir Michael O' Dwyer ICS, Brig. Gen Dyer had two armored cars with mounted machine guns stationed at the narrow entrance gate. He also had other exit gates in the bagh enclosure closed tightly. What is dreadful was Dyer instructed the troops to fire at the dense crowd fleeing the bagh. He paid least attention to constrains or consideration by conception of ''innocents''. Children, women and men were targeted with no mercy including those who tried hard to cross the tall wall to safety.
The continuous firing only stopped when the troops ran out of ammunition after making 1650 rounds in 10 minutes. With glee, Dyer told his men. ''Good shooting''.....the Sunday pick nick is over....We've done a jolly good thing". A strict curfew was in the area, preventing any medical help or ambulance service to save the dying people. A large number of them bled to death in severe pain, many died in stampedes and by jumping into the wells in the maidan for safety. In this visible massacre, apart from Dyer, the co-conspirator was Sir. Michael O'Dwyer, the Governor of Punjab Province (including West Punjab (now part of Pakistan).
The official death toll was at 379, but historians believe that the actual toll was around thousands and equal number of them were injured. The massacre not only horrified the Indian populace and freedom fighters but also sparked international outrage. Yet, in England, some sections of the British public shockingly hailed Dyer as a hero, bestowing upon him a monetary reward and the title of "Saviour of women." This event became a symbol of British imperial arrogance and indifference toward the lives of colonized people. This incident in England further infuriated the Indian freedom fighters and gave them an impetus to speed up freedom.
Except mild punishment Dyer was let out Scottfree by the Uk government. Apart from gaging the print media to suppress the incident after the tragedy, in the later years the British wanted to erase signs of the massacre, according to Darbari Lal (deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly). But national movement leader and educationist Madan Mohan Malaviya purchased the Jallianwala Bagh by raising funds through public donations - about Rs.5.60 lakh in August 1923. He led a committee that was formed to build a memorial to those killed in the massacre. The memorial came up onlt after India's freedom in Aug.1947.
In February 2013, when the then British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar he described the massacre as a “deeply shameful event in British history,” But he stopped short of offering an apology for the events of April 13, 1919.
As of to day either the British Royalty or the successive Prime Ministers of the UK have never made any official apology to the Indian government for the massacre at Amritsar and other innumerable acts of violence and looting of Indian land resources (since the time of the East India Company centuries ago) in the past. But the tragedy continues to loom over the city of Amritsar and will be so for a long time but it is deeply embedded in thein the historical consciousness of the country.
According to the historian Hardeep Dhillon 'a grossly racialised legal structure was put in place by the British government to compensate Europeans affected in the massacre while undervaluing the claims made by families of Indians killed or injured in the incident.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/105-years-jallianwala-bagh-massacre-9266217/
https://www.ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/our-spirit-did-not-break-their-empire-did
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