Imagine This...
It's April 13, 1919. The festival of Baisakhi — the Sikh new year, the harvest celebration. Amritsar is crowded with pilgrims, farmers, families.
In a walled garden called Jallianwala Bagh, thousands have gathered. Some are there for a political meeting — protesting the arrest of two popular leaders under the Rowlatt Act (which allowed detention without trial). Many are just there for Baisakhi. Families. Children.
The garden has one narrow exit — a passageway barely wide enough for a few people. The walls are 10 feet high. There is no way out.
At 5:30 PM, Brigadier General Reginald Dyer arrives with 90 soldiers — 50 with rifles. Without warning, without ordering the crowd to disperse, without a single word:
He orders his troops to fire.
They fire into the densest parts of the crowd. People run toward the exits — the soldiers aim there. People try to climb the walls — the soldiers aim there. People throw themselves into a well — hundreds drown.
1,650 rounds fired. Dyer only stopped when ammunition was nearly exhausted.
The official British count: 379 dead, 1,200 wounded.
The Indian count: over 1,000 dead.
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.
When asked if he would have used machine guns if the passage had been wider, he said: "I think probably yes."
The Context — India After World War I
WHY WAS INDIA BOILING IN 1919?
WORLD WAR I (1914-1918):
→ 1.3 MILLION Indian soldiers served
→ 74,000 Indian soldiers KILLED
→ India contributed £146 million to the war effort
→ Indians were PROMISED reforms in return
WHAT THEY GOT INSTEAD:
→ The ROWLATT ACT (March 1919)
— Indefinite detention without trial
— No right to appeal
— Wartime emergency powers made PERMANENT
— Passed despite EVERY Indian member
of the legislature voting AGAINST it
Gandhi called it: "An affront to every Indian."
→ INFLATION: Prices doubled during the war
→ SPANISH FLU: 18 million Indians died (1918-19)
→ UNEMPLOYMENT: Demobilized soldiers with no jobs
INDIA HAD GIVEN BLOOD FOR THE EMPIRE.
THE EMPIRE GAVE BACK THE ROWLATT ACT.
The Rowlatt Satyagraha — Gandhi's First Mass Campaign
Gandhi called for a hartal (general strike) on April 6, 1919. The response was massive — shops closed, workers struck, protests erupted across India. In Amritsar, the protests turned violent. Two popular leaders — Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satya Pal — were arrested and deported.
On April 10, crowds marching to demand their release were fired upon. Riots followed. Banks were attacked, Europeans were assaulted, buildings burned.
General Dyer was sent to restore order. On April 13, he issued a proclamation banning all public gatherings. Most of the crowd at Jallianwala Bagh never heard the proclamation.
The Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919, popularly known as the Rowlatt Act, was a law, applied during the British India period. It was a legislative council act hurriedly passed by the Imperial Legislative Council in Delhi on 18 March 1919, despite the united opposition of its Indian members, indefinitely extending the emergency measures of preventive indefinite detention, imprisonment without trial and judicial review enacted in the Defence of India Act, 1915 during the First World War. It was enacted in the light of a perceived threat from revolutionary nationalists of re-engaging in similar conspiracies as had occurred during the war which the government felt the lapse of the Defence of India Act, 1915 would enable.
Explore: The Rowlatt Act on Wikipedia
Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act, 1919
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowlatt_Act" rel="noopener noreferrer">View on Wikipedia</a>>
The Massacre — Minute by Minute
JALLIANWALA BAGH — APRIL 13, 1919:
THE PLACE:
A walled garden, roughly 200 x 200 yards
Surrounded by buildings and high walls
ONE narrow exit (barely 3-4 people wide)
Several boarded-up exits
A well in the grounds
THE CROWD:
Estimates: 10,000-20,000 people
Mix of political protesters and Baisakhi pilgrims
Families. Children. Elderly.
Most DID NOT KNOW about the ban on gatherings
5:30 PM:
Dyer arrives with 90 soldiers (50 Gurkha/Baloch riflemen)
Enters through the narrow passage
Positions troops on raised ground
NO WARNING GIVEN.
NO ORDER TO DISPERSE.
He orders: "FIRE."
5:30-5:40 PM (approximately 10 minutes):
1,650 rounds fired
Soldiers aim at the DENSEST clusters
As people flee toward exits → soldiers aim THERE
As people try to scale walls → soldiers aim THERE
People jump into a WELL → 120 bodies later
recovered from a single well
Dyer stops ONLY when ammunition runs low.
AFTER THE FIRING:
Dyer withdraws. LEAVES THE WOUNDED.
Curfew imposed — no one can enter to help
The wounded lie among the dead ALL NIGHT
Many bleed to death in the dark
The Aftermath
Dyer's Justification
DYER'S TESTIMONY (Hunter Commission, 1919):
Q: "Did you give the crowd a chance to disperse?"
A: "No. I considered it my duty to fire immediately."
Q: "You fired without warning?"
A: "I did."
Q: "Did you fire to disperse, or to punish?"
A: "I fired to produce a MORAL EFFECT
on the whole of Punjab."
Q: "Would you have used machine guns if
the passage had been wide enough?"
A: "I think probably yes."
THE "CRAWLING ORDER":
After the massacre, Dyer also issued an order:
Any Indian passing through the street where
a British woman had been assaulted must
CRAWL on their belly.
Indians — men and women — were forced to
crawl on their stomachs through the dirt
of their own city.
India's Response
The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in the incongruous context of humiliation.
THE SHOCKWAVE:
GANDHI:
Initially called off the Rowlatt Satyagraha
— he was horrified by the violence on BOTH sides
But Jallianwala Bagh radicalized him:
"Cooperation in any shape or form with this
satanic government is sinful."
→ Leads to NON-COOPERATION MOVEMENT (1920)
THE HUNTER COMMISSION (1919-20):
British inquiry into the massacre
Found Dyer guilty of "grave error"
He was relieved of command
BUT: NOT punished. No trial. No prison.
Sent back to England.
IN BRITAIN:
The House of Lords PRAISED Dyer
The Morning Post raised £26,000 for him
("the man who saved India")
Winston Churchill (rare credit) called it:
"a monstrous event"
But Parliament took NO serious action
THE INDIAN VERDICT:
If the British can massacre unarmed civilians
and then REWARD the man who did it —
then British rule has NO moral authority.
NONE.
The Point of No Return
BEFORE JALLIANWALA BAGH:
Many Indians still believed:
"British rule can be reformed."
"The system has flaws but the principles are good."
"We can work within the system for change."
AFTER JALLIANWALA BAGH:
The SYSTEM killed 1,000 people.
The SYSTEM defended the killer.
The SYSTEM rewarded him.
Reform is dead.
The only question now is: HOW do we end this?
Gandhi's answer: Non-violent non-cooperation
Bhagat Singh's answer: Revolution
Bose's answer: Armed struggle
But ALL of them agreed on one thing:
BRITISH RULE MUST END.
Jallianwala Bagh didn't start the independence movement.
It made the independence movement INEVITABLE.
1,650 rounds. Ten minutes. The moral death of the British Empire in India.
The Man Who Remembered — Udham Singh
UDHAM SINGH — THE 21-YEAR REVENGE:
1919 Udham Singh (age ~20) is in Amritsar
on the day of the massacre.
Some accounts say he was IN the garden.
He collects soil. He swears an oath.
|
1920s Travels to East Africa, America, Russia
Works, organizes, waits
|
1934 Returns to London
Target: Michael O'DWYER
— NOT General Dyer (who died in 1927)
— O'Dwyer was the Lt. Governor of Punjab
who ENDORSED and DEFENDED the massacre
|
MARCH 13, 1940 — CAXTON HALL, LONDON:
O'Dwyer is at a public meeting.
Udham Singh walks up and shoots him dead.
He does NOT run.
He tells the police:
"I did it because he deserved it."
Tried and hanged (July 31, 1940).
21 years. From Jallianwala Bagh to Caxton Hall.
He never forgot. He never forgave.
I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. I don't belong to any society or party. I did it to avenge the dead.
Udham Singh was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 March 1940. The assassination was done in revenge for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919, for which O'Dwyer was responsible and of which Singh himself was a survivor. Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged in July 1940. While in custody, he used the name Ram Mohammad Singh Azad, which represents the three major religions in India and his anti-colonial sentiment.Explore: Udham Singh on Wikipedia
Udham Singh
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, during the annual Baisakhi fair to protest against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of pro-Indian independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal. In response to the public gathering, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer surrounded the people with Gurkhas of Nepalese origin and Sikh infantrymen of the British Indian Army.Explore: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre on Wikipedia
Jallianwala Bagh massacre
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"Jallianwala Bagh Massacre" — what happened on April 13, 1919, and why it changed India forever.
Part of the Modern History series. This article covers the fourteenth event in the Complete Timeline Overview timeline.
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