About:
Dr. Bharatkumar Bhate is M.S. General Surgeon (Gold Medalist) by qualification with an experience of 30,000+ operations and is based at Rajkot, Gujarat. He is an avid reader and a passionate writer. In this blog, he shares his travel experiences and creative writings.
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A large peaceful crowd of nonviolent protesters, along with Baisakhi pilgrims had gathered on 13 April 1919 in the evening at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. They were protesting against the Rowlatt Act which had given power to the British authority to arrest anyone suspected to be involved in revolutionary activities. The suspect can be put behind the bars for two years without following any judicial procedures. The act was referred to as a “black bill.” Arrest of two pro-independence activists namely Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal was done under this act. In response to this protest gathering, the Brigadier General, R. E. H. Dyer surrounded the protesters by military troops of 90 soldiers and two armoured vehicles equipped with machine guns (which he, however, could not take inside the narrow street and so they were not used).
The Jallianwala Bagh has only one narrow exit and is enclosed by buildings on three sides. The Bagh was (and remains today) an open area of six to seven acres, roughly 200 yards by 200 yards in size. It is surrounded by walls which are roughly 10 feet in height. Balconies of houses, three to four stories tall, overlooked the Bagh. Five narrow entrances opened into the Baug but most of their gates were locked. The Baug was a popular place for large public meetings. In the centre of the Baug was a samadhi (cremation site) and a large well, partly filled with water, which measured about 20 feet in diameter.
After blocking the exit with his troops and without warning the crowd to disperse, General Dyer ordered the troops to shoot at the unarmed helpless crowd. The soldiers kept on firing by their Lee-Enfield rifles until their bullets were exhausted. They fired 1,650 rounds of bullets in 10 minutes. Officially 379 and unofficially 1500+ people were literally massacred.
Apart from the large number of deaths due to the shooting, several people died by being crushed in the stampede due to the chaos in the garden. The people started running here and there to save their lives. Many people jumped into the solitary well in the campus to escape the shooting. A plaque, placed at the site after independence, states that 120 bodies were removed from the well. Dyer pushed the curfew time earlier than the usual time and therefore, the wounded could not be moved to hospital. As a result, many injured then died during the night due to lack of treatment.
The Hunter commission confirmed the deaths of 337 men, 41 boys and a six-week-old baby. Actual figure has never come out but it must be very high. The Hunter Commission did not impose any penal or disciplinary action for Dyer's actions. He was only asked to resign from the post and was not to be posted again in India.
This news of brutal massacre spread like fire and responses polarised both the British and Indian people. This incident shocked every Indian. The level of casual brutality and lack of any accountability stunned the entire nation. This massacre proved to be a turning point in India’s modern history, in that it left a permanent scar on Indo-British relations.
The attack was condemned by Winston Churchill as "unutterably monstrous" in the UK House of Commons debate on 8th July 1920. Winston Churchill reported “Nearly 400 civilians were SLAUGHTERED by General Dyer”. Members of Parliament voted 247 to 37 against Dyer. However, Dyer stated later that this act "was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." The House of Lords of British Parliament on the contrary praised Dyer and gave him a sword inscribed with the motto “Saviour of the Punjab.” In addition, Morning Post of London asked its readers to subscribe to a fund to be donated to Dyer and was able to collect an enormous sum of £30,000 from Dyer’s sympathizers and it was presented to him. A large number of Europeans in India also regarded him as the saviour of the British empire.
Michael O’ Dwyer was the Lt. Governor of Punjab during the Jallianwala Bagh incident. He strongly supported the actions of General Dyer for the massacre.
The ineffective inquiry and no punishment to Dyer fuelled great widespread anger against the British among the Indian people. Ravindranath Tagore tried to arrange a protest meeting in Calcutta and finally decided to renounce his British knighthood as "a symbolic act of protest". This led to the non-cooperation movement of 1920–22. Some historians consider the episode as decisive step towards the end of British rule in India.
Britain has never formally apologised for the massacre but expressed "deep regret" in 2019. Late Queen Elizabeth during her visit to independent India also refused to apologise for this massacre.
General Dyer passed away in 1927 due to cerebral haemorrhage and arteriosclerosis. On 13th March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, Udham Singh, shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer who was the Lt. Governor of Punjab during the Jallianwala Bagh incident. Udham Singh was an Indian independence activist from Sunam who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and was himself wounded. Singh was hanged for this murder on 31st July 1940. He happily embraced his death for nation. Udham Singh received the title of 'Shaheed' from Independent India for this revenge act. His statue with pistol in hand stands in a square at Amritsar.
The last known survivor of the massacre, Shingara Singh, took his last breath in Amritsar on June 29, 2009, at the age of 113.
Another survivor of Massacre Mr. Nanak Singh was of 22 years on 13th April 1919. His long Punjabi poem ‘Khooni Vaisakhi’ runs for more than four thousand words and elaborates the events in detail.
A memorial in the memory of those wounded and killed in the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre was built on the site. It was designed by American architect Benjamin Polk. The President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, inaugurated it on 13th April 1961. Since then, many high dignitaries have visited Jallianwala Baug. The site was visited by the Queen Elizabeth ll in 1961, 1983 and 1997. The British Prime Minister David Cameron visited it in 2013.
The incidence of Massacre has completed 100 years in 2019. The government has renovated this 'memorial of national importance' by spending ₹20 Crores. A museum was also opened in March 2019, known as Yaad-e-Jallian Museum, to put forth an authentic account of the massacre.
I have visited this place twice; the second visit was on 13th March 2023.
As you enter the Jallianwala Baug through a narrow entrance, you find a statue of Shaheed Udham Singh. Walls on both sides of entrance depict embossed statues of people trapped and killed in the incidence. Inside we can see old trees in the garden with some buildings behind it. With the words 'Vande Mataram', a flame titled Amar Jyoti (Eternal Flame) is seen burning on the right side under a domed meditation area.
The portico pillars, just inside the garden, represent Dyer's soldiers.
The 'Martyrs Well' is surrounded by the Martyr's memorial, a large structure with a sign giving a figure of "120" as the number of bodies that were recovered from the well.
A number of bullet holes in the walls are preserved. The blood of dead innocent people is also found at some places. One of the walls with bullet holes has a plaque (means a plate with some writing) which states that General Dyer and his troops had opened fire using 1650 bullets on innocent non-violent people without warning.
Other plaques are seen inside the garden, one of which reads: “This site is saturated with the blood of thousands of Indian patriots who were martyred in a nonviolent struggle to free India from British domination.”
The Flame of Liberty is represented by a central pylon. It is white and shaped like a flame. Engraved are faces of 'martyrs' and below it is their names.
The Martyr's gallery contains several paintings including some of political leaders. One painting is showing several people dead on the ground of Jallianwala Bagh. The names of those killed are not included. A portrait of Udham Singh is on display in the gallery. One of the seven urns (container) containing his ashes are kept in the museum.
Using newspaper clippings and letters from Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and others are displayed. Total 45 panels depicting this Amritsar massacre are displayed.
The gallery has many pictorial representations and a few visual aids to understand the unfortunate incident.
There is a light and sound show every evening at 6:30pm in Punjabi and at 7:30pm in Hindi. There are no entry fees for the show and the sitting arrangement is excellent. It is an informative one-hour program narrated from Udham Singh’s perspective (voiceover by Amitabh Bachchan). It gives us goosebumps!
With a heavy heart, I left the place where cold-blooded murder of hundreds of peaceful protestors had occurred. This is considered a dark chapter in the history of the Indian struggle for independence.
Dr. Bharatkumar Bhate, Rajkot
bcbhate@gmail.com