Jallianwala Bagh

This place  had witnessed the biggest massacre during the war for the freedom of India. On April 13, 1919. Common people had assembled for a peaceful protest under the guidance of 2 national leaders.

All the happenings started with the arrest of two major Satyagrahi leaders: Dr. Saifudin Kitchlew and Satya Pal. The locals protested at the residence of the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar. This resulted in shooting and lathicharge on the crowd by the military. This set off a domino effect, in which Government institutions such as banks and post offices were attacked and set on fire. This was countered by military action, where in nearly 20 people were killed. The turning point came on 11 April, when a British missionary was assaulted and left for dead in the streets.

The British authorities were now angered at protestors, and General Dyer, the Brigadier General, put the state under martial law. Under this, meetings of more than 4 Indians were not allowed. Besides this all Indians had to crawl on thier kness while in the streets. This racist attitude lead to widespread anger and resentment.

Martyr well

In the morning hours of 13 April 1919, approximately 15000 Indians had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh for the Punjabi festival of Baisakhi and also to discuss the present situation that had arised due to the recent Rowlatt Act. Many of them were there for the former, especially the women and the children and were not aware of the state being under martial law. The Bagh had a single narrow enterance towards the front. Its area was roughly 6 to 7 acres, with 10 ft high walls surrounding it. In the middle was a large well about 3m in diameter. By mid-afternoon, General Dyer was informed. He reached there with 90 Gurkha soldiers, 50 of them armed with .303 rifles. There was virtually no route to escape. The firing began and was only stopped when the full ammunition was used. While official figures put the toll at nearly 400 deaths, but the INC gave a figure of about 1500.

In the aftermath, notable leaders spoke out against General Dyer and his actions. Churchill described the event as ‘monstrous’. In his speech in the House of Commons, he pointed out the fact that the crowd was peaceful and moreover was not given any kind of warning before being shot. 247 MPs voted against Dyer, while 37 supported him.

Rabindranath Tagore gave up his knighthood in the light of this massacre. During the visit in 1997, Queen Elizabeth spoke about the incident. Later she visited the memorial and laid a wreath. In 2013, when the then British PM David Cameron visited the place he condemned the incident as a ‘shameful event in British history’.But what most that haunted me was the fact that how thousands of innocent people were killed, knowing how they jumped into a well to save themselves was even more devastating.