Massacre of Amritsar

The massacre of Amritsar - also known like the massacre of Jalianwalla Bagh - car its name of the garden Jalianwalla Bagh with Amritsar where, the April 13rd 1919, the British soldiers opened fire on the participants in a peaceful political gathering, killing several hundreds of Indiens. He is regarded as one of the events which brought the fall of the British Raj.

Circumstances

At the time of the Baisakhi Day , the festival of the beginning of the harvests, ten thousands of Indians met in the Jalianwalla Bagh , a garden in the middle of Amritsar, one of the main cities of the Panjâb, to protest against the Rowlatt Act of 1919 which offered to the government the capacity to imprison arbitrarily and to judge the agitators. Indeed, the dissatisfaction went up among the Indians who, although having taken part honestly in the British effort of war, derived any advantage of this sacrifice and always knew a less liberal statute than others Dominion S like the Canada or the Australia.

The gathering was a challenge with prohibition, in the city, of the meetings of five people and more. The Bagh was surrounded by all sides by brick walls and only a narrow entry authorized the entry and the exit of it. The troop, made up of fifty soldiers, went to the park accompanied by an armored vehicle armed with machine-guns. However, considering the narrowness of the entry, it was unable to be introduced into the park.

The soldiers were ordered by the general Dyer who after some summary summations, ordered with his men to open fire. As there was not an other exit only that where the troop was held, the Indians tried to escape the balls while climbing with the walls or while throwing themselves in a well.

When the shooting was finished, out of the hundreds of people had been killed and with the thousands of body covered the ground. The official estimates give a report on 379 killed and 1200 wounded for 1650 drawn balls, an effectiveness whose Dyer will be enorgueillira later. The troop was withdrawn then leaving the casualties without medical help. The governor of Panjâb, to sir Michael O' Dwyer congratulated the Dyer general and founded, the April 15th, the martial Loi on the area to prevent the extension of disorders.

The event was condemned in the whole world, the Dyer general was convened with London to appear in front of the Commission Hunter which, in 1920, declared it guilty and it had to resign of the army. However the British Parliament rehabilitated it and congratulated it for its roughness. Members of the British high society made a search which proved to be profitable to guarantee its retirement and offered a sword decorated with invaluable stones to him and which carried the inscription “Saver of Panjâb”.

Consequences

The massacre generated a strong feeling of anger in India, woke up the Panjâb with the fight against the British capacity and prepared the ground for the Mouvement of not-co-operation that Gandhi was going to initiate in 1920. In short, it was one strong moment on the way of Indian independence.

When this one was obtained, a monument was set up in the park to commemorate this event. Still today, the traces of balls of the British troop are visible in the walls of the park.

See too

Amritsar was also the seat of another massacre, the Massacre of the Gold Temple which led to the assassination of the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

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Massacre of Amritsar

Circumstances

Consequences

See too

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