Describe the jalliawala bagh incident in 1919
Answers
On this day, around 50 troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer fired rifles into a crowd of Baishakhi pilgrims, who had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab.
The civilians, that had a majority of Sikh population, had gathered to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders.
On Colonel Dyer's orders, his troops indiscriminately fired on the group of gathered civilians for about 10 minutes.
The Indian National Congress estimated that more than were 1,500 injured with approximately 1,000 dead.
The incident fueled anger among people leading to the Non-cooperation Movement of 1920-22.
It all 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.
In the late morning hours of 13 April 1919, roughly 15000 Indians 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’.
Although there have been no official apolgies by the UK, it is quite clear that they condemn the incident.
So, no, this particular incident is not justified and never will be, as it was a merciless slaughter of people.