Examine the developments which led to the Jallianwala Bagh incident. Explain what happened and the impact this incident had on the Indian freedom struggle.
Answers
Explanation:
JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE:
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919, when Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops of the British Indian Army to fire their rifles into a crowd of unarmed Indian civilians in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab, killing at least 400 people including men and women. Over 1,000 people were injured.
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
On Sunday, 13 April 1919, Dyer, convinced a major insurrection could take place, banned all meetings. This notice was not widely disseminated, and many villagers gathered in the Bagh to celebrate the important Indian festival of Baisakhi, and peacefully protest the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew. Dyer and his troops entered the garden, blocking the main entrance behind them, took up position on a raised bank, and with no warning opened fire on the crowd for about ten minutes, directing their bullets largely towards the few open gates through which people were trying to flee, until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted. The following day Dyer stated in a report that "I hear that between 200 and 300 of the crowd were killed. My party fired 1,650 rounds".
The Hunter Commission report published the following year by the Government of India criticised both Dyer and the Government of the Punjab for failing to compile a casualty count, and quoted a figure offered by the Sewa Samati (a Social Services Society) of 379 identified dead, and approximately 11,000 wounded, of which 192 were seriously injured. The casualty number estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500 injured, with approximately 1,000 dead.
Dyer was initially lauded for his actions in Britain and became a hero among many who were directly benefiting from the British Raj, such as members of the House of Lords. He was, however, widely criticised in the House of Commons, whose July 1920 committee of investigation censured him. Because he was a soldier acting on orders, he could not be tried for murder. The military chose not to bring him before a court-martial, and he was only removed from his current appointment, turned down for a proposed promotion, and barred from further employment in India. Dyer retired from the army, and he returned to England, where he died unrepentant in 1927.
Responses polarized both the British and Indian people. Eminent author Rudyard Kipling declared at the time that Dyer "did his duty as he saw it". This incident shocked Rabindranath Tagore (the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate) to such extent that he renounced his knighthood and stated that "such mass murderers aren't worthy of giving any title to anyone".
The massacre caused a re-evaluation by the British Army of its military role against civilians to minimal force whenever possible, although later British actions during the Mau Mau insurgencies in Kenya have led historian Huw Bennett to note that the new policy was not always carried out. The army was retrained and developed less violent tactics for crowd control.[15]
IMPACT OF INCIDENT ON INDIAN FREEDOM STRUGGLE:
This event caused many moderate Indians to abandon their loyalty to the British and become nationalists distrustful of the British.
Colonel Dyer reported to his superiors that he had been "confronted by a revolutionary army", to which Major General William Beynon replied: "Your action correct and Lieutenant Governor approves." O'Dwyer requested that martial law should be imposed upon Amritsar and other areas, and this was granted by Viceroy Lord Chelmsford.
Both Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill and former Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, however, openly condemned the attack, Churchill referring to it as "unutterably monstrous", while Asquith called it "one of the worst, most dreadful, outrages in the whole of our history". Winston Churchill, in the House of Commons debate of 8 July 1920, said, "The crowd was unarmed, except with bludgeons. It was not attacking anybody or anything… When fire had been opened upon it to disperse it, it tried to run away. Pinned up in a narrow place considerably smaller than Trafalgar Square, with hardly any exits, and packed together so that one bullet would drive through three or four bodies, the people ran madly this way and the other. When the fire was directed upon the centre, they ran to the sides. The fire was then directed to the sides. Many threw themselves down on the ground, the fire was then directed down on the ground. This was continued to 8 to 10 minutes, and it stopped only when the ammunition had reached the point of exhaustion."[
After Churchill's speech in the House of Commons debate, MPs voted 247 to 37 against Dyer and in support of the Government. Cloake reports that despite the official rebuke, many Britons still "thought him a hero for saving the rule of British law in India."
Explanation:
On 10 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession,
provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway
stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.
On 13 April the infamous Jallianwalla Bagh incident took place. On
that day a crowd of villagers who had come to Amritsar to attend
a fair gathered in the enclosed ground of Jallianwalla Bagh. Being
from outside the city, they were unaware of the martial law that had
been imposed. Dyer entered the area, blocked the exit points, and
opened fire on the crowd, killing hundreds. His object, as he declared
satyagrahis a feeling of terror and awe.
As the news of Jallianwalla Bagh spread, crowds took to the streets
in many north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the
police and attacks on government buildings. The government
responded with brutal repression, seeking to humiliate and terrorise
people: satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground,
crawl on the streets, and do salaam (salute) to all sahibs; people were
flogged and villages (around Gujranwala in Punjab, now in Pakistan)
were bombed. Seeing violence spread, Mahatma Gandhi called off
the movement.