Question

Short note on jallyawala Bagh

Answer 1

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April, 1919 when troops of the British Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed protesters, along with Baishakhi pilgrims, who had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab. The civilians, in the majority Sikhs, had assembled to participate in the annual Baisakhi celebrations, a religious and cultural festival for Punjabi people and also to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satya Pal and Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew. Coming from outside the city, many may have been unaware of the imposition of martial law.

Answer 2

The Jallyanwala Bagh massacre (also known as the Amritsar massacre), took place in the Jallyanwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar on 13 April 1919.

Under the orders of General R.E.H. Dyer, British troops surrounded the Bagh, closed the only exit and mercilessly fired on the peaceful gathering. Thousands were killed and wounded. The Jallyanwala Bagh massacre was indeed a dark tragedy.

After this massacre, martial law was proclaimed in Punjab and people were submitted to the most inhuman atrocities and humiliating punish­ments. There were indiscriminate arrests, confiscation of property, floggings and whippings and cutting off of water and electric supplies.

All these outrages shocked the people of India and raised a strong wave of discontent throughout the country. Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest against the Punjab tragedy. Congress boycotted the special committee headed by Lord Hunter to enquire into the killings. When Gandhi came to know about the atrocities in Punjab, he decided to break off his relations with the British, and started a non-violent campaign of non-cooperation against the British government.