Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, also known as the Amritsar Massacre, occurred on April 13, 1919, when British armed troops opened fire on a massive gathering of defenceless Indians in an open area widely recognized as the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab state of India, massacring several hundred citizens and caused major injuries to several hundred more. It was a defining moment in contemporary Indian history, leaving a permanent stain on Indo-British relations and paving the way for Mahatma Gandhi’s entire devotion to the movement of Indian nationalism and seeking independence from the Britain empire. 

A big orderly audience had assembled at Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh to oppose the arrests of the Indian National Congress figures Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satya Pal. The Anglo-Indian Brigadier R. E. H. Dyer ringed the Bagh with British Indian army soldiers in reaction to the public gathering. The Jallianwala Bagh can only be exited on one side since it was surrounded by buildings on the other three sides. He ordered his men to fire at the mob after barring the escape with his forces, and he continued to fire even as the activists struggled to evacuate. The men continued to fire till their ammo was depleted. Figures of individuals slain range from 379 to 1500+ persons, with over 1,200 others injured, 192 of whom barely escaped death. 

Events which lead to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Defence of India Act 1915

British India provided soldiers and supplies to the British war effort throughout  World War I. Masses of Indian troops and workers engaged in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, while the Indian authorities and the monarchs supplied vast quantities of food, funds, and weapons. Bengal and Punjab, on the other hand, were hotbeds of anti-colonial activity. Republican strikes in Bengal, which were progressively linked to upheavals in Punjab, were serious enough to bring the local authority to a halt. Among a variety of conspiracies devised between the years 1914 and 1917 by Indian nationalists in India, the United States, and Germany, one of the most notable had been a pan-Indian revolt in the British Indian Army scheduled in February 1915.

The intended rebellion in February was prevented when British intelligence invaded the Ghadarite organisation and arrested important personnel.Rebellions in minor regiments and outposts around India were also put down. In the context of the British war and the dangers posed by the revolutionary movement in India, the Defence of India Act 1915 was enacted, which limited civil and political liberties. Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab at the time, was a staunch supporter of the legislation, owing in part to the province’s Ghadarite menace.

The Rowlatt Act 1919

The enactment of the Rowlatt Act in 1919 sparked widespread political upheaval in India. In response to the Rowlatt Act, Muhammad Ali Jinnah withdrew from his Bombay position in a message to the Viceroy. In India, Gandhi’s appeal for resistance against the Rowlatt Act elicited an extraordinary outpouring of rage and dissent.

The financial and human consequences of the extended conflict were enormous. High fatality rates during the war, rampant inflation after the war, hefty taxes, the deadly 1918 disease outbreak, and trade interruption during the war all exacerbated human misery in India. The pre-war Indian nationalist feeling was rekindled when the Indian National Congress’s moderate and extreme factions reconciled in order to unite. The Congress was successful in forming the Lucknow Pact, a brief coalition with the All-India Muslim League, in 1916. With the adoption of the Montagu–Chelmsford Policy changes that inaugurated the very first phase of constitutional change in the Indian subcontinent in 1917, British political commitments and Whitehall’s India Plan began to change following World War I. This, however, was judged inadequate.

Tragedy of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre 

On the date of April 13, 1919 the historic tragedy of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre took place.

Thousands of Indians gathered at Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh, near the Harmandir Sahib. Many people there had previously visited the Golden Temple and were returning home as they went through Bagh. The Bagh was (and still is) a six to seven-acre field, with a huge open area, surrounded on all sides by ten-foot-tall walls. Colonel Dyer led a company of 50 armed troops into the Bagh to punish the recalcitrant nationalist criminals. Dyer may have specifically chosen troops from such ethnic populations owing to their shown commitment to the British. The Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded by dwellings on all sides and had just five modest gates, the most of which were kept closed. The main gate was relatively large, but it was carefully guarded by troops escorted by armoured personnel carriers to prevent anyone from leaving.

Colonel Reginald Dyer then shut down the major entrances without warning the crowd to evacuate. Dyer urged his soldiers to fire at the densest portions of the throng in front of the Bagh’s restricted exits, where anxious individuals were seeking to leave. The gunfire lasted around ten minutes. Innocent citizens, including men, women, the elderly, and children, were killed. The massacre in Jallianwala Bagh is now known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. A cease-fire order was issued only when ammunition inventories were practically exhausted. “The purpose was not to disperse the assemblage, but to punish the Indians for transgression,” he subsequently quoted.

Conclusion

The Rowlatt Acts were established by the British government of India in 1919, expanding its World War I crisis powers to fight revolutionary activity. On April 13, a large crowd of people assembled in Amritsar, Punjab, in an open field known as the Jallianwala Bagh to oppose the restrictions, The Britain forces started firing, slaughtering 379 people and injuring over 1,200. The slaughter irreparably harmed India-Britain ties and served as a precursor to Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation agitation of 1920–22.