Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh

Dr. Satyapal, a medical doctor and Dr. Saiffuddin Kitchlew, a lawyer, were prominent and influential leaders in the Punjab. On 10th April 1919, the government, apprehending trouble in Amritsar in the wake of the agitation against the infamous Rowlatt Act, arrested both of them and spirited them out of the city to a hill-station some hundred miles away.When news of the arrest spread, people came out into the streets of Amritsar to protest. Soon there was a crowd of over 50,000 people screaming: "Where is Satyapal? Where is Kitchlew?"When the crowd began to pelt the police and soldiers with stones, the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, Miles Irving and his assistant, became jittery and gave the order to fire. Four people died and several were injured as a result of the firing. The dead and the injured were carried through the streets of Amritsar by their comrades and the sight made the people's blood boil. They forgot Satyapal and Kitchlew and Gandhi and his message of non-violence and went berserk. The telegraph exchange was burnt down, offices and banks owned by Europeans were attacked and torched and a few Britons were battered to death. A missionary named Marcia Sherwood who looked after 5 local schools for girls, had the misfortune to run into a gang of rioters and was severely beaten. She would have been killed if some Hindu shopkeepers had not dragged her into one of their homes and hidden her there.Amritsar was in the command area of Brigadier-General Reginald 'Rex' Dyer, a seasoned soldier who had distinguished himself in the campaign against tribesmen on the Baluchistan-Persian border.On receiving orders to proceed to Amritsar, he set out from Jullundur on the evening of 11 April and arrived in the city that same night. Deputy Commissioner Irving was relieved to see him and lost no time in handing over control of the burning city to him.The following day, Dyer went through Amritsar with a formidable show of force. A column of British and Indian soldiers marched ahead of his car which was followed by a police van and two armoured cars. The procession stopped at several places to enable the town crier to inform the people that a night curfew would come into effect from 8 p.m. every day and that meetings and processions had been banned. These announcements were greeted with catcalls. At one place the General was jeered and people spat on the ground to show their contempt.

Behind Dyer's procession came a lad of fourteen or fifteen, banging on an empty kerosene can and announcing a meeting the next day at Jallianwala Bagh in defiance of the prohibitory orders.Notwithstanding its name, Jallianwala Bagh was not a bagh, a garden but an open ground surrounded by the high walls of the buildings around it. It was accessed by a narrow lane. Within the bagh stood three peepal trees, a broken-down tomb and a well.Sunday, 13 April 1919 was Baisakhi Day. A large number of peasants who had come from the neighbouring villages to celebrate Baisakhi were resting in the bagh. Some men from the neighbourhood were playing cards and dice and idly watching the proceedings of the meeting that was underway near the well. The meeting had attracted thousands of people from all walks of life. Two resolutions were passed — one called for the repeal of the Rowlatt Act and the other condemned the firings on the crowd three days earlier. Some speeches were made and a poet called on his countrymen to be prepared to shed blood for their motherland, little realising how close they were to actually doing so.At around 5.15 the sound of heavy boots was heard. Dyer had arrived with his men. Some people got up to leave but one of the organisers, Hans Raj shouted: "Sit down, sit down. Don't be afraid, Government will never fire!"Meanwhile the government was getting ready to do just that. General Dyer barked out orders to his men: "Gurkhas, right, 59th left. Fire!"The 50 soldiers — 25 Gurkhas and 25 from the 59th Rifles Frontier Force — started firing. There were no warning shots. They shot to kill, right from the start. As the only exit was blocked by the soldiers the people could not leave by that way. Screams of pain and shouts of terror rent the air as men, women and children ran for the walls, falling over each other and getting trampled in the process. Many jumped into the well to escape the bullets but ended up drowning. The firing stopped only when the men ran out of ammunition. Then Dyer calmly ordered his troops to withdraw. The soldiers marched away leaving behind a scene of carnage. More than 1500 people, among them women and children, lay dead or wounded.When darkness fell, the wounded cried out for water but the night curfew was in force and help was a long time in coming. Dyer did not bother to organise medical aid for the wounded. He thought he had struck a blow for the Empire. Little did he realise that he had sounded its death knell.