Quit India Campaign: Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

A Westminster Hall debate on the ‘Jallianwala Bagh massacre’ has been scheduled for Tuesday 9 April 2019 from 2.30pm to 4.00pm. The debate has been initiated by Bob Blackman MP.

The massacre which gave deep shock to the people of Punjab and
created reverberations in the country took place on April 13, 1919
at a public meeting which was organized at Jallianwala Bagh in
defiance of official proclamation banning such gatherings.

The significance of Jallianwala Bagh lay not in the number of people killed, but in what came
before and after. The Rowlatt Act, also known as the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919,
went into effect a month before the slaughter in Jallianwala Bagh. It surprised most Indians, who had
expected to be rewarded rather than punished for fighting alongside the British in World War I. The
British government of India implemented a succession of oppressive emergency powers to fight
subversive activity during World War I (1914–18). By the end of the war, the Indian people had high
hopes that such restrictions would be relaxed and that India would be allowed more political autonomy.
The crimes sparked great outrage and dissatisfaction among Indians, particularly in the Punjab region.
Gandhi called for a one-day countrywide strike across the country in early April. The news that prominent
Indian leaders had been arrested and expelled from the city sparked violent protests in Amritsar on April
10, during which soldiers opened fire on civilians, buildings were looted and burned, and enraged mobs
killed several foreign nationals and severely beaten a Christian missionary. This article reconsiders the
arguments over the shooting at Amritsar and the role of Brigadier-General Dyer, and questions the
accepted view that the massacre was such a failure of minimum force. It argues that the circumstances
surrounding the massacre must be understood before judging the incident and given these factors it is
possible to see it within a minimum force framework. Always behind the use of force lay the imperial logic
that justified it in the name of law and order, or at least order.

The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, was also known as Amritsar massacre, took place in 1919 on 13th April. On the day
the people were on mass agitation against the policies of the British Government, the Rowlett Act. Acting Brigadier
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. Because of
continuous firing more than 370 people had died and over 1200 injured according to British Government Report.
Even on the following day Dyer stated in a report that "I have heard that between 200 and 300 of the crowd were
killed. My party fired 1,650 rounds."

Amritsar: Minutes of Evidence taken before the Hunter Committee

“Wc do not want to injure police and other such officers as they (westerners) do in Europe, because we understand that it is only moral degradation. Wc only want to do as Gandhi says: ‘Do not injure any one but be ready
to be injured’.” The last speech was that of Girdhari Lai, the
President of the meeting.

Lala Karam Chand, Assistant Accountant at Patiala State Bank in Patiala, described seeing a “very large crowd,” people playing cards, children playing in the grass, and no sign of violence or weapons. People had gathered to listen to political speeches and share grievances about the Rowlatt Act. Lala Manohar Lal, resident of Saraikala, District Rawalpindi, recalled, “The first resolution was that the Rowlatt Act be repealed, and the second resolution was that the firing on the 10th of April be condemned, and sympathy be expressed with the relatives of the dead. When the resolution was put to the meeting, I saw an aeroplane hovering over the place.”

DISGRACING THE BRITISH NAME.
AN ORGY OF FRIGHTFULNESS ,IN INDIA.
4 The last mail ,from India brought full
reports of thev early' proceedings .of the
Committee of' Inquiry ? into the events
associated with the Punjab: , riots .last
April. They tell of acts of military fright
fulness which must make every - decent
minded person ashamed 'to . belong to the
nation which is responsible for ' ttie gqv-^
eminent' of India, ?.---, . - . .
Arising out of the unrest connected
?with the enforcement ~ of the oppressive
Eowlatt Act, there ,was rioting at' Am
ritsar. Two banks,-:, were looted/-. ''their
managers killed, some -important build
ings were burned, and a lady doctor, Miss
Sherwood, was beaten^nearly, . to death.
The Indian Nationalist leaders have de
plored and denounced these criminal acts.