March 29, 2024
  • Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Day 2023 marks 104 years since the tragic incident.
  • The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a tragic incident that occurred on 13th April 1919 in Amritsar, India, where British Gurkha soldiers, on the orders of Brigadier-General Dyer, fired upon a large crowd of unarmed protestors who had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh to demonstrate against the Rowlatt Act 1919
    • Rowlatt Act 1919 gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.
  • Background:
    • Mahatma Gandhi gave a call for non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws.
    • In Punjab, on 9th April 1919, two nationalist leaders, Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal, were arrested and taken to unknown destination.
    • This caused resentment among the Indian protestors who came out in thousands on 10th April to show their solidarity with their leaders.
    • To curb any future protest, the government put martial law in place and law and order in Punjab was handed over to Brigadier-General Dyer.
  • The incident
    • On 13th April, Baisakhi day, a large crowd of people mostly from neighbouring villages, unaware of the prohibitory orders in Amritsar gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh.
    • Brigadier-General Dyer arrived on the scene with his men and ordered the troops to surround the gathering and blocked the only exit point and opened fire on the unarmed crowd killing more than 1000 unarmed men, women, and children.

Aftermath

  • The Jallianwala Bagh tragedy was one of the causes that led Mahatma Gandhi to begin organising his first large-scale and sustained nonviolent protest (satyagraha) campaign, the Non Cooperation Movement (1920-22).
  • The Bengali poet and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore renounced the knighthood that he had received in 1915.
  • Hunter Commission was setup to investigate the incident, which in 1920 censured Dyer for his actions and ordered him to resign from the military.
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