Jallianwala Bagh massacre | Historical massacre in India

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, British India, during the annual Baisakhi fair to protest against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of pro- Indian independence activists Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal. In response to the public gathering, the temporary brigadier general R. E. H. Dyer surrounded the people with his Gurkha and Sikh infantry regiments of the British Indian Army. The Jallianwala Bagh could only be exited on one side, as its other three sides were enclosed by buildings. After blocking the exit with his troops, Dyer ordered them to shoot at the crowd, continuing to fire even as the protestors tried to flee. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was low and they were ordered to stop. Estimates of those killed vary from 379 to 1 ,500 or more people, over 1 ,200 others were injured, of whom 192 sustained serious injury. Britain has never formally apologised for the massacre but expressed "deep regret" in 2019.

The massacre caused a re-evaluation by the Imperial British military of its role when confronted with civilians to use "minimal force whenever possible" (although the British Army was not directly involved in the massacre; the British Indian Army was a separate organisation). However, in the light of later British military actions during the Mau Mau rebellion in the Kenya Colony, historian Huw Bennett has pointed out that this new policy was not always followed. The army was retrained with less violent tactics for crowd control.

The level of casual brutality and the lack of any accountability stunned the entire nation, resulting in a wrenching loss of faith of the general Indian public in the intentions of the United Kingdom. The attack was condemned by the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, as "unutterably monstrous", and in the UK House of Commons debate on 8 July 1920 Members of Parliament voted 247 to 37 against Dyer. The ineffective inquiry, together with the initial accolades for Dyer, fuelled great widespread anger against the British among the Indian populace, leading to the non-cooperation movement of 1920—22.

The massacre –

On Sunday, 13 April 1919, Dyer, convinced a major insurrection could take place, banned all meetings. This notice was not widely disseminated, and many villagers gathered in the Bagh to celebrate the Baisakhi festival and to peacefully protest against the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew.

At 09:00 on the morning of 13 April 1919, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, Dyer proceeded through Amritsar with several city officials, announcing the implementation of a pass system to enter or leave the city, a curfew beginning at 20:00 that night, and a ban on all processions and public meetings of four or more persons. The proclamation was read and explained in English, Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi, but many either paid it no heed or learned of it only later. Meanwhile, local police had received intelligence of the planned meeting in the Jallianwala Bagh through word of mouth and plainclothes detectives in the crowds. Dyer was informed of the meeting at 12:40 and returned to his base at around 13:30 to decide how to handle it.

By mid-afternoon, thousands of Indians had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar. Many who were present had been worshipping earlier at the Golden Temple and were merely passing through the Bagh on their way home. The Bagh was (and remains today) an open area of 6—7 acres (2.4—2.8 ha), roughly 200 by 200 yards (180 m x 180 m) in size, and surrounded on all sides by walls roughly 10 feet (3.0 m) in height. Balconies of houses three to four stories tall overlooked the Bagh, and five narrow entrances opened onto it, several with lockable gates. Although it was planted with crops during the rainy season, for much of the rest of the year it served as a local meeting place and recreation area. In the centre of the Bagh was a samadhi (cremation site) and a large well partly filled with water which measured about 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter.

Apart from the pilgrims passing through, Amritsar had filled up over the preceding days with farmers, traders, and merchants who were attending the annual Baisakhi horse and cattle fair. Because the city police closed the fair at 14:00 that afternoon, many of those who had been attending it drifted into the Jallianwala Bagh, further increasing the number of people who happened to be there when the massacre began.

Dyer arranged for an aeroplane to overfly the Bagh and estimate the size of the crowd, which he reported was about 6,000; however, the Hunter Commission estimates that a crowd of between 10,000 and 20,000 had assembled by the time Dyer arrived. Dyer and Deputy Commissioner Miles Irving, the senior civil authority for Amritsar, took no actions to prevent the crowds from assembling or to disperse them peacefully. This would later be a serious criticism levelled at both Dyer and Irving.

An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 17:30, Dyer arrived at the Bagh with a group of 50 troops. All fifty were armed with .303 Lee—Enfield bolt-action rifles. Dyer may have specifically chosen troops from the Gurkha and Sikh ethnic groups due to their proven loyalty to the British. He had also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns; however, the vehicles could not enter the compound through the narrow entrances. The Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had only five narrow entrances, most of which were kept permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wide, but was guarded heavily by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles so as to prevent anyone from getting out.

Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer ordered his troops to block the main exits and begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd in front of the available narrow exits, where panicked crowds were trying to leave the Bagh. Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. Unarmed civilians, including men, women, elderly people and children were killed. This incident came to be known as the Amritsar massacre. A cease-fire was ordered after the troops fired about one third of their ammunition. He stated later that the purpose of this action "was not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience.

The following day Dyer stated in a report, "l have heard that between 200 and 300 of the crowd were killed. My party fired 1 ,650 rounds". Apart from the many deaths that resulted directly from the shooting, a number of people died by being crushed in the stampedes at the narrow gates or by jumping into the solitary well on the compound to escape the shooting. A plaque, placed at the site after independence, states that 120 bodies were removed from the well. Dyer imposed a curfew time that was earlier than the usual time; as a result, the wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, and many of them therefore died of their wounds during the night.