Homage to Martyrs

Context

• The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, also known as the Amritsar Massacre, took place on April 13, 1919, in Amritsar, Punjab.

• On this fateful day, British troops led by Colonel Reginald Dyer opened fire on a large crowd of unarmed Indian civilians gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, an enclosed public garden.

• The crowd had gathered to peacefully protest the arrest of two nationalist leaders and the imposition of the repressive Rowlatt Act.

• These people were protesting peacefully against the Rowlatt Act 1919.

• It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Background

• Mahatma Gandhi wanted non-violent civil disobedience against such unjust laws, which would start with a hartal on 6th April 1919.

• In Punjab, on 9th April 1919, two nationalist leaders, Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr. Satyapal, were arrested by the British officials without any provocation except that they had addressed protest meetings, and taken to some 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.

• Jallianwala Bagh became a key point in the history of India’s struggle for independence and it is now an important monument in the country.

• 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.

• The then government of India ordered an investigation of the incident (the Hunter Commission), which in 1920 censured Dyer for his actions and ordered him to resign from the military.