Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (April 13, 1919)

The incident of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on the day of Baisakhi on April 13, 1919, at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. Where the assembled unarmed people were riddled with bullets on the orders of General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer. It is believed that this inhuman incident of Jallianwala Bagh became the beginning of the end of British rule in India.

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• Rowlatt Act was passed in the year 1919. Which Gandhiji was opposing through Satyagraha. Public meetings, prayer meetings, etc. were being organized for the protests.
• April 6 was chosen as the date for a country-wide satyagraha in protest against the Rowlatt Act. But due to some disturbance, this rebellion started prematurely. At the same time, it took a violent form in place of non-violent Satyagraha.
• The situation in Punjab worsened further, due to which the British government imposed martial law here.
• On the day of Baisakhi on April 13, 1919, a public meeting was organized at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar.
• Most of the people who attended the meeting were villagers from nearby villages, unaware of the restrictions imposed by the government in the city.
• These people were protesting against the firing of Satyagrahis on 10th April 1919 and sending their leaders Dr. Satyapal and Dr. Kitchlu out of Punjab.
• An Indian named Hansraj made this meeting an informer to the British government.
• General Dyer (Reginald Edward Dyer) considered the organization of this meeting to be a violation of government order and surrounded the meeting place with armed soldiers.
• Dyer ordered to shoot at everyone without any prior warning. The people were fired on till the soldiers' bullets were exhausted.
• As all the exits of the meeting place were surrounded by soldiers, the unarmed people involved in the meeting were riddled with bullets from all sides.
• More than 1000 people were killed in this incident, including youth, women, old people, and children.
• The entire nation was shocked by the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The brutal brutality silenced the country.
• Rabindranath Tagore renounced his "Knighthood" title in protest and Shankar Nair resigned from the Viceroy's executive committee.
• On 18 April 1919, Gandhiji withdrew his satyagraha as violence was taking place.
• General Dyer was awarded a citation by the British Government.
• This massacre was condemned all over the world, and the British government came under pressure and appointed the Hunter Commission to investigate this massacre. On the basis of whose recommendations, General Dyer was demoted to colonel, as well as sent back to Britain. Where he died in 1927 due to a brain hemorrhage.
• Sardar Udham Singh survived this incident. Later he became a revolutionary and he avenged this incident after 21 years on March 13, 1940, by going to England and killing General Dyer's head, Michael O'Dwyer (at that time Lieutenant Governor of Punjab).
• On 4 June 1940, Sardar Udham Singh was convicted of the murder of Michael O'Dwyer and hanged on 31 July 1940 in Pentonville Jail.

 

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