JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE
From Sampath’s Desk:
A LOOK-BACK INTO THE
100-YEARS OLD JALLIANWALA BAGH MASSACRE
13 April 1919
13 April 1919 (Sunday) Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (also
known as Amritsar massacre) is one of the worst black days in the long-known
history of mankind in general and India in particular, when the blood-thirsty
monster Colonel Reginald Dyer ordered firing at a 20000-strong innocent,
innocuous, unarmed, and peace-loving civilian crowd of Indian men, women, and
children who had gathered at the ground nearby the Golden
Temple, Amritsar to celebrate the Sikhism’s Solar New Year and the harvest festival of Punjab (Baisakhi), resulting in a spine-chilling and the blood-curdling killing of about 1500 and injuring thousands. The festival ground suddenly turned into a virtual burial ground with dead bodies strewn all
over to become a gory scene of a mass murder spot.
The animosity, acrimony and bad blood in Dyer were so deep-rooted,
horrifying and gruesome that 90 British Indian Army soldiers commanded by him fired at the crowd without any forewarning to disperse. Still worse, he
ordered his soldiers to reload their rifles several times and shoot and kill people, approximately 1650 rounds in all, till the entire ammunition was
exhausted.
To escape the carnage, many people fell into a nearby well and at least
120 dead bodies were recovered from it.
The precursor to the
genocide was the Rowlatt Act passed in February 1919 and the arrest of two famous Indian
freedom struggle leaders Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal under the said
Act.
The worst part of the black episode was that soon after Dyer took over the command, he issued a proclamation banning all public gatherings. Although the proclamation was issued, neither the people were aware of it in advance nor did the government take any efforts to alert the people in advance. The gathering absolutely had no political agenda or mission, but it was only a religious and cultural fiesta.
With all the narrow exit points either locked up or closely guarded by
troops, the entrapped people suffered untold hardship and died not only due to
direct shooting but also from the resultant stampedes or due to suffocation in the
solitary well they jumped into to escape the bullets.
The joy of festivity suddenly melted into a blood-freezing, nerve-rattling
and jaw-dropping ‘bolt from the blue’ with bullets piercing through the humans.
Soon a pall of gloom descended and engulfed not just Punjab and India, but the
whole of humanity. The master killer Dyer was lauded for his ‘feat’ and 'honoured' at the House of Lords in England.
Protesting, Rabindranath
Tagore rejected the British government’s ‘knighthood’ saying “such mass
murderers aren’t worthy of giving any title to anyone”. Mahatma
Gandhi returned Kaisar-i-Hind medal that he had earlier received for his
work during Boer War besides calling for nation-wide protests. This was
one of the important turning points in the Indian freedom struggle that ignited
the fire in the people to fight for independence with renewed vigour.
The Jallianwala Bagh wound is so deep-rooted that it is too
difficult to heal at all. It can’t be forgotten by the whole of humanity in
general and Indians in particular. The black Sunday would continue to haunt
the minds of Indians for eons. Such being the case, the mere ‘regret’
of the U.K. PM expressed then was just perfunctory.
The carnage remains engraved as a perpetual black scar in British India’s
history. That ground still stands testimony to the inhuman, ruthless, and
cold-blooded atrocities of the British rule. The Cenotaph is also commemorative
of India’s re-emergence from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix breaking the
hard chains of slavery of the brutal colonial rule.
The cruel Dyer never had any remorse or repentance for his heinous crime against humanity! He also had the audacity to say that had he got some more ammunition, he would have used them also killing more people. How heartless and barbarous he was? Chutzpah indeed! Dyer was in the dire mindset of a man-eating monster!
Though a bad and sad event, it set a bright new beginning for
a revitalized struggle for our freedom leading to its accomplishment in 1947.
The grateful nation salutes the Jallianwala Bagh martyrs!
The event will continue to remain etched in black letters in the memory lane of
every Indian on its 100th anniversary day (13.4.2019).
Let the spirit of the day uplift our fortitude and resilience to uphold human rights and save the unity and sovereignty of the nation, at all times, at any cost, and by all means.
Jai Hind!
R.SAMPATH
19/4/2019
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