India marks the 102nd anniversary of the horrific Jallianwala Bagh Massacre that took place in 1919 in which British troops opened fire at thousands of people leaving many dead and injured, who had gathered to mark the occasion of Baisakhi.
The agonizing day is etched in the memories forever, and this Tuesday marks the anniversary of the incident seen as a major turning point in the national freedom movement of India.
What happened on this day?
On April 13, 1919, the British troops open fire for 10 minutes straight on people (unarmed civilians) who had gathered at Amritsar’s Jallianwalla Bagh to celebrate the harvest festival Baishaki and hold a peaceful protest against the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew.
On a fateful day, acting upon the orders of Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, the British Indian Army volleyed around 1,650 rounds of bullets injuring over 1,000 people and killing over 400.
Britishers imposed the Rowlatt Act on March 10, 1919, and as per the act, any person associated with any seditious activity could be imprisoned or confined without any trial. The passing of this Act led to widespread protests across the country, with Mahatma Gandhi initiating a Satyagraha to oppose the Act.
The authorities in Punjab in an attempt to suppress such opposition against this Act issued orders prohibiting unlawful assembly of people. Just a day before, General Dyer expecting a major insurrection had banned all meetings. However, this message didn’t get widely circulated and later saw many villagers congregating at the Bagh to celebrate and protest together.
The horrifying incident has been embedded in people’s memories as this event became the key point leading up to the Non-Cooperation Movement and protest against the British fueled up. Several writers and poets also recorded this massacre which is now available in political literature.
According to the record, it is said that the crowd was not given any warning. The Jallianwala Bagh only has one exit, and General Dyer ordered the troops to block it, because of which most people got trapped inside the bagh including women and children.
Even after this dreadful incident, General Dyer was unrepentant about the massacre. Although England hasn’t made a formal apology for this massacre, even now. In 2019, the then Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May had said that the shooting was a ‘shameful scar’ but did not issue an apology.
Since then the Jallianwalla Bagh has been turned into a memorial. However, as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, the renovation got delayed in 2020.
There were plans to reopen the ‘facelifted’ Jallianwala Bagh amid the Covid-19 restrictions, but the plan has been put on hold indefinitely. The renovated memorial was to be unveiled virtually on April 13, 2021, by PM Narendra Modi, who is also the chairman of the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust. The memorial has remained shut for the public since February 2019 due to the extensive makeover carried out by the National Building Construction Company.