PM pays tributes to Jallianwala Bagh massacre victims

• Prime Minister paid tributes to people killed in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919 and said their unparalleled courage and sacrifice will keep motivating the coming generations.

About Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

• Also called Massacre of Amritsar
• Occurred on April 13, 1919, in which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in an open space known as the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in Punjab.
• The Jallianwala Bagh site in Amritsar is now a national monument.
• It killed several hundred people and wounded many hundreds more.
• It marked a turning point in India’s modern history, in that it left a permanent scar on Indo-British relations and was the precursor to Mahatma Gandhi’s full commitment to the cause of Indian nationalism and independence from Britain.

Course of events

• During World War I (1914–18) the British government of India enacted a series of repressive emergency powers that were intended to combat subversive activities.
• By the war’s end, expectations were high among the Indian populace that those measures would be eased and that India would be given more political autonomy.
• The Montagu-Chelmsford Report, presented to the British Parliament in 1918, did in fact recommend limited local self-government.
• Further, the then government of India passed what became known as the Rowlatt Act in early 1919, which essentially extended the repressive wartime measures.
  • The acts were met by widespread anger and discontent among Indians, notably in the Punjab region. Gandhi in early April called for a one-day general strike (Rowlatt Satyagraha) throughout the country.
• In Amritsar the news that prominent Indian leaders (Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew) had been arrested and banished from that city sparked violent protests on April 10, in which soldiers fired upon civilians and angry mobs killed several foreign nationals.
• A force of several dozen troops commanded by Brig. Gen. Reginald Edward Harry Dyer was given the task of restoring order. Among the measures taken was a ban on public gatherings.
• On the afternoon April 13, a crowd of at least 10,000 men, women, and children gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, which was nearly completely enclosed by walls and had only one exit.
• Dyer and his soldiers arrived and sealed off the exit. Without warning, the troops opened fire on the crowd, reportedly shooting hundreds of rounds until they ran out of ammunition.

About Rowlatt Act

• This act was passed on the recommendations of Sedition Committee chaired by Sir Sidney Rowlatt.
• This act had been hurriedly passed in the Imperial Legislative Council despite the united opposition of the Indian members.
• It gave the government enormous powers to repress political activities and allowed detention of political prisoners without trial for two years.

Hunter Commission

• The government formed a committee of inquiry to investigate the Jallianwala Bagh shootings.
• On October 14, 1919, the Government of India announced the formation of the Disorders Inquiry Committee.
• The committee was commonly known as Hunter Commission after the name of chairman, Lord William Hunter.
• The committee unanimously condemned Dyer’s actions.
• However, the Hunter Committee did not impose any penal or disciplinary action against General Dyer.

Indian Response

• Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest.
• Mahatma Gandhi gave up the title of Kaiser-i-Hind, bestowed by the British for his work during the Boer War.
• Gandhi was overwhelmed by the atmosphere of total violence and withdrew the movement on April 18, 1919.
• The Indian National Congress appointed its own non-official committee that included Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Abbas Tyabji, M.R. Jayakar, and Gandhi to look into the shootings.
• Congress put forward its own view. This view criticized Dyer’s act as inhuman and also said that there was no justification in the introduction of the martial law in Punjab.

British Response

• Britain has never officially apologized for the massacre.
• Some years back, the then British prime minister Theresa May described the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar as a "shameful scar" on British Indian history but stopped short of a formal apology.
• The Labour Party in Britain has been asking for a formal apology saying that those who lost their lives in the massacre deserve a "full, clear and unequivocal apology for what took place".

Exam Track

Prelims Takeaway

• Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
• Rowlatt Act
• Hunter Commission of 1882 and 1920

Mains track

Q. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre is a permanent scar on British Indian history. Comment.