90 years ago today...
...General Dyer wrought the end of not just hundreds of unarmed civilians but also the British Raj. No other event in the history of the British rule in India galvanised the masses as much as this massacre. So, ninety years down the line, in remembrance:
Mela samajh ke bagh mein daakhil hua koi,
Jamghat ajeeb jaan ke shaamil hua koi.
Nikla that koi lootne fasl-e-bahaar ko,
Aaghosh mein liye tha koi sheer-khwaar ko.
Thi darmiaan-e-bagh hazaron ki bheer bhaar
Naagah ik taraf se chali golion ki baar.
Phir woh hua ke jis se larazti hai tan mein jaan,
Paththar ka dil banaaoon to kuch ho sake bayan.
Dyer ke qatl-e-aam ne khoon-e-wafa kiya,
Lahu se lal daaman-e-Bartannia kiya.
Imagine a large ground surrounded by high walls, with only one narrow entrance. There is a well inside that enclosure, a few trees, and the earth is bare. This is the the Jallianwallah Bagh, at the heart of the city of Amritsar, near the Golden Temple.
On the 13th of April, 1919, at around 4.30 pm, the Jallianwallah Bagh was teeming with people. It was Baisakhi, the festival of spring harvest, the Sikh New Year. Villagers had poured in for the festivities and were camped in the Bagh. City-dwellers had trooped in with their wives and children. Kites were flown, food was sold, there was music and dancing, kids ran around playing, and in one corner of the park, there was a political meeting going on. A group of people had gathered together to protest against the Rowlatt Bills. So you had people making speeches and reciting poetry too.
In marched Dyer with his subordinates and troops. The Gurkhas went to the right, the Frontier Force to the left. They dropped into their firing positions and they opened fire on that crowd. The firing went on for 15 minutes, they stopped only when Dyer judged that they only had enough ammunition to fend off an attack on the way to their cars. And then they withdrew.
What they left behind must have been terrible to behold. People lay dead on the ground, men, women and children. When the firing started, people had panicked and tried to run. But there was nowhere to go. The firing troops blocked the only exit. Some lay down on the ground, and were shot as they lay waiting. Others tried to scale the walls and were shot as they tried to escape. Some did make it over the walls, and died on the streets outside, from the bullets that had been pumped in their bodies. Some were trampled by the crowd. A lot jumped into the well and drowned. Lots more jumped into the well and suffocated to death because of the crush within. Many were cut down where they stood...
The official estimates are as follows: a crowd 5,000 strong, 1650 rounds fired, 397 dead, and 2,000 wounded. The Indians who helped the survivors said that the crowd was at least 15,000 strong, that at least 1800 people died, and thousands were wounded. But they were not sure because they had to stop their efforts at 8 pm due to the curfew, and many took away their dead under the cover of the darkness. The British estimates were arrived at months after the massacre, and were based on the empty shells they had collected that day.
Mela samajh ke bagh mein daakhil hua koi,
Jamghat ajeeb jaan ke shaamil hua koi.
Nikla that koi lootne fasl-e-bahaar ko,
Aaghosh mein liye tha koi sheer-khwaar ko.
Thi darmiaan-e-bagh hazaron ki bheer bhaar
Naagah ik taraf se chali golion ki baar.
Phir woh hua ke jis se larazti hai tan mein jaan,
Paththar ka dil banaaoon to kuch ho sake bayan.
Dyer ke qatl-e-aam ne khoon-e-wafa kiya,
Lahu se lal daaman-e-Bartannia kiya.
Imagine a large ground surrounded by high walls, with only one narrow entrance. There is a well inside that enclosure, a few trees, and the earth is bare. This is the the Jallianwallah Bagh, at the heart of the city of Amritsar, near the Golden Temple.
On the 13th of April, 1919, at around 4.30 pm, the Jallianwallah Bagh was teeming with people. It was Baisakhi, the festival of spring harvest, the Sikh New Year. Villagers had poured in for the festivities and were camped in the Bagh. City-dwellers had trooped in with their wives and children. Kites were flown, food was sold, there was music and dancing, kids ran around playing, and in one corner of the park, there was a political meeting going on. A group of people had gathered together to protest against the Rowlatt Bills. So you had people making speeches and reciting poetry too.
In marched Dyer with his subordinates and troops. The Gurkhas went to the right, the Frontier Force to the left. They dropped into their firing positions and they opened fire on that crowd. The firing went on for 15 minutes, they stopped only when Dyer judged that they only had enough ammunition to fend off an attack on the way to their cars. And then they withdrew.
What they left behind must have been terrible to behold. People lay dead on the ground, men, women and children. When the firing started, people had panicked and tried to run. But there was nowhere to go. The firing troops blocked the only exit. Some lay down on the ground, and were shot as they lay waiting. Others tried to scale the walls and were shot as they tried to escape. Some did make it over the walls, and died on the streets outside, from the bullets that had been pumped in their bodies. Some were trampled by the crowd. A lot jumped into the well and drowned. Lots more jumped into the well and suffocated to death because of the crush within. Many were cut down where they stood...
The official estimates are as follows: a crowd 5,000 strong, 1650 rounds fired, 397 dead, and 2,000 wounded. The Indians who helped the survivors said that the crowd was at least 15,000 strong, that at least 1800 people died, and thousands were wounded. But they were not sure because they had to stop their efforts at 8 pm due to the curfew, and many took away their dead under the cover of the darkness. The British estimates were arrived at months after the massacre, and were based on the empty shells they had collected that day.