What was the Amritsar Massacre?

The Amritsar Massacre was a watershed moment in Indian history. It occurred at a time when the British Empire was facing increasing unrest from its colonies around the world.

In India, the massacre served as a rallying point for the independence movement. Indians of all religions and castes came together to demand an end to British rule.

The British had been in control of India for nearly two centuries when the Amritsar Massacre occurred.

In that time, the British had managed to amass a large amount of wealth and control over the country.

They were not content with simply ruling India; they also sought to remake it in their own image.

They did this by imposing Western values and ideas on the Indian people. This was particularly evident in the education system, which was designed to produce good citizens of the British Empire.

The Indians chafed under this heavy-handed rule. There were many uprisings against British rule, but none were successful in overthrowing the colonial power.

The most serious challenge to British rule came from the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857.

This revolt was started by Hindu and Muslim soldiers in the British army who were upset about a rumor that they were about to be forced to use new rifle cartridges that were greased with pork and beef fat.

The mutiny was eventually put down, but it showed the potential for resistance to British rule. 

After the completion of World War One in 1918, the British Empire was in a weak position.

The war had drained the resources of the Empire, and there was widespread discontent among the colonised peoples. 

In 1919, the British colonial authorities in India attempted to 'reward' Indians for their participation in World War I by allowing them more representation under the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms, which aimed to give Indians more self-government.

However, wartime restrictions on civil liberties were not immediately lifted.

In early 1919, the British implemented a series of repressive measures in India in response to rising nationalist sentiment.

Known as the Rowlatt Acts, they were initially an extension of wartime restrictions.

These measures included banning public meetings, censoring the press, and jailing political leaders without trial. 

Specifically, it allowed the British colonial government to imprison Indians without trial for up to two years.

The Rowlatt Acts outraged the Indian National Congress, which was the leading nationalist party at the time and included the leaders Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Motilal Nehru, and Mahatma Gandhi.

The Congress called for a nationwide protest against the Acts on April 13, 1919. 

The British authorities in India were concerned about the possibility of violence and sought to prevent the protest from taking place.

They did this by declaring a curfew and banning public meetings. When these measures failed to stop the protests, they dispatched troops to disperse the crowds.

The British had already been facing increasing unrest from their colonies around the world. This made them nervous about potential uprisings in India.

The Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, Michael O'Dwyer, felt that the British were the true rulers of India.

He was also extremely concerned about the increasing cooperation between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in Punjab at the time.

In an attempt to minimise civil unrest in the Punjab region, the British authorities banned nationalist leaders from travelling there, including Gandhi himself.

In March 1919, two Indian nationalists, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, were arrested for publishing articles critical of the British government.

This event sparked protests across the country, but the largest and most vocal of them occurred in the Punjab.

The arrest of these leaders led to a peaceful protest at Jallianwala Bagh, a public square in Amritsar.

On April 13, 1919, a large crowd of unarmed civilians gathered in Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the Rowlatt Acts.

The protest was peaceful and there was no violence. However, the British authorities saw it as a potential threat to their control over India. 

Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who was born and raised in India, led a contingent of soldiers toward the plaza.

When their car, which was armed with a machine gun, could not fit into the little passageway leading to the plaza, they left it behind.

The decision was made to break up the crowd by force. On orders from Dyer, troops opened fire on the crowd and continued for ten minutes.

People began to leap into a water well, and push through the limited gates that provided exits, to save themselves, and they were crushed by others who followed.

The majority of them suffocated or perished when they were overcome with people running over them.

The exact number of people wounded or killed is unknown. Early estimates ranged from 291 dead (stated by British officials) to 1000 (stated by the Indian National Congress report).

However, more recent historical estimates suggest that 379 were killed and over 1,200 were wounded.

Following the massacre, martial law was declared in Punjab, further intensifying repression, including public floggings.

What made things worse is that General Dyer imposed a notorious 'crawling order', which required all Indian men to crawl on their hands and knees in the street where a British woman had been assaulted,

However, as a result of the bloodshed, Dyer, became known as the 'Butcher of Amritsar'.

The consequences of the massacre were far-reaching. The incident caused widespread outrage among Indians and increased support for the independence movement.

In particular, Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, which marked a significant escalation in India's struggle for independence through non-violent civil disobedience.

Key Indian leader Rabindranath Tagore renounced his British knighthood in protest as well.

The massacre led to fierce debates in the British Parliament, with Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for War, condemning the event as "monstrous" and a grave error by the British administration.

So, also in 1920, the British government finally appointed a commission, called the Hunter Commission, to investigate the incident.

The commission's report acknowledged that the shootings were unjustified and, while it condemned Dyer's actions as excessively brutal, it stopped short of formally punishing him.

However, it did lead to some limited reforms, including an end to martial law in India and the introduction of trial by jury.

However, these reforms were too little too late, and the damage had been done.

The Amritsar Massacre remained a rallying point for Indian independence until the country finally achieved freedom in 1947. 

The British press was split, with one newspaper calling Dyer "the hero who saved India" and encouraging its readers to donate funds for his and his wife's retirement in England.

They raised £28,000, of which over £9,000 was donated by British people living in India.

General Dyer later tried to justify his actions, stating that his intent was not only to disperse the crowd but to instill fear in the population, preventing further protests against British rule.

Udham Singh, an Indian independence activist who survived the massacre, traveled to England and assassinated the former Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab Michael O'Dwyer in Caxton Hall, London on 13 March 1940, as revenge for the Amritsar Massacre.

While O'Dwyer was not the one directly responsible for ordering the massacre (Dyer was), O'Dwyer had publicaly supported Dyer’s actions after the event.

Either way, Singh was tried and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison on 31 July 1940.

He became a martyr in the Indian independence movement, with a range of memorials and institutions being set up in India named in his honor.

The legacy of the massacre is still evident in India today. Every year on April 13, Indians across the country commemorate the victims of the Jallianwala Bagh shootings.

For many, the incident is a reminder of the brutal reality of British colonialism in India and its lasting impact on Indian society. 

The memory of the Amritsar Massacre is kept alive by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Act of 1951.

The act established a trust to build a memorial on the site of the massacre. The memorial was finally completed in 1961 and opened to the public on 13 April 1961, exactly 42 years after the massacre took place.

The bullet holes from the massacre are still visible on its walls. It is a reminder of one of the darkest moments in British colonial rule in India.