Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was hardly any news, and people could not go there or come
out from there. Odd individuals, who managed to escape from
that inferno, were so terror-struck that they could give no clear
account.
- Nehru,
An Autobiography
In the early evening of April 13, 1919, a platoon of Indian soldiers
commanded by Brigadier-general Reginald Dyer was ordered to
open fire on an 'illegal assembly' of some twenty thousand people
gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh to hear speeches and devotional
poems. The British officer had been sent to impose martial law in
Amritsar, after numerous violent anti-European incidents there
indicated a building opposition to colonial rule. It was Baisaki Day,
the beginning of one of the Punjab's most important religious
festivals, and, in 1919, most of the crowd were pilgrims from
outlying districts who could not afford to stay in hotels and were
camped out in the Bagh, several acres of walled-in wasteland that
were 'gardens' in name only. The crowd panicked as gunshots cracked
on all sides, the soldiers blocking their exit. When the smoke had
cleared, over 1,500 men, women and children lay dead, dying, or
wounded.
Like much that went on in the colonies, this event was shrouded
by Foreign Office bureaucrats in London in a conspiracy of silence
and secrecy that lasted nearly sixty years. To the Indians, who
quickly learned the truth by word of mouth or from eyewitnesses, it
provided more welcome evidence that the revolt against the Raj,
allegedly crushed back in 1857 during the so-called Mutiny, was
still alive, leading to independence, gaining momentum day by
day. Nehru knew it; and so did Mahatma Gandhi, who said: 'Plassey
laid the foundation of the British Empire, Amritsar has shaken it.'
Many historians believe that Dyer's troops fired the first shots that
blew out the jewel in the crown of their own empire.
The 'Granary of India,' as it's known, the Punjab did seem lush,
green and fertile compared with most of the subcontinent, as Ray
and I drove past groves, orchards, and lavishly irrigated rich dark
soil, heading for the medieval walled city that had seen more
