Jallianwala Bagh

Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar and is famous as a national memorial all over the world. It was established in 1951 by the Government of India to honor the massacre of innocent people by the British forces. The memorial is managed by the Jallianwala Bagh National Memorial Trust and is located in the neighborhood of another world famous Sikh shrine Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in the heart of Amritsar just close to Sri Harmandir Sahib where thousands of unarmed innocent Indians were brutally murdered and wounded by the cruel General Dyer and British forces on 13th April, 1919, the day of Baisakhi which is also celebrated as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa by the Sikhs.

The then Viceroy of India, Lord Chelmsford formed a Rowlatt Committee in 1918 and appointed British Judge Sidney Rowlatt as its president. This committee passed a Rowlatt Act on 10th March, 1919, which authorized British government to imprison any individual suspected of any terrorism activity for upto two years without any trial. This Act also proposed to restrain the freedom of press, arrest without warrant, indefinite detention without trial for any terrorist, revolutionary or for any political activities.

The accused were denied the right to know the appellant and the evidence used in the trial. The convicted were required to deposit heavy securities upon their release and were banned from taking part in any kind of political, educational or religious activities. Rowlatt Act also authorized the government to probe and report on the nature and degree of the conspiracies related to the freedom movement in India and to counsel about the law required to deal with them.

Many leaders and politicians were against this Act which forced the government to take some strict measures. Mahatma Gandhi named this Rowlatt Act as a “Black Act” and announced a nation wide strike on 6th April, 1919. The strike passed off peacefully everywhere including Amritsar. On 10th April, 1919, two popular leaders from Amritsar, Dr.Satya Pal and Dr.Saif-ud-din Kitchlu who supported the strike were arrested and deported out of Amritsar to Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

The following day, there were protests in Amritsar leading to some violent incidents when armed British forces fired upon the crowd killing some protestors. The violence further escalated and an angry mob went berserk and attacked and looted National Bank, Alliance bank, Chartered Bank and some of the government offices resulting in the death of five Europeans and a few civilians. Railway lines were cut, telegraph posts destroyed and the government buildings were burnt down.

Marcia Sherwood, an English missionary and the superintendent of Amritsar Mission School was on her way to home when she was attacked by a mob and beaten badly. Some local Indians saved her and hid her at Gobindgarh fort. The British authorities were in panic as they never expected such an aggression from the people. General Dyer called army into the city same evening and ordered a curfew situation restricting all kinds of public meetings and gatherings of more than four people.

On 13th April, 1919, it was the day of Baisakhi festival which is sacred for all the Punjabis, especially Sikhs. A large number of people from far and nearby villages and towns, mostly Sikhs visited Sri Harmandir Sahib to mark the birth anniversary of Khalsa. Some local leaders invited people to gather for a peaceful religious meeting in Jallianwala Bagh at 4:30pm. According to an estimate, it is believed that around fifteen thousand people were present in the Jallianwala Bagh on that day.

When General Dyer heard about this, he reached Jallianwala Bagh at 5:15pm with fifty soldiers armed with rifles and two machine gun mounted armoured cars. He had to leave armoured cars outside the entrance door because of narrow lanes. Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded by the houses, buildings and huge walls on all the sides with only one main entrance and exit accessible. General Dyer positioned his armed men near the exit to block the way out. Without giving any prior warning to the crowd to disperse, he ordered his men to fire at the people until they are out of ammunition. Firing continued for almost fifteen minutes during which approximately 1650 rounds were fired at unarmed men, women, elderly people and children.

It was a chaos situation and many people died in the stampede while trying to escape. Women with their infants jumped into the compound well to save themselves from the shooting. Later 120 dead bodies were removed from the compound well. The official number of deaths was reported much less than the actual figures. Later Indian National Congress constituted an individual inquiry of its own which found that more than 1500 innocent people were killed with more than 500 people injured. The British government tried to repress the Amritsar massacre information but the news spread in India resulting outrage and protests all over the country.

A Sikh teenager, Udham Singh being raised at Khalsa Orphanage, Amritsar was also present at the Jallianwala Bagh at the time of killings and saw the whole carnage with his own eyes and was himself injured during the shoot out. He was deeply disturbed with the entire incident that he avenged the killings of his fellow countrymen by killing former Punjab Lieutenant Governor Michael O’Dwyer in Caxton Hall of London on 13th March, 1940. Udham Singh changed his name to “Ram Mohammad Singh Azad”, signifying the equality of all the three religions Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. He was sentenced and hanged at Pentonville jail in London on 31st July, 1940.

Today, the Jallianwala Bagh has become a national place of pilgrimage. In the honor of the deceased, the memorial was named as the Flame of Liberty. It was inaugurated by Dr Rajendra Prasad, the first President of the Republic of India on 13th April, 1961. A crescent corridor near the main entrance symbols the spot where General Dyer's soldiers took position to fire at the gathering.

A flame is placed at the site which is on at all the times. The central 30-ft high pillar, a four-sided structure of red stone standing in the middle of a tank is built with approximately 300 slabs with Ashoka Chakra, the national emblem, embossed on them. A stone lantern stands at each corner of the tank and on all four sides of the pillar the words, "In memory of martyrs, 13th April 1919", has been inscribed in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English.