Jallianwala Bagh massacre

History glossary

Also called: Amritsar massacre · Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"

Meaning

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre (also called the Amritsar massacre) took place on 13 April 1919, a Baisakhi day. Troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer blocked the exits of a walled ground in Amritsar and fired without warning on a large crowd of unarmed men, women and children. NCERT says "hundreds" (Class 10) or "400 or more" (Class 12) were killed. [2]

It matters because it destroyed Indian faith in British justice. It made the Rowlatt protest a national cause and pushed the Congress towards Non-Cooperation in 1920.

Explanation

Background: Rowlatt Act and the anger in Punjab

  • The Rowlatt Act, 1919 kept the emergency powers of wartime going in peacetime.
  • It allowed detention without trial: a person could be jailed on suspicion, with no charge, no normal trial and no appeal.
  • People summed it up in a slogan: "no vakil, no dalil, no appeal" (no lawyer, no argument, no appeal).

  • It was passed even though every Indian member of the Imperial Legislative Council opposed it.

  • Indians felt betrayed. They had given men and money in the First World War and hoped for self-rule. They got repression instead.

  • Gandhi called a satyagraha (non-violent resistance through "truth-force") against the Act. It was his first all-India political action. It began with a hartal (shops shut and work stopped) on 6 April 1919.
  • Punjab was the angriest province.
  • It had sent the largest share of soldiers and had been forced to pay war contributions.
  • It got repression, not reward.

The build-up in Amritsar (10–13 April 1919)

  • Gandhi was stopped from entering Punjab. He was held near Delhi while travelling there.
  • 10 April 1919: the two popular local leaders, Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, were arrested and sent away from Amritsar.
  • The same day, a protest turned violent.
  • Troops fired on a crowd marching to the Deputy Commissioner's house.

  • Angry crowds then attacked banks, post offices and railway stations, and some Europeans were killed.

  • Martial law (army rule in place of normal courts) followed. Command in Amritsar passed to Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer. [2]

  • Dyer banned all public gatherings. The ban was announced only by drum-beat in parts of the city, so most villagers never heard it. [2]

The massacre, 13 April 1919

  • It was Baisakhi, the Punjabi harvest and new-year festival.
  • Thousands of villagers had come to Amritsar for the fair and the Golden Temple.

  • They did not know that martial law had been declared or that meetings were banned.

  • The crowd gathered in Jallianwala Bagh along with local protesters.

  • The Bagh was a walled open ground with very few, very narrow exits.

  • Britannica says it was almost completely enclosed by walls, with only one usable exit, and puts the crowd at about 10,000 men, women and children. [2]

  • Dyer's troops blocked the exits and fired without any warning.

  • About 50 soldiers fired roughly 1,650 rounds in about 10–15 minutes. [2]

  • People died from the bullets, in the crush at the walls, and by jumping into the well inside the Bagh.

  • Dyer's stated aim was to produce "a moral effect", which meant terrifying Punjab into obeying. He later said he would have used a machine gun if the lane had been wide enough for his armoured cars.

  • The death toll is disputed:
  • NCERT Class 10: "hundreds" killed.
  • NCERT Class 12: "400 or more" killed.
  • British official figures: about 379 killed and about 1,200 wounded. [2]
  • Indian estimates, including the Congress enquiry, were far higher.

Results: terror, enquiry and a turning point

  • Terror spread across Punjab:
  • The crawling order: in the lane where a British woman, Miss Sherwood, had been attacked, Indians were forced to crawl on their bellies to pass.
  • Public floggings, and forced salaaming (bowing) to British officers.
  • Villages were bombed from the air, especially around Gujranwala.

  • Newspapers were censored, so the rest of India learnt the full facts only weeks later.

  • The Hunter Committee was appointed by the Secretary of State, Edwin Montagu, under Lord Hunter.

  • It reported in March 1920 and condemned Dyer's action unanimously.
  • It ordered no penal or disciplinary punishment for him. [2]
  • Dyer lost his command, but some British people honoured him with a public purse.

  • Many Indians decided that the whole system, not just one officer, was the problem.

  • Rabindranath Tagore gave up his knighthood in protest.

  • Gandhi called off the movement as violence spread. He called his early launch of mass action a "Himalayan blunder", because people had not yet been trained in non-violence.
  • Gandhi still came out of 1919 as a national leader. Two lessons shaped his next step:
  • The Rowlatt protest had been mostly in the cities, so he needed the villages.
  • He needed Hindu–Muslim unity, which led him to join the Khilafat issue with Non-Cooperation (1920–22).

Time, place and evidence

  • When: 13 April 1919 (Baisakhi), in the early Gandhian era (1915–1948). It came just after the Rowlatt Satyagraha began.
  • Where: Jallianwala Bagh, a walled ground in Amritsar, Punjab. Pilgrims had come to the Golden Temple nearby.
  • Key people:
  • Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer: gave the order to fire.
  • Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal: Amritsar leaders arrested on 10 April.
  • Gandhi: led the Rowlatt Satyagraha and was barred from Punjab.
  • Edwin Montagu and Lord Hunter: set up and led the official enquiry.

  • Rabindranath Tagore: gave up his knighthood.

  • How we know:

  • The Hunter Committee report (March 1920) is the official British record. [2]
  • The British official figures give 379 killed / about 1,200 wounded. [2]
  • The Congress enquiry gave much higher Indian estimates.
  • Dyer's own statements to the enquiry (the "moral effect" aim, the machine-gun remark) show what he intended.
  • NCERT Class 10 Ch 2 ("hundreds") and Class 12 Ch 3 ("400 or more") give the textbook figures. Use these in answers, and treat 379 as the British official figure, not the true toll.

Don't confuse with

  • Amritsar firing of 10 April 1919: happened three days earlier, when troops fired on protesters marching to the Deputy Commissioner's house after Kitchlew and Satyapal were arrested. Jallianwala Bagh was 13 April.
  • Hunter Committee vs Congress enquiry: the Hunter Committee was the official British enquiry. It condemned Dyer but punished nobody, and gave about 379 dead. The Congress enquiry gave much higher figures.
  • Gujranwala: the place where villages were bombed from the air in the terror after the massacre. It is not where the massacre happened.
  • Chauri Chaura, 1922: the violent incident that made Gandhi stop Non-Cooperation. After 1919 it was the Rowlatt Satyagraha he called off, calling it a "Himalayan blunder".

Prelims Hooks

  • Jallianwala Bagh massacre: 13 April 1919, on Baisakhi, in Amritsar. The order came from Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer. [2]
  • About 50 soldiers fired about 1,650 rounds in 10–15 minutes, without any warning. [2]
  • Death toll: British official = 379 killed, about 1,200 wounded [2]. NCERT = "hundreds" (Class 10) / "400 or more" (Class 12).
  • Order of events: Rowlatt hartal (6 April) → arrest of Kitchlew and Satyapal and Amritsar firing (10 April) → martial law under Dyer → Jallianwala Bagh (13 April) → Hunter Committee report (March 1920).
  • Hunter Committee: appointed by Montagu, headed by Lord Hunter. It condemned Dyer but ordered no penal action. [2]
  • Trap: it was Tagore who gave up his knighthood in protest. Other repression after the massacre included the crawling order and the aerial bombing of Gujranwala.

Mains Points

  • The massacre destroyed the moral case for British rule. The Hunter Committee condemned Dyer but punished nobody [2], and part of British opinion even honoured him.
  • Moderates learnt that reform inside the system could not deliver justice.
  • This pushed the Congress towards Non-Cooperation in 1920.

  • Counterpoint: the Raj's harsh face (Rowlatt, Jallianwala) and its reforming face (Montagu–Chelmsford reforms, 1919) appeared in the same year.

  • Rowlatt and Jallianwala turned elite politics into mass politics. A law about court procedure became a moral issue any villager could understand.

  • The hartal needed no literacy and no party membership.
  • The massacre's victims were ordinary festival visitors, and that made the cause truly national.

  • Gandhi rose from a local leader (Champaran, Kheda) to an all-India leader.

  • Debate: was Gandhi right to call off the movement? Critics say it wasted momentum and helped the Raj.

  • Gandhi replied that means and ends cannot be separated.
  • In his view, an untrained mass movement would turn violent, and violence was what the Raj could crush most easily.
  • The same pattern came back at Chauri Chaura (1922). It also taught him to build a rural and Hindu–Muslim base through Khilafat–Non-Cooperation.

Related concepts

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Sources

  1. 1Class 10, Ch 2 "Nationalism in India"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement" (primary)
  2. 2Jallianwala Bagh Massacre — Britannicabritannica.com · tier 3