April 13: The brutal history of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and its lasting legacy

Amritsar: On the afternoon of April 13, 1919, a walled garden in the heart of Amritsar became the site of one of the darkest chapters in British colonial history. In a matter of ten minutes, British Indian Army troops opened fire on a peaceful, unarmed gathering, turning a festive spring day into a massacre that would permanently alter the trajectory of India's freedom struggle.

Here is the factual account of what transpired on that fateful day at Jallianwala Bagh, an event that shocked the world and galvanised the Indian independence movement.

The Brewing Storm: The Rowlatt Act

The massacre did not occur in a vacuum; it was the climax of mounting tensions between the British Raj and the Indian public. Following the end of World War I, a conflict to which India contributed over a million soldiers, Indians expected greater self-governance. Instead, the British imperial government passed the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, widely known as the Rowlatt Act.

This draconian law allowed the colonial government to arrest any Indian without a warrant and imprison suspects without trial. In response, Mahatma Gandhi called for a nationwide hartal (general strike). Punjab became a major centre of these protests. By April 10, the secret arrest and deportation of two prominent local leaders, Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, sparked widespread, and eventually violent, protests in Amritsar, resulting in the deaths of both Indian civilians and European nationals.

April 13, 1919: The Massacre

April 13 marked Baisakhi, a major Sikh spring festival. An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people, men, women, and children of all faiths, gathered inside Jallianwala Bagh. While some were local residents meeting to peacefully protest the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of their leaders, thousands of others were pilgrims from neighbouring villages, unaware that the newly appointed military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer, had hastily implemented martial law and banned all public gatherings.

Jallianwala Bagh was not a park but a dried-out, walled enclosure surrounded by tightly packed buildings. It had only one narrow entry and exit point.

At approximately 5:30 PM, Brigadier-General Dyer arrived with 90 Gurkha, Baloch, Rajput, and Sikh troops. The sequence of events that followed was swift and devastating:

Once the firing ceased, Dyer and his troops immediately withdrew, leaving the dead and dying where they lay. Due to a strict curfew imposed by martial law, families were unable to retrieve their wounded loved ones until the following morning.

The Toll and the Aftermath

The exact number of casualties remains highly contested to this day:

• The Official British Estimate: The Hunter Commission, a British inquiry formed later to investigate the massacre, cited 379 dead and approximately 1,200 wounded.
• Indian Estimates: Investigations by the Indian National Congress and local testimonies estimated that over 1,000 innocent people were killed, with over 1,500 injured.

Brigadier-General Dyer later admitted to the Hunter Commission that he did not fire simply to disperse the crowd, but to "punish" them and produce a "moral effect" across the Punjab. While he was eventually censured and forced to resign from the military, he was notably hailed as a "Saviour of the Punjab" by some factions in the British House of Lords and members of the British public, who even raised a massive monetary fund in his honour.

A Turning Point for India

The brutality of Jallianwala Bagh shattered any remaining illusions of British benevolence in India. It served as a massive catalyst for the independence movement.

Today, Jallianwala Bagh stands as a national memorial. The bullet holes preserved in its brick walls and the solemn presence of the Martyr's Well remain a stark, silent testament to the innocent lives lost and the heavy price paid for India's freedom.