Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Killings)

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (also Jallianwala Killings, Amritsar massacre) happened on 13th April, 1919.

In protest of the Rowlatt Act, nearly 10,000 people gathered in a meeting in a bounded garden near Amritsar on 13th April, 1919 around 4.30 p.m. At this time, Brigadier Michael-O-Dyer was the ruler of Punjab. He surrounded this meeting place with the soldiers without warning them or requesting them to stop the meeting.

As per the instruction of Dyer, four entrances were closed. After that the British soldiers started firing to the helpless throng the people with 50 rifles from a distance of hardly 100 years. They fired 1600 round of bullets within 10 minutes at a stretch. Many persons including children and women were killed and injured.

According to the official statement, 379 persons were killed and 1200 were injured. But it was known from the unofficial record that more than 1200 people were killed at the spot. In that evening ‘Martial Law’ and ‘curfew’ were introduced and as a result of this, the relatives could not bring back the dead bodies. Even they could not give a drop of water to the injured ones. In protest of this, entire country was raised to fire. In protest of the barbarous act of the British Government, Rabindranath Tagore heatedly refused to accept ‘Knight’ title from the British. In protest of it, Gandhiji wrote in ‘Young India’ “This satanic Government cannot be mended, it must be ended”.