100 Years of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre – over a thousand were shot dead by a British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer
On April 13, 1919, the British forces led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire in Jallianwala Bagh on thousands of unarmed and peaceful protesters, including women and children, killing over one thousand men, women and children trapped inside the garden. Many jumped into a well to save themselves from the hail of bullets.
Shrieks of the innocents filled the air, but Dyer's men kept on pumping bullets. If we look at the official records, presented by the British officials, it shows about 379 people died in the massacre. According to the Indian officials, around 1,000 people lost their lives, and more than a hundred people were injured on the fateful day.
Around 10,000 people gathered at the Bagh on the Baisakhi day to do a peaceful protest against the draconian Rowlett Act. The mood was sombre and fear writ large on the faces of protesters as all the exit gates were closed and guarded by British soldiers. General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on the innocent crowd of protesters without any warning.
Total of 1650 rounds of bullets were fired on the crowd in ten minutes. The very thought of this ghastly mass murder sends chill down the spine. On April 13,2019, India commemorated 100th years of the ghastly incident of pre independence Indian history.
This is one incident which every Indian needs to be constantly reminded of and our current generation needs to be made aware of the price, our forefathers paid to gain the independence. Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden which is situated near the holiest shrine of Sikhs, Golden Temple in Amritsar city. The Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Trust was established in the memory of these martyrs in year 1951 which manages the memorial. The current chairman of the Trust is Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
-Gaurav Sharma
To take revenge of the martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh massacre the great revolutionary Udham Singh belonging to Gadhar Party completed his woe by assassinating General Dyer on March 13, 1940 in London. Udham Singh was subsequently tried and convicted of murder and hanged to death in July 1940.By making the most exemplary and supreme sacrifice, Shaheed Udham Singh got his name written in golden letters in the annals of Indian history.
Chandra Shekhar Azad was popularly known as Azad (The Free) was one from the bunch of those great revolutionaries who made the supreme sacrifice of their lives for their motherland at a very young age. He formed Hindustan Socialist Republican Army after the death of the great compatriots Ram Prasad Bismil. He often used pseudonym ‘Balraj’ when signing pamphlets issued as commander chief of HSRA. He lost life in an encounter with British forces in a park in Kanpur, fighting till his last bullet with which he shot himself to avoid being caught by Britishers.