British
Prime Minister deeply regrets JalianwalaBagh Massacre
Nobel
Laureate Rabindranath Tagore Renounced Knighthood after JalianwalaBagh Massacre
Ravi
Kumarji
Kendriya
Sampark Toli Sadasya
British Prime Minister Theresa Mayon 10th April, 2019 described the
JallianwalaBagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919 as a "shameful scar" on
British Indian history but stopped short of a formal apology sought by a
cross-section of parliament in previous debates."The tragedy of JallianwalaBagh
of 1919 is a shameful scar on British Indian history. As Her Majesty the Queen
(Elizabeth II) said before visiting JallianwalaBagh in 1997, it is a
distressing example of our past history with India," she said in her
statement. In response, Opposition Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded
that those who lost their lives in the massacre
deserve a "full, clear and unequivocal apology for what took
place". Indian-origin Labour MPs Preet Kaur Gill and Virendra Sharma
wanted UK Prime Minister to publicly apologise.
The JallianwalaBagh
massacre, in which some 1600 peaceful, unarmed
Punjabis were massacred, took place on 13 April 1919 when troops of the British
Indian Army under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer fired rifles into a
crowd of Punjabis, who had gathered in JallianwalaBagh, Amritsar, Punjab. The
civilians had assembled for the New Year Festival known as Baisakhi. Baisakhi marks the Sikh new year and commemorates the
formation of Khalsapanth of warriors
under Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. It is additionally a spring harvest festival
for the Punjabis. It is also stated that it marks peaceful protest to condemn
the arrest and deportation of national leader, Satya Pal.
The JallianwallaBagh is a public garden of 6 to 7 acres (2.8 ha),
walled on all sides, with five entrances. Dyer, without warning the crowd to
disperse, blocked the main exits. Dyer ordered his troops to begin shooting
toward the densest sections of the crowd. Cease-fire was ordered only when
ammunition supplies were almost exhausted, after approximately 1,650 rounds
were spent.The wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, as a
curfew was declared, and many more died during the night.
This incident shocked
Rabindranath Tagoreto such extent that he stated whilst refusing his
knighthood that "such mass murderers aren't worthy of giving any title to
anyone”.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was the first Asian to receive Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for
his work Gitanjali: Song Offerings. He was also awarded a knighthood by King George V in the 1915, but Tagore renounced
it after the 1919 JallianwalaBagh massacre in Amritsar in which more than
1500 were killed.
Renouncing the knighthood, Tagore wrote in a letter addressed to
Lord Chelmsford, the then British Viceroy of India, "The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon
the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced,
are without parallel in the history of civilised governments... and I for my
part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of my
country men.”
On 13 March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, Udham Singh, an Indian independence activist who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and had himself been wounded, shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab at the time of the bloodbath, who had approved Dyer's action and was believed to have been the main planner.
Udham Singh had told the court at his trial: He was the real
culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For
full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have
done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen
my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against
this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death
for the sake of my motherland?
“I salute
Shaheed-i-AzamUdham Singh with reverence who had kissed the noose so that we
may be free”, said Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952.
SardarBhagat Singh was 12 years old when the butchery took place. He visited the site
hours after the carnage took place, collected the blood soaked soil, kept it in
his puja altar and worshipped the holy soil every day.
Queen Elizabeth II spoke about Jalianwala Massacre at a state banquet in India on 13
October 1997: “It is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in
our past – JallianwalaBagh, which I
shall visit tomorrow, is a distressing
example. But history cannot be rewritten, however much we might sometimes
wish otherwise. It has its moments of sadness, as well as gladness. We must
learn from the sadness and build on the gladness”. On 14 October 1997, Queen
Elizabeth II visited JallianwalaBagh and paid her respects with a 30‑second moment of silence. During the visit, she wore a dress of a
colour described as pink apricot or saffron, which was of religious
significance to the Sikhs. She removed her shoes while visiting the monument
and laid a wreath at the monument.
Rajasthan & Gujarat
have a JallianwalaBagh too. On November 17, 1913,
six years prior to JalianwalaBaghbutchery, the British gunned down more than 1,500 Bhils(about 4,000 according to
some sources)on Mangadh Hill, on the
border between Rajasthan and Gujarat.
GovindGiri more reverently addressed as Govind Guru was
born in a Banjara family in Dungarpur, Rajasthan. Govind Guru started Bhagat
movement in 1908. He propagated vegetarianism, abstaining from alcohol and
gambling among the Bhils. He asked the Bhils to reject bonded labour, demand a
fair price for their labour and fight for their rights. GovindGiri and his
followers started assembling at Mangarh in October, 1913. They were to attend a
religious fair in the Indian month of Karthik, to organize a large 'havan'
(fire rituals) and to take the oath. More than one and a half lakh Bhils
assembled at Mangarh to attend the religious ceremony.
The JallianwallaBagh is a public garden of 6 to 7 acres (2.8 ha),
walled on all sides, with five entrances. Dyer, without warning the crowd to
disperse, blocked the main exits. Dyer ordered his troops to begin shooting
toward the densest sections of the crowd. Cease-fire was ordered only when
ammunition supplies were almost exhausted, after approximately 1,650 rounds
were spent.The wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, as a
curfew was declared, and many more died during the night.
This incident shocked
Rabindranath Tagoreto such extent that he stated whilst refusing his
knighthood that "such mass murderers aren't worthy of giving any title to
anyone”.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was the first Asian to receive Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 for
his work Gitanjali: Song Offerings. He was also awarded a knighthood by King George V in the 1915, but Tagore renounced
it after the 1919 JallianwalaBagh massacre in Amritsar in which more than
1500 were killed.
Renouncing the knighthood, Tagore wrote in a letter addressed to
Lord Chelmsford, the then British Viceroy of India, "The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon
the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced,
are without parallel in the history of civilised governments... and I for my
part wish to stand, shorn of all special distinctions, by the side of my
country men.”
On 13 March 1940, at Caxton Hall in London, Udham Singh, an Indian independence activist who had witnessed the
events in Amritsar and had himself been wounded, shot and killed Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab
at the time of the bloodbath, who had approved Dyer's action and was believed
to have been the main planner.
Colonel
Sherton, assisted by Major Bailey and Captain Stiley, surrounded Mangarh from
all sides and the peaceful Bhils were asked to disperse. When the Bhils
performing the 'havan' refused to do so, they were sprayed with machine guns
and artillery fire from all sides. Even automatic machine guns on the back of
mules were used. On 17th November, 1913, more than one thousand five hundred peaceful
people died in the barbaric attack. Gujarat and Rajasthan Governments have
acknowledged the contribution of Guru Govind Giri. Rajasthan established Govind Guru JanajatiyaVishwavidhyalay
at Banswara in 2012 and Gujarat established ShriGovind Guru Universityat Godhra in 2015.
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