Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: Catalyst for Indian Independence

The origins of the Amritsar Massacre are traced to the colonial government’s fear of a growing rebellion against the British Raj. India was considered as the crown jewel of the British colonization and the Britishers were desperate to hold on to the British Raj in India as long as they can by taking desperate measures. After the first world war political people in India were holding on to their demand to attain swaraj which led in increase the tension between the rulers and the colonial people of india. The repurcussions of the conflict eventually ended up in the massacre of the Jallianwala Bagh. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919 at Amritsar, shocked the entire nation and hugely motivated the Indian struggle for their freedom and, as a

The controversial Act legalized imprisonment without trial, strict press control, arrests without warrant and juryless trials. Mohandas Gandhi’s outrage at the Rowlatt Act elicited an unprecedented response of furious unrest and mass protests. The massacre of 1919 was the most fearful act done by the British during their rule in India. “The most active and influential leaders certainly in the period just before disturbance were Drs. Kitchlew and Satyapal”.2 On the 23rd of March a meeting was held in Amritsar in support of Mahatma Gandhi. By watching the influence of Drs. Satyapal and Kitchlew and the vast participation of people in the strikes, the deputy commissioner Mr. Miles Irving lectured the government of Punjab to increase the military forces in Amritsar.3 In response to the letter of the deputy commissioner the government of Punjab took prompt action and they issued the orders of Drs. Satyapal and Kitchlew’s deportation on 9th April.4 On 13th April 1919 General Dyer “went through the city in company with the district magistrate and some others and had a proclamation read out by the Naibtahsildar to the people”.5 However this proclamation was not read in many parts of the

Martial law was declared in Amritsar after April 15th. “The shadow of Amritsar has lengthened over the fair face of India”.7 As the result of this massacre millions of moderate Indians from patient and loyal supporters of the British raj turned into nationalists who would never again place trust in British “fair play.” It thus marks the turning point for a majority of the Congress’s supporters from moderate cooperation with the raj and its promised reforms to revolutionary noncooperation. “The political instability made it very difficult for him to stay in Punjab much longer after the Amritsar massacre. He says, ‘I arrived in India in November, 1885, and was posted to Lahore, the capital of the Punjab. I left Lahore and the Punjab for good in May, 1919.’”8 Liberal Anglophile leaders, such as Jinnah, were soon to be displaced by the followers of Gandhi, who would launch, a year after that dreadful massacre, his first nationwide satyagraha (“devotion to truth”) campaign as India’s revolutionary response. Gandhi started a new campaign of non-co-operation in the following year. On August 1 1920 he wrote a letter to the viceroy to return the medal that he had been awarded for his magnificent services in the South Africa war. In this way he expressed his frustration against the British Raj. In response to Gandhi’s non-co-operation all people surrendered their titles, foreign goods were boycotted and there was a