Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Who: Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, who commanded the troops, and a crowd the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism puts at 15,000 to 20,000, with Sikhs a large share. Villagers had come into Amritsar for Baisakhi. Local leaders called the meeting to condemn the Rowlatt Act and the firing of 10 April, after Dr Satya Pal and Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew were arrested and deported.

What: At 4.30 pm on 13 April 1919 Dyer took 50 riflemen and two armoured cars with machine guns to Jallianwala Bagh and posted his riflemen on an elevation near the entrance. The Bagh was enclosed by buildings and had only three narrow exits, through which the crowd tried to flee (The Tribune). The troops fired 1,650 rounds of .303 ammunition without warning. The Tribune says the firing lasted ten minutes, the Encyclopaedia about twenty.

The official toll was 379 dead; wounded are counted as 1,200 (Encyclopaedia) or 192 (The Tribune). Madan Mohan Malaviya, who gathered information for the Central Legislative Council, put the dead at over 1,000. Dyer himself estimated 200 to 300.

Where: Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, a short walk from Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Why it mattered: The Disorders Inquiry Committee, known as the Hunter Committee, reported on 8 March 1920. Its European majority and Indian minority reports both criticised Dyer for firing without warning and for continuing to fire as long as he did, and the minority was harsher. The Committee judged that he had wished to produce a moral effect in the Punjab, which it called a misconception of his duty. Dyer was told on 22 March 1920 that he must resign and was retired. On 20 July 1920 the House of Lords agreed, by 129 votes to 86, to a motion deploring the conduct of his case as unjust to him.

The Congress held its December 1919 session in Amritsar, the Sikhs formed the All India Sikh League, and the Gurdwara Reform movement ran from 1920 to 1925. Udham Singh shot Michael O'Dwyer, Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in 1919, who had supported Dyer, at Caxton Hall in London on 13 March 1940, and was hanged at Pentonville on 31 July 1940. The Bagh was bought for the nation on 21 August 1920.