100 years of Jallianwala Bagh massacre

This day marks 100 years of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which is also known as the Amritsar massacre. The incident took place on April 13, 1919 when British troops under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer open fired at a crowd of Indians without warning who gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh garden near the Golden Temple situated in Amritsar, Punjab. The crowd had gathered there to showcase a peaceful protest to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew. 50 British soldiers had open fired at the crowd which killed almost 400 Indians who all were completely unarmed. The whole incident took place within the walled enclosure of Jallianwala Bagh due to which the crowd was unable to flee the spot and was killed. The firing continued till the British troops ran out of bullets. It is also said that Commander Dyer instructed his troops to fire at those places where the crowd density was the highest to cause more causalities. Around 1,200 Indians were wounded along with the 400 deceased. This incident was a crude example of the colonial rule in India. Indians condemned this act of cruelty and cowardness and the gravity of the situation was so intense that Rabindranath Tagore himself arranged a protest meeting in Calcutta and renounced his British Knighthood as a symbolic act of protest. Tagore in a letter to Viceroy Lord Chelmsford wrote, "I wish to stand, shorn, of all special distinctions, by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradation not fit for human beings".

British Prime Minister Theresa May recently condemned this act in the British Parliament and referred to the tragedy as "shameful scar on British Indian history", however, no formal apology letter was issued by the British Government.

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