Remembering the lives lost- The JallianwalaBagh Massacre

It was today on 13^th April, in the year 1919 JallianwalaBagh when General Dyer ordered massacre of innocent men women and children on the Baisakhi day

Today, on the occasion of the 99th anniversary of that unfortunate incident which is a black mark on the historical map of our country.

Here are 8 facts that every Indian should know.

• In the year 1919, the British government passed the ‘Rowlatt Act’, The act gave the government permission to arrest people without any trial, on terms of mere suspicion.
• On April 10, 1919, two popular leaders, Dr Satyapal and Dr Kichlu were arrested under the act, which made the public furious and fearing a violent repercussion, General Dyer, on behalf of the government issued an order banning any public meetings or gatherings in Amritsar.
• A public meeting was scheduled for April 13th in JallianwalaBagh when the festival of Baisakhi was being celebrated and around 6,000 to 10,000 people gathered at the venue to attend that meeting, which included ladies and even children.
• JallianwalaBagh was an enclosed place surrounded by walls on every side with just one main gate and two-three tiny lanes for the exit, General Dyer closed the exit gates and ordered his riflemen to blatantly shoot at the gathering. The shooting continued for a while until the ammunition supply was exhausted, killing many innocent people.
• Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest, and Gandhiji returned his ‘Kaisar-i-Hind’ medal.
• A ‘Hunter community’ was formed to enquire about the incident under the leadership of Lord Hunter. However, due to no fruitful follow-up, the Indian National Congress appointed its own trusted officials to enquire about the incident, which included Motilal Nehru and C.R Das.
• The British government suspend General Dyer, who was later shot by SardarUdham Singh, in his own homeland of London, on March 30, 1940, as a revenge for the massacre.
• The Indian National Congress built a memorial for the innocent souls who departed on the unfortunate day which was inaugurated Rajendra Prasad in 1961.

Although today all we can do is mourn the dead, it’s very important to understand the struggle India went through to get this precious Freedom, sadly we find students marching and protesting demanding Freedom. If only they knew what it meant to be under some body’s control.

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