The day a peaceful festival turned into a massacre in Amritsar
On 13 April 1919, thousands gathered in a walled garden to celebrate Baisakhi. They did not know that a military blockade was already in place. What followed was a ten-minute volley of gunfire that would shatter the Indian public's faith in British rule forever.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in Amritsar, Punjab, during a period of intense political unrest following the enactment of the Rowlatt Act. This legislation, recommended by the Sidney Rowlatt committee, had extended the powers of the Defence of India Act 1915 to further restrict civil liberties. While many gathered in the Bagh to peacefully protest the arrests of activists Satyapal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, others were simply pilgrims or attendees of the annual Baisakhi fair who had drifted into the enclosure after the city police closed the fair early that afternoon.
Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer arrived at the 6–7 acre site with 50 troops armed with .303 Lee–Enfield rifles. Crucially, Dyer did not warn the crowd to disperse. Instead, he ordered his troops to block the narrow exits and fire into the densest sections of the crowd. The shooting lasted approximately ten minutes, continuing until about one third of the ammunition was exhausted. The physical layout of the Bagh, enclosed by buildings on three sides with only narrow, often locked entrances, meant that fleeing civilians were trapped.
The human cost was devastating and remains a subject of historical dispute. While Dyer initially reported 200 to 300 deaths, and some early news reports were even lower, estimates of those killed range from 379 to as many as 1,500 or more. Over 1,200 people were injured, with 192 sustaining serious wounds. Many victims died from stampedes at the gates or by jumping into the site's large well to escape the bullets; a plaque notes that 120 bodies were recovered from that well. The event triggered the non-cooperation movement (1920–22) and a profound loss of trust in the United Kingdom.
Source: Jallianwala Bagh massacre
