History belongs to those who control texts and narratives. Essentially it is not about untruths as much as loaded truths. Periodically history is retrieved from the tissue of convenient truths that misinform. With extensive source material, a comprehensive understanding of her subject matter and an enviable writing style, writer Kishwar Desai has scripted a remarkable text that should be on the mandatory reading list of all Indians. Jallianwala Bagh, 1919 is historical research at once scholarly and beautifully absorbing.
The events at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar on April 13, 1919, had redefined the course of our Independence struggle. The days preceding the actual atrocity and then the aftermath are pieced together culling from the Hunter Committee Report, INC Report, Parliamentary Report and several relevant studies. Notions like the inherent lawfulness of the British or that our Independence movement was marginal are challenged by this texturally rich, complex and intense retelling.
Historically the Jallianwala Bagh massacre laid bare the intent of the British, uniting diverse Indian causes into this single cry for self-determination and self-rule. In the following period, that rare communal unity deteriorated into the clamour for partition on religious grounds, playing into Britain’s divide-and-rule policy.
Against worldwide condemnation of the event and the loss of moral high ground, the British took care to insulate themselves from the act as also its consequences. Brigadier General Reginald Dyer was projected as a lone wolf and even mentally unstable. The truth lies elsewhere. The walled city of Amritsar was already under siege as Gandhi’s satyagraha had urged people to hartal, leading to incidents of looting and retaliatory fire resulting in casualties. Bombs, machine guns and whipping were used to subjugate the masses.
Opening machine gun fire on a peaceful congregation was another attempt to subjugate the people of India and dispel all forms of protest at atrocities by the British sarkar. Not a standalone incident but a fiercer one in the continuum.
“For Dyer, this was not a murderous attack on defenceless, innocent people. For him the people assembled were all guilty; it was a state of war, in which he wanted to teach them a ‘moral’ lesson. He assumed all of those present at Jallianwala Bagh to be guilty without any idea who they were.”To me personally, this book has served as a timely reminder not to take lightly this freedom our ancestors have paid for in blood.