Page 112 - SST Class 05

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre : When people in Punjab protested against the Rowlatt
Act, the government arrested two leaders on 10 April, 1919. They were Satya Pal and
Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew. People decided to protest against their arrests.
13 April, 1919 was chosen as the day for protest. In the Punjab, this day each year was
celebrated as the well-known festival of Baisakhi. About 20,000 people assembled at

the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar to protest and celebrate this festival. These people
included a large number of women and children. This Bagh is surrounded by walls on
three sides while there is a narrow opening on the fourth. People sang songs and
chanted slogans. They did this completely peacefully, but the British were bent upon
showing its demonic power.

General Dyer, the cruel military commander of Amritsar, came with his soldiers and
occupied the only entrance of the Bagh. Without any warning or reason, he ordered his
soldiers to fire at the peaceful crowd. When the soldiers did not fire direct at innocent
people, Dyer ordered to shoot to kill. The people wanted to escape, but the only entrance
was blocked by Dyer. Thousands of men, women and children were slaughtered by the
British troops. The soldiers fired until the last bullet they had. After this, the soldiers
marched away, but they left behind them a gory scene with thousands of dead and

wounded. There was no one to care for the wounded or even give water to them.
When people outside heard of this inhuman slaughter, they rushed to the Bagh, but
they were restricted from reaching there. The government imposed the martial law

(military rule) in whole of the Punjab to crush people even more heartlessly.
The entire nation was left shocked and dumbfounded at this British cruelty. Protests
were held everywhere. The British were even more
ruthless now. To suppress people, the British
government arrested a large number of leaders

.
including Gandhiji Rabindranath Tagore renounced his
knighthood in protest.
People now looked towards Gandhiji with some hope.

Now he was to lead the movement. He emerged as the
most popular leader of the nation. Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhiji practised law in South Africa for 21 years where he
fought for the rights of the blacks. He returned to India in 1915.
He was brought into politics by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. He first
toured to know more about India and started some minor
movements like Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda in support

of the poor farmers and workers. We celebrate Gandhi Jayanti on
2 October each year as mark of our respect to his great personality. Gandhiji

112 Contemporary Social Science-5