Jallianwala Bagh massacre: Notes

Post the arrest of national leaders Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satya Pal on 10th April 1919 due to their protests against the Rowlatt Act, there was widespread agitation by the people in Punjab.

On April 13, 1919, which also happened to be Baisakhi, there was a peaceful gathering of around 10,000 people – adults as well as children, in Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the Rowlatt Act. General Dyer, who was the military commander of Amritsar, blocked the only exit to the garden and asked his soldiers to open fire on the peaceful protestors. Hundreds of people lost their life and more than thousands got injured in one of the deadliest massacre in the history of India.

Question: When did the Jallianwala Bagh incident take place?
Answer: 13 April, 1919

There was outrage all over due to the incident and martial law was imposed in Punjab on 15th April 1919. Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood due to the incident. Gandhiji returned the Kaiser-e-Hind medal which was given to him during Boer War.

Bhagat Singh was only 13 years old when he learned of this incident and got highly disturbed. The next day he was not in school because he went to Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. There he found the soil of the garden soaked with the blood of innocent Indians. He collected that soil wet with blood and stored it in a jar. When he returned home, he worshipped that soil with flowers. He continued this worship everyday and gave up everything to fight for the cause of the country’s independence.

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