Jallianwallah Bagh Memorial, Amritsar

== An Apology ==
Normally I wouldn't dream of posting a review on more than one site on the same day but this time I've planned to do so for many months in order to draw attention to an anniversary that I believe will go unmarked in our country. Nobody likes to be reminded of the sins of the past but in the case of this anniversary, I want to pick at the scab of history and remind people of one of the most shameful days of British history. ...
...90th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. ===

We visited Amritsar in November 2007 and Jallianwala Bagh (or Jallianwala Gardens) has been in my mind ever since. The gardens and memorial at Jallianwala Bagh are one of the most moving places I've ever been and had a profound impact on my understanding of the Indian Independence movement. The primary reason that any tourist goes to Amritsar is to see the Golden Temple and for ... more

An Apology

Normally I wouldn't dream of posting a review on more than one site on the same day but this time I've planned to do so for many months in order to draw attention to an anniversary that I believe will go unmarked in our country. Nobody likes to be reminded of the sins of the past but in the case of this anniversary, I want to pick at the scab of history and remind people of one of the most shameful days of British history.

April 13th 2009 is the 90th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.

We visited Amritsar in November 2007 and Jallianwala Bagh (or Jallianwala Gardens) has been in my mind ever since. The gardens and memorial at Jallianwala Bagh are one of the most moving places I've ever been and had a profound impact on my understanding of the Indian Independence movement. The primary reason that any tourist goes to Amritsar is to see the Golden Temple and for most people it's a quick in and out and then they move on to the next city. As a result of a monumental planning cock-up on my part, we ended up spending a lot longer than necessary in Amritsar and as a result we checked out just about everything you can find to do in the city.

I had heard of Jallianwala but only because the hotel we'd booked had a map showing it was between the Golden Temple and the Jallianwala Bagh gardens. I hadn't actually registered the significance of the name until I visited, and in the time since I was there, it has cropped up time and time again in books I've read about the Independence movement.

The Jallianwala Massacre

After fighting with the British in the First World War, India had sacrificed 43,000 soldiers and was starting to believe that the time had surely come for their Imperial rulers to reward the country with Independence or at the very least, a higher degree of self-rule. Demands for change were getting louder and more aggressive and in the early days of April 1919, demonstrations in Lahore drew more than 20,000 protestors. Sir Michael Francis O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab, was getting anxious especially when protests started in Amritsar. Protests led to arson attacks and violence and the imposition of Martial Law.

April 13th, 1919, was the festival of Baisakhi, one of the holiest days in the Sikh calendar. Holiday makers and families with picnics gathered in the gardens at Jallianwala Bagh to enjoy the day off. The walled gardens were only accessible through a narrow alleyway and there was no other route out of the gardens. Fearing that the crowd in the gardens were there to cause trouble, 90 soldiers and two armoured cars went to the gardens, sealed off the only exit and under the command of Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, they fired off 1650 rounds of ammunition in a ten-minute killing spree that left hundreds dead and injured. The numbers are still hotly debated to this day with figures varying between 379 (the official British Raj death-toll) and 1000 deaths. As many as twice this number of people were left wounded.

Jallianwala Bagh in the Media

If you have seen the film Gandhi, you may recall the shocking scenes of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in which troops fire on an unarmed crowd and scores of people are seen jumping into a hole. This represents the so-called Martyrs Well from which 120 dead bodies were recovered after the massacre. Similarly if you've seen the 1980s TV Series the Jewel in the Crown or read Paul Scott's books on which it's based, you'll be familiar with the story of the Massacre through the old lady whose young companion wants to know who is the 'Gillian Woller' that the old lady talks about in her nightmares.

Our Visit

We entered down the narrow passageway which was guarded by a policeman. We were told that the passage today is much wider than the original which was barely the width of a man's shoulders. Entering the gardens, the first thing you see is a series of plaques on a fence which commemorate the numbers killed in the massacre. It's said that Prince Philip committed one of his worst gaffs on a visit to the gardens in 1997 when he exclaimed that the numbers were surely exaggerated. It turned out that he had learned about the massacre not from the history books but from serving in the Navy with General Dyer's son.

Next to this is an eternal flame (sponsored by the national gas company!) which commemorates the dead. To one side is a red stone covered walkway which leads to a small museum and art gallery with paintings of the massacre and heroes and heroines of the event. One very interesting story we read about was of the revolutionary, Udham Singh, who waited 21 years to finally get his revenge on Michael O'Dwyer, travelling to the UK to assassinate the man he held responsible for the Massacre. Another portrait in the gallery was of a lady whose husband was killed and who went to collect his body shortly after the shooting and found herself trapped by the curfew and had to spend the night of the massacre in the gardens surrounded by the bodies of the dead and the dying. There's an enormous painting of the massacre with bodies and blood splattered about the gardens. It's horrible and fascinating in equal measure.

Our next stop was at the Martyr's Well which is now fully enclosed but at the time of the shooting was open. Many people preferred to take their own lives by drowning in the well rather than wait for the soldiers' bullets. On the other side of the gardens is a collection of brick walls with bullet holes framed on them. The walls are lower than the surrounding gardens and we learned that after the gardens were bought for the public as a memorial to the Massacre, the level of the ground was raised by several feet.

The main monument stands at the centre of the far end of the gardens and was inaugurated on April 13th 1961 - again, note the significance of the date. It's a tall red sandstone column that I assume represents a flame but, if you have a slightly warped mind like I do, looks a bit like a giant middle finger being raised in revolt. At least that's how I like to see it. There are fountains and ponds around the monument but at the time of our visit, these were empty to prevent dengue fever risks.

The gardens are popular with visiting school groups and we felt a bit worried on our first visit that there might be some resentment to us as Brits in a place that so horribly exhibits the worst abuse of the old Empire. We needn't have feared as I don't think I've been anywhere in India where people were less interested in pestering tourists or wanting to know anything about them. It's one of the few places you can just sit down on the grass with a book and watch the world go by in peace. We were so moved by Jallianwala Bagh that we went back several times partly because we found it such a moving place, partly because it's a pretty park and it made a nice break from long periods spent at the temple.

If you should find yourself in Amritsar, do be sure to take a look at the Jallianwala Bagh gardens. They represent a very important event in Indian history and one that proved to be a turning point in the battle for Indian Independence. It took another 28 years for India to get the Independence it had waited so long for but Jallianwala Bagh was a major wake up call to those who were sitting on the fence and galvanised the efforts to get the British out of India.

Entrance is free and the gardens are open from dawn until dusk.
 

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