The mention of Jallianwala Bagh, a public garden in Amritsar, still takes us back to this day, 101 years back. Our hearts still bleed when we think of the brutal massacre that took place on April 13, 1919.
The public garden was built in 1951 to commemorate the mass murder, no less an act of terrorism. History lessons from school days and stories of the British rule come moving into your mind as soon as you arrive at the gate of Jallianwala Bagh Memorial in Amritsar. Without batting an eyelid, one makes way into this place which has a bloody past.
Enter the narrow gate; you enter the place where Brigadier-General Dyer murdered innocents, who had gathered to celebrate Baisakhi and peacefully protest the arrest of two freedom fighters but nobody survived it. Blood still boils looking at this historical landmark. The enclosed and high red walls, which still stand today, are insurmountable.
The bullet marks fixed in the brick walls are still visible and even after 101 years, they seem raw as if Dyer opened fire only yesterday. The flame-shaped monument in red stonework is silhouetted against the dying light and is enclosed by walls all around.
The well in the garden called ‘The Martyrs Well’ where hundreds of people jumped to save their lives, but unfortunately, not one of them lived. The place send shivers to your spine as one cannot imagine bodies of 120 people were pulled up from the well! There is a museum to the west of the entry gate that depicts the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the horrific story. You get the creeps if you even try to imagine this massacre.
Over a century-old, the memorial stands testament to the ruthless killings of blameless. It reminds the younger generation of the ultimate sacrifices made during the freedom movement.
April 13 marks a particularly dark day in India’s history. The unofficial fatality figure stands at over 1,000. Yet, a ‘sorry’ for the crime is still awaited.
In public debates in India, the demands for an apology from Britain has grown. Britain, over the years, has made a series of signs to recognise that this massacre was monstrous (Winston Churchill in 1920 labelled it monstrous). Since then, in 1997 Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at the site, Prime Minister David Cameron in 2003 and 2013 called it deeply shameful. But did they apologise? Not exactly!
Former Prime Minister Theresa May, in 2018, said it was a shameful mark on British-Indian history. Yet the word ‘apology’ has never been voiced; to tug a ‘sorry’ from Britain, a one-time imperium is perhaps a word too far.
Why an apology matters?
When Dyer returned to England, his supporters handed him a jewelled sword with the inscription, ‘Saviour of the Punjab’. Dyer was dismissed from service after an inquiry, but he never went to jail.
The expected sorry will bring people little relief in knowing that the former colonisers identify their crimes. The British hesitancy, in part, stalks from the belief that burdens for reparation will follow such sorry. The option of the demand for reparations, however, does not weaken the demand for British sympathy towards its carnages and their effects on former colonies.
The people in India come to see the Jallianwala Bagh genocide in a rather matter of fact light, as just another Indian colonial experience. It is taught in school and discussed in passing around Baisakhi every year (in Punjab).
The apology will allow not only people of India to understand the gravity of the prejudice but also the misuse of military power, ferocity against citizens and the fundamental suppression of peaceful public opposition.
Apology or not, India will never forget!
