On April 13th, 1919, one of the bloodiest incidents in Indian colonial history, known as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, occurred in Amritsar, Punjab.
On that day, a large group of unarmed Indian civilians had gathered in a public park, known as Jallianwala Bagh, to peacefully protest against the arrest and deportation of two nationalist leaders. British colonial authorities, under the command of General Reginald Dyer, responded to the protest with brutal force, ordering troops to open fire on the crowd without warning or provocation.
The troops fired indiscriminately into the crowd for approximately ten minutes, killing at least 379 people and injuring over a thousand others. Many of the victims were shot in the back as they tried to flee the park, and some even jumped into a nearby well to escape the gunfire. The incident sparked outrage across India and around the world, and it is widely regarded as a turning point in the Indian independence movement.
The massacre also had a profound impact on the course of Indian history, as it galvanized the nationalist movement and led to a significant increase in anti-colonial sentiment. The Indian National Congress, which had previously advocated for peaceful resistance to British rule, began to adopt more radical tactics in response to the massacre, and many young people were inspired to join the struggle for independence. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre remains a potent symbol of colonial violence and repression, and it continues to be commemorated by Indians and others around the world.
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