Arvind's Blog

Welcome back to my blog; let me take you to one of the most important historical place that India saw during the struggle for Independence, the Jalianwala Bagh!

After visiting Golden temple, I had some spare time before moving to Atari Border   & I took out some time to visit Jalianwala Bagh. Let me give you some insights about Jalianawala Bagh.

Jalianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar, Punjab (India), and it is a memorial of national importance. It was established in 1951 by the Government of India to commemorate the massacre of peaceful celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919.

It is said that in this bagh,  during the British rule,  379 innocent people were killed and more than  1000 people injured. But these are just the official figures. Hope you people understand when I say ‘official figures’!

The 6.5-acre (26,000 m2) garden site of the massacre is located in the vicinity of Golden Temple complex, the holiest shrine of Sikhism. Now it is visited by a lot of people and well maintained to showcase the history. This place is located at a walking distance  from the Golden temple.

The main story goes like this; Brigadier General Dyer arrived from Jalandhar Cantonment, and virtually occupied the town as civil administration under Miles Irving, the Deputy Commissioner, had come to the standstill.

Dyer was convinced of a major insurrection and he banned all meetings; however, this notice was not widely disseminated. That was the day of Baisakhi,  a major  Sikh festival, and many villagers had gathered in the Bagh.

On hearing that a gathering  had assembled at Jalianwala Bagh, Dyer went with fifty Gurkha riflemen to a raised bank and ordered them to shoot at the crowd. Dyer continued the firing for about ten minutes until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted; Dyer stated that 1,650 rounds had been fired, a number which seems to have been derived by counting empty cartridge cases picked up by the troops.

Official British Indian sources gave a figure of 379 identified dead, with approximately 1,100 wounded. The casualty number estimated by the Indian National Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 dead.

I have few pictures that show the actual bullets on the wall. I just imagine what would have happened that day! This post is dedicated to people who were  innocently hunted by Gernal Dyre. This was a black day in our history & remembering this give us light and vision to understand what freedom is and at what cost we have achieved it!

Let me  finish this  post just saying ‘Happy Independence Day’!

Keep smiling and cheers!!!