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Essay, Paragraph, Speech on “Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy” Complete Paragraph, Speech for Classes 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12.

Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre is a cardinal incident in the history of Punjab. It occurred on 13th April, 1919 A.D. on the day of Baisakhi Festival. It is such unforgettable tragedy which would be remembered for ever in Punjab. This incident created feeling of hat redness against the British Government among Indians. It was much because of this tragedy that Gandhiji initiated the Non-co-operation movement to extract the British from the country. Thus, this massacre has also special importance in the Indian history.

Causes leading to the circumstances of Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy-Michael 0′ Dyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab was very cruel. He used to be committed many atrocities on people. He had no faith in political reforms and consequently no sympathy with the political agitators. Michael didn’t allow Lokmanya Tilak and Bipin Chandra Pal to enter Punjab. When Rowlett Act was passed by British Government. It was harshly protested by Indians. Moti Lal Nehru called it `Anarchial and Revolutionary crimes act’. On the behalf of Gandhiji, strikes and processions were peacefully held in different parts of India. When the people of Punjab heard the news that Gandhi was arrested. Riots took place in Gujranwala, Lahore and Kasur of Punjab. Therefore, chaos and disorder spread in the whole of Punjab. On 10 April 1919 A.D. Dr. Satyapal and Dr. Kitchulu who were the main leaders of Congress, were called by Magistrate of Amritsar in his house. They were arrested there and deported to Dharamsala. Therefore, the members of Congress took out a huge procession to release them while hearing the news of arrest of their leaders. They visited the residence of Deputy Commissioner. When procession was marching ahead peacefully. At that time British Army shooted unarmed peoples at Railway crossing. About 10 peoples were died due to this incident. It created more dissatisfaction among demonstrators. Excited people held a procession by raising them on their shoulder again and assaulted some of Europeans too. The buildings of Allied and National Banks were set on fire. Crowd dispersed when British Army reached there. However, Govt fired on innocent peoples. It led to the great commotion.

On 12 April, 1919 A.D. a declaration was issued by General Dyer who was the incharge of troops that no meetings or gatherings were to be held by Indians in future,  no steps were taken to check whether the peoples were obeying the notice or not. He imposed Article no. 144 in Amritsar. But, no information was given to public about it.

Origin of Jallianwala Tragedy – A large number of peoples gathered in Jallianwala Bagh at the day of Baisakhi on 13 April. 1919 A.D.. All the peoples were unarmed when more than ten thousands of people gathered to take part in meeting. It was surrounded with houses from all the sides. Although there were other doors of the garden but, all were locked. Only one door was opened. Meeting continued upto evening. Suddenly, General Dyre approached near Jallianwala Bagh with 100 Indian soliders, 50 British soliders and some of machine gunners. Meeting was taking place peacefully. People were having their leader’s views. Dr. Kitchulu and Satyapal presented a resolution to release Gandhiji from the Jail. Moreover, Rowlatt Act was also opposed in the meeting. General Dyre ordered his soldiers to fire on gathering. He didn’t even warn them to disperse. Soldiers kept on firing unless the whole of ammunition was finished people started running to and fro. The whole of Jallianwala Bagh was filled with dead bodies after a short while. About 1650 bullets were fired from machine guns. Thereafter, General Dyre went from there without seeing the condition of people. According the Government report. About 379 peoples were killed and 1200 wounded. But, according to Congress report, 1000 peoples were martyred an 3,000 wounded. In this way, Government report was very much less as compared to actual report.

Government imposed several restrictions on press after the massacre of Jallianwala Bagh in Punjab. So that no presser could publish cruel attitude of British towards Indians in newspapers. Neither any body was allowed to go outside of Punjab, nor enter into Punjab slowly and slowly. The incident of Jallianwala Bagh massacre spread not only in the whole of Punjab but also other parts of India. The Punjab tragedy had a lasting impact on succeeding generation. Rabindra Nath Tagore renounced his knighthood as a measure of protest. Gandhi returned the `Kaiser-i-Hind’ medal given to him for his work during the Boer War. C.F. Andrews, a friend of Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru, wrote to Mahadev Desai after a visit to Amritsar, “It was a massacre a butchery”.

Other events occurred in Amritsar – General Dyre committed many atrocities on innocent peoples. The supply of water and electricity was chised in Amritsar. But, the most harsh punishment was an orderof crawling. Its main reason was to attack on lady Doctor, Miss Sherwood by some of people when she was going to her villa by riding on cycle in a street of Amritsar. Indiscriminate arrests, confiscation of property, floggings and whippings were freely resorted to. There were shooting, hangings and bombing in the air, while at Amritsar innocent men and women were made to crawl like worms on bellies.

All these outrages naturally shocked the people of India and raised a strong wave of discontent throughout the country. Those people who helped Miss Sherwood were also not forgiven. In this way, persecutions of General Dyre were at their climax.

(i) Ticket of third class of Railway was closed. As a result, Common people now couldn’t travel. (ii) Those peoples were punished to break the law.

(iii) Walking of two or more people together on railway lines was prohibited.

(iv) Cycles of all the citizens except that of the Europeans were snatched.

(v) People who closed their shops were compelled either to open their shops or to pay fine heavily. British fixed cost of commodities.

(vi) Martial law commissioners tried on 298 people in Amritsar. Out of them, 51 were sentenced to death, 46 to Kala Paani, 2 imprisonment for 10 years, 79 the imprisonment for 7 years, 10 for 5 years, 13 for 3 years, 11 for a few days.

Proclamation of Martial law in Punjab : Martial law was imposed in Punjab. It created feeling of fear in the mind of people. Martial law was strictly imposed in Lahore by laying upon Curfew. Persons who walked in the streets of the city were either sentenced to imprisonment or compelled to pay fine heavily. Generally, persons walking after 8°clock at night were punished.

Shopkeepers of the closed “shops on the orders of British Government have only two ways. They had either to sell their commodities freely or were blown them with bullets. Person to be posted the notice of Martial law on the walls of houses were made responsible Neither any one could tar notice nor soil it but, they were not allowed to go out from the house; for the protection of posters. Students of college had to present four times in a day before British Army. The motor cycles and motor cars were snatched from Indians and given to British Army. Langer system was stopped. British snatched about 300 carts from people during the time of Martial law. It is said that all the professors of a college including principal were imprisoned on being torn the notice of Martial law from the wall. The main officer of Lahore during this time was Colonel Johnson. Bombs were thrown in Gujranwala. Curfew was forced upon not only in Gujranwala but also in the cities of Kasur and Sheikupura. People were also beaten there by British Army. They were tried and punished.

Inspection of Jallianwala Bagh : Several restrictions were imposed on punishing news related to Jallianwala Bagh tragedy in the newspapers. It created resentment not only in Punjab, but in other parts of India also. Rabindra Nath Tagore returned his title named as `Sir’. Sir Sanskaran Nayyer resigned from the executive council of Viceroy. Congress demended Inspection Committee for Jallianwala Bagh tragedy on the behalf of people. British Government first, didn’t pay any attention to form a committee. At last, a committee was formed to check atrocities of Jallianwala Bagh tragedy. It was named as `Hunter Committee’. Because the president of the committee was Sir Willian Hunter. It was consisted of four British and three Indian members to enquire into the Punjab disturbances. Moti Lal Nehru, GandhiJi and Madan Mohan Malviya became the member of Hunter Committee. Before the Hunter Committee began its proceedings the Government passed an Indemnity Act for the protection of the officers. It was called as the ‘White Washing Bill’ and severely criticized by Moti Lal.

Report of Hunter Committee

Hunter Committee presented its report in May, 1920 A.D. Therefore, on the basis of this report, Government took following steps :-

(a) An act was passed to fulfill the loss of people. All the officials were suspended related to Jallianwala Bagh tragedy.

(b) Governor General’s Friends, Lieutenant General of Punjab, Michael O’-Dyer was declared innocent, but he was dismissed from the post to appease the Indians.

Criticism – The incident of Jallianwala Bagh was bitterly opposed by Nationalist leaders. Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindra Nath Tagore returned the titles of ‘Kesar-e-Hind’ and ‘Sir’ to the British Government. Many people’s were put into imprisonment without trial. It created feeling of discontentment against British rule.

In short, we can say that Jalianwala Bagh tragedy shook the whole of Nation. M.K. Gandhi, the apostle of peace and non-violence could not tolerate such blindly massacre. Therefore, he expounded his dissatisfaction against British Government through ‘Non – co-operation Movement’ which was launched in 1920 A.D. Many peoples from different states of country took part in this movement to drive the British out of India. At last, they had to leave India on 15th August, 1947.

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