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Inquilab Zindabad
THE TIPPING POINT JALLIAN WALA BAGH MASSACRE - the killing of hundreds of unarmed, defenseless Indians by a senior British military officer. It took place on the sacred birth anniversary of Khalsa (see below)-
April 13, 1919 - in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the
Sikhs. The site, Jallian wala Bagh, was once a garden, but in 1919
was an uneven and unoccupied space, used for gatherings and public
forums. On this day, thousands of Punjabis gathered peacefully to
celebrate and were sharing testimonies of recent British violence.
DYER'S PUNISHMENT Back in London, the General was given a hero's welcome. His cowardly murders made him a martyr to millions of Englishmen. He reported to his superiors that he had been obliged 'to teach a moral lesson to the Punjabis.' He was praised with countless accolades:
DYER'S QUOTES "It was a horrible duty to perform, but it was a merciful thing. I thought I should shoot well and shoot straight so that I or anybody else would not have had to shoot again.'' ''I think it was quite possible that I could have dispersed the crowd without firing but they would have come back again and laughed, and I would have made, what I consider, a fool of myself.'' Dyer's response to the Hunter Commission Enquiry He claims he would have used his machine guns if he could have got them into the enclosure. He said he did not stop firing when the crowd began to disperse because he thought it was his duty to keep firing until the crowd dispersed, and that just a little firing would do no good. He confessed he did not take any steps to attend to the wounded
after the firing. His pathetic response: ''Certainly not! That is
not my job. Hospitals were open and they could have gone there.'' The Jallian wala Bagh massacre turned millions of moderate Indians from patient and loyal supporters of the British - into nationalists who would never again place trust in British "fair play." It sparked the revolution and liberation of India. The massacre marked the turning point for a majority of the Congress' supporters from moderate cooperation with British rule, and its promised reforms to revolutionary non-cooperation. Political leaders were displaced by the followers of Gandhi, who would launch, a year after that dreadful massacre, his first nationwide satyagraha ("devotion to truth") campaign as India's revolutionary response.
Time: March 13, 1940 at 4.30 p.m. "He was the real culprit. He deserved it. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I crush him." Udham Singh, telling the trial court why he killed Michael O'Dwyer. The End and the Beginning. Be the change. see www.punjabilok.com/.../ jallianwala_bagh.htm Khalsa Historically, one of the male children (usually the first) of many Khatri Hindu families in the Punjab was intiated as a Khalsa Sikh. The Khalsa must carry the Five Ks - Five Kakkars: All Sikhs were taught to treat all in the community as equals; no distinction was made of the different tiers of 'craftsmen' and professions.
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Bhagat
Singh was an outstanding revolutionary and martyr of the Indian
anti-colonial movement. He represented the youth who were dissatisfied
with Gandhian politics and groped for revolutionary alternatives.
Singh studied the European revolutionary movement and was attracted
to anarchism and communism. He became a confirmed atheist, socialist,
and communist. He realized that the overthrow of British rule should
be accompanied by the socialist reconstruction of Indian society,
and for this political power must be seized by the workers.
And
while Gandhi took the non-violent path, the younger generation did
not. Along with Bhagat Singh came another revolutionary. He was
a young Sikh teenager, Udham Singh Azad, who was being raised at
Khalsa Orphanage. He saw the happenings of the massacre with his
own eyes and vowed to avenge the deaths at Amritsar. 
