The tipping point
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
“That is an episode which appears to me to be without precedent or parallel in the modern history of the British empire. It is an event of an entirely different order from any of those tragical occurrences which take place when troops are brought into collision with the civil population.”
- Winston Churchill
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The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a seminal event in the British rule of India. On "On April 13, 1919, a crowd of non-violent protestors had gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh Garden in Amritsar, Punjab to protest the arrest or 2 leaders despite the curfew which had recently been declared." (Samar Doth Singh) Soon after, in the orders of Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, "the British army men had... opened fire on the crowd for ten whole minutes." (General Reginald Dyer) The soldiers had mainly aimed towards the few open gates in order to make the death rate as high as possible. According to Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, who personally collected information with a view to raising the issue in the Central Legislative Council, "over 1,000 men, children and women were killed." (Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya)
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Rabindranath Tagore of the British Knighthood wrote to Governor General: "... The time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring in their incongruous context of humiliation, and I for my part wish to stand shorn of all special distinctions by the side of those of my countrymen who, for their so-called insignificance, are liable to suffer degradations not fit for human beings...." Dyer was initially lauded by conservative forces in the empire, but in July 1920 he was censured and forced to retire by the House of Commons. Hundreds of years later, British Prime Minister David Cameron had commented on the Jallianwala Bagh that “[It] is a deeply shameful event in British History, one that Winston Churchill rightly described at the time as ‘monstrous’.”
Rights and responsibilities
violated rights of citizens
"I think it 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 Hunters Commission in Enquiry
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After seeing the mass affects of this massacre, Gandhi decided that the highest of Indian rights and British responsibilities had been violated. "Gandhi had removed the caste system and tried to unify all of India to defy the British..." (Jawaharlal Nehru). When the British had shot down the Indians in the Amristar Garden, they had failed their responsibility to improve India, on which terms they had first settled in the country. Along with disobeying their responsibilities, the British soldiers had taken the Indian rights to gather and protest for a just cause. Through-out this whole conflict, Gandhi had proved that fighting with words, is much more effective than with weapons.
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