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| Reginald Dyer. a bloodthirsty man opindia.com |
Above image: ''Brigadier General Reginald Dyer, one of the masterminds of the Amritsar Massacre (1919) died in 1927. He spent his last years in Long Ashton (near Bristol). Paralysed by a stroke he was bedridden till hehit the grave. ..........
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| twitter.com |
Following are the most resentful facts of how the British government treated the mass killer Brig. Gen. Dyer:
Racial superiority and arrogance against the Indians were writ on the face of men like Dyer. Vellore Mutiny (10 July 1806) induced by in changes in the dress code of Indian sepoys and the great war of rebellion of 1857-58 induced by the introduction of Enfield rifles with greased (made of pig and cow fat) cartridges are examples.
Till his death Lt. Gov.Michael O 'Dwyer who loathed Indians was a staunch supporter of Brig. Gen. Dyer and the massacre he masterminded. O’Dwyer himself had a painful end at the hand of an assassin; he was shot dead in London in 1940 by Udham Singh, who stalked him all the way to London to get the ex governor of Punjab caught unawares.
Brig. Gen. Dyer was responsible for the horrible killing of roughly 1000 innocent unarmed Indians - men, women and children and wounding equal number on April 13 1919 at the Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar. The seriously injured people had no medical aid and faced imminent death with no medical attention; not even a glass of water. Their cry for help and agonizing pain was overlooked.
Not content with his mass killing this Brig. Gen Dyer in the following days earned the wrath of the residents of the narrow Kucha Kaurianwala Street, Amritsar leading to the Bagh. He imposed curfew and asked the people to stay indoors to avoid punishment. An air of of disquietude and restlessness descended on the scene there when Dyer made the people crawl without raising their head, if the head pops up, the man is struck with a heavy blow from the lathi. His innovative ''Whipping'' post targeted younters. If found trouble making, tied to the post teenagers had to withstand 30 painful whiplashes. Dyer was remorseless and had no sympathy for children and women. As part of his military duty with glee and glow in his eyes Dyer killed, wounded and insulted the people with sheer military power.
The Lt. Gov. of Punjab, Michael O 'Dwyer was yet another perpetrator of this massacre. Many media reports pointed out that the massacre at the bagh was preplanned by a group of Sr. military officers in collusion with Dyer and the Punjab governor had to issue the orders with hesitation. The onus was on O 'Dwyer who officially allowed Dyer to commit the most heinous crime against humanity on the soil of Punjab. Apart, officially he had the media gagged for a short period to buy time to turn the table on the Indians and get their name tarnished in England.
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| Benjamin Guy Horniman thenorthlines.com |
It was Britisher Benjamin Guy Horniman (1873 to 1948), then editor of the Bombay Chronicle (1913 - 1919) and honest journalist who took serious efforts and exposed both Gov. Michael O 'Dwyer and Gen. Reginald Dyer for their repulsive and revolting war crime. Despite press censorship and gag orders being in force, Horniman was able to sneak out details and smuggle photos of the massacre to expose the mass slaughter to the world through The Daily Herald in Britain and proved unequivocally it was a premeditated military action . A section of the English society was shocked and highly critical of the Crown's unjust rule in India. His exposé was one of the reasons that resulted in the appointment of The Hunter commission.
The reporter who wrote the article was tried and sentenced to two years’ rigorous imprisonment. The paper had to suspend its publication and Horniman was deported to Britain
When Dyer sailed back to England after his misadventure in Amritsar he was given a heroic welcome for his patriotic duties.The British on the conservative side, refused to look at him as a war criminal. The UK then considered him a hero and a saviour of a British nun who was caught in the riots in Amritsar in April 1919.
On July 8, 1920, British right-wing newspaper The Morning Post (which later merged with the Telegraph) in association with ladies' association made an appeal for monetary subscription and finally collected and presented a purse of 26000 pounds to Dyer for his meritorious patriotic act in India .
Surprisingly, one of the contributors to the fund was jungle Story writer Rudyard Kipling; his contribution: was 10 pounds). When Dyer was buried in 1927, Kipling sent a wreath with the inscription: “He did his duty as he saw it.” British historian Wagner says ''it is clear that Kipling was supportive of Dyer''.
Based on the Hunter commission Gen. Dyer was just demoted and not punished. To the utter dismay of Indian patriots and freedom fighters his rank as Brig. Gen. was restored by the government in the later years.
Both Dyer and O 'Dwyer were never imprisoned for their war crimes. Nor were any serious disciplinary actions taken against them for human rights violation and letting the seriously wounded people die in the Bagh without any aid.
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| Conservative politician Lord Salisbury,en.wikipedia.org |
Neither the British Royal family nor the UK government, as of today, apologized for this horrendous crime on humanity. Queen Elizabeth, on her last visit to Jallianwala Bagh (1997), expressed her regrets. During the visit, the Queen bowed her head and placed a wreath at the memorial. She said, “distressing example” of “some difficult episodes in our past”. She knew this mass killing took place during the reign of her grandfather, George V, but no apology from the Queen.
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| Queen Elizabeth and prince Philip's of England Dailymail.com |
As for Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) who accompanied the queen to the Bagh, as useful got into his business. It was on occasion for him to enthrall the media with his silly gaffes. This time on the way out at the Bagh, upon seeing an information board, Prince Philip stopped to query an official on the number of dead: "Two thousand? It wasn't, was it? That's wrong. I was in the navy with Dyer's son. That's a bit exaggerated…it must include the wounded. He further said, that's wrong and I was in the navy with Dyer's son''. - an unworthy and remorseless act`
The Archbishop of Canterbury Most Rev Justin Portal Welby,on a visit to the Bagh in September 2019, got the attention of the people by protesting before the memorial as Indians do in the temples before the deities. He could not contain his remorse and said, “Learning of what happened, I recognise the sins of my British colonial history, the ideology that too often subjugated and dehumanised other races and cultures. Jesus Christ calls us to turn away from sin… we have a great responsibility to not just lament this horrific massacre, but most importantly, to learn from it in a way that changes our actions.” Several high officials from the British government visited this memorial, but they' expressed “deep regret” but none had felt ashamed the way Welby felt. The visiting padre, head of more than 100 million Anglicans worldwide was visibly moved.
Way back in the past the Church of England's Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson not only praised Dyer and called him a ''patriot.''
Army officer Dyer being malignance personified, his jiffy action and its repercussions in the wake of the blood-letting incident at the Bagh fastned the end of the British Empire that had looted India for roughly 200 years and unashamedly treated us an inferior race.
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| Edwin Samuel Montagu was Secretary of State for India en.wikipedia.org |
Dyer’s case was discussed in the House of Commons in July 1920. The Secretary of State, Montagu said, “Are you going to keep your hold upon India by terrorism, racial humiliation, and subordination, and frightfulness, or are you going to rest it upon the goodwill, and the growing goodwill, of the people of your Indian Empire?” Montagu faced a barrage of criticism from racial diehards. Austin Chamberlain, a racist, was infuriated. … A Jew, (Montagu) rounding on an Englishman and throwing him to the wolves—that was the feeling”.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a turning point in Indian history and it not only accelerated the freedom struggle and tolled the first death knell for the downfall of British rule in India but also showcased the atrocities, brute forces and racial arrogance of the British Raj that were not widely reported in the world media. It was part of the wily British political strategy.
https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/butcher-jallianwala-hero-england
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/himachaltribune/walker-hospital-a-legacy-of-the-raj-754212
https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/butcher-jallianwala-hero-england
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5Wziy2zwCA
https://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090412/spectrum/main4.html
