Today marks the centenary of the gunning down unarmed Indians who had gathered peacefully at Jallianwala Bagh park in Amritsar.
General Reginald Dyer, without any warning, and just 30 seconds after he entered the park, Dyer ordered his soldiers to fire. They fired for 10 minutes and stopped only because they had run out of ammunition.
By then 337 men, 41 women and a baby of seven weeks had been killed, with another 1,500 injured (other estimates claim more than 1,000 were killed.)
It could have been even worse. The alley that led to the park was too narrow for Dyer’s armoured cars, otherwise he would have taken them in and used their machine guns.
The British in India saw Dyer as a savior. When he was forced to leave the army on half-pay, he was presented as a victim of injustice. The Archbishop of Canterbury called him a “brave, public-spirited, patriotic soldier”.
The Morning Post started a Dyer fund which gave him £26,000 (£1.15m in today’s money). By contrast, each dependent of an Indian killed by Dyer received 500 rupees (£176 today) per body.
When he died in 1927, Dyer was given an unofficial state funeral with his coffin borne on a gun carriage through Admiralty Arch.
In 1997 the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the site of the massacre, but did not apologise. Prince Philip, challenged the facts, “That’s wrong. I was in the navy with Dyer’s son.”
In 2013, David Cameron became the first British prime minister to pay his respects at the memorial. But he too failed to apologise.
Theresa May expressed “deep regret” for the massacre but stopped short of apologising for the slaughter.
The UK junior foreign minister Mark Field said that an apology could have financial implications and that “we debase the currency of apologies if we make them for many events”.
However, India independence solved none of the problems resulting from exploitation. Indian governments were wedded to the same set of priorities and subject to the same constraints as any other capitalist government. Poverty in the midst of a potential for plenty remains a running sore, exploitation and massive disparities of wealth continue to exist, war with Pakistan claimed the lives of those with no class interest in the outcome, environmental degradation continues virtually unabated. The India state itself have committed a number of unjustified massacres of Indians. It can be seen in retrospect that independence for the vast majority of the people of India has simply meant the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. Independence solved few of the peasant or working-class problems, only the establishment of socialism can do that.
The World Socialist Party (India) exists to advocate the ideas of socialism.
General Reginald Dyer, without any warning, and just 30 seconds after he entered the park, Dyer ordered his soldiers to fire. They fired for 10 minutes and stopped only because they had run out of ammunition.
By then 337 men, 41 women and a baby of seven weeks had been killed, with another 1,500 injured (other estimates claim more than 1,000 were killed.)
It could have been even worse. The alley that led to the park was too narrow for Dyer’s armoured cars, otherwise he would have taken them in and used their machine guns.
The British in India saw Dyer as a savior. When he was forced to leave the army on half-pay, he was presented as a victim of injustice. The Archbishop of Canterbury called him a “brave, public-spirited, patriotic soldier”.
The Morning Post started a Dyer fund which gave him £26,000 (£1.15m in today’s money). By contrast, each dependent of an Indian killed by Dyer received 500 rupees (£176 today) per body.
When he died in 1927, Dyer was given an unofficial state funeral with his coffin borne on a gun carriage through Admiralty Arch.
In 1997 the Queen became the first British monarch to visit the site of the massacre, but did not apologise. Prince Philip, challenged the facts, “That’s wrong. I was in the navy with Dyer’s son.”
In 2013, David Cameron became the first British prime minister to pay his respects at the memorial. But he too failed to apologise.
Theresa May expressed “deep regret” for the massacre but stopped short of apologising for the slaughter.
The UK junior foreign minister Mark Field said that an apology could have financial implications and that “we debase the currency of apologies if we make them for many events”.
However, India independence solved none of the problems resulting from exploitation. Indian governments were wedded to the same set of priorities and subject to the same constraints as any other capitalist government. Poverty in the midst of a potential for plenty remains a running sore, exploitation and massive disparities of wealth continue to exist, war with Pakistan claimed the lives of those with no class interest in the outcome, environmental degradation continues virtually unabated. The India state itself have committed a number of unjustified massacres of Indians. It can be seen in retrospect that independence for the vast majority of the people of India has simply meant the exchange of one set of exploiters for another. Independence solved few of the peasant or working-class problems, only the establishment of socialism can do that.
The World Socialist Party (India) exists to advocate the ideas of socialism.
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