A white sculpture near the entrance to Jalianwala Bagh
Later after lunch,we visited the Jallianwala Bagh. This white sculpture marks the entrance to this place. The Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar which houses a memorial of national importance. Established in 1951 by the Government of India, the garden commemorates the massacre of peaceful Indian celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces. The crowd had gathered here on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919. In what is generally referred to as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, the notorious General Gen. Dayer decided to 'teach the unlawful gathering a lesson' by firing point blank into the crowd. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. Apart from the firing, many were also killed in the resulting stampede or by jumping into a well nearby (see subsequent images) to escape the unprovoked assault. It was a true carnage by the British occupying forces. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are very likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379. The scale of the massacre even put the occupying British forces to shame, though the perpetrator Gen Dayer got away with it fairly lightly. (Amritsar, Punjab, northern India, Nov. 2017)
A white sculpture near the entrance to Jalianwala Bagh
Later after lunch,we visited the Jallianwala Bagh. This white sculpture marks the entrance to this place. The Jallianwala Bagh is a public garden in Amritsar which houses a memorial of national importance. Established in 1951 by the Government of India, the garden commemorates the massacre of peaceful Indian celebrators including unarmed women and children by British occupying forces. The crowd had gathered here on the occasion of the Punjabi New Year on April 13, 1919. In what is generally referred to as the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, the notorious General Gen. Dayer decided to 'teach the unlawful gathering a lesson' by firing point blank into the crowd. Colonial British Raj sources identified 379 fatalities and estimated about 1100 wounded. Civil Surgeon Dr. Smith indicated that there were 1,526 casualties. Apart from the firing, many were also killed in the resulting stampede or by jumping into a well nearby (see subsequent images) to escape the unprovoked assault. It was a true carnage by the British occupying forces. The true figures of fatalities are unknown, but are very likely to be many times higher than the official figure of 379. The scale of the massacre even put the occupying British forces to shame, though the perpetrator Gen Dayer got away with it fairly lightly. (Amritsar, Punjab, northern India, Nov. 2017)