Jallianwala Bagh Massacre: British Troops Gun Down Unarmed Indians
Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on a crowd of unarmed Indians gathered in Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden in Amritsar, on April 13, 1919. The crowd had assembled for a Baisakhi festival and a peaceful protest against the repressive Rowlatt Act. Dyer positioned his men at the single narrow exit and ordered them to fire without warning. They discharged 1,650 rounds in approximately ten minutes. Official British figures counted 379 dead and 1,200 wounded; Indian estimates put the death toll above 1,000. Dyer later testified that he intended to create a "sufficient moral effect" on the population. The massacre radicalized Indian opinion against British rule and transformed Gandhi from a moderate reformer into the leader of a mass independence movement.
April 13, 1919
107 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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