by Kim Wagner
11.MWD, p. 169.
12.Wathen, Banker, Soldier, Farmer, Priest, p. 19.
13.MWD, p. 170.
14.Lady Lawrence, Indian Embers (Oxford: George Ronald, 1949), pp. 381–2.
15.Robb, The Government of India and Reform.
16.See for instance Radhika Singha, A Despotism of Law: Crime and Justice in Early Colonial India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998); and Mark Condos, ‘Licence to Kill: The Murderous Outrages Act and the Rule of Law in Colonial India, 1867–1925’, Modern Asian Studies, 50, 2 (2016), pp. 479–517.
17.Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny; and McQuade, ‘Terrorism, Law, and Sovereignty in India’.
18.See Condos, Insecurity State, pp. 198–213.
19.Ibid. See also Gajendra Singh, ‘Jodh Singh, the Ghadar Movement and the Anti-Colonial Deviant in the Anglo-American Imagination’, Past & Present (forthcoming Nov. 2019).
20.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 153.
21.Ibid., p. 101.
22.Sedition Committee Report (SCR; Rowlatt Committee Report) (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1918), p. iii.
23.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, pp. 149–50.
24.McQuade, ‘Terrorism, Law, and Sovereignty’, pp. 19 and 88; and Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 150.
25.McQuade, ‘Terrorism, Law, and Sovereignty’, p. 91.
26.The report was in large part based on J.C. Ker, Political Trouble in India, 1907–1917 (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1917).
27.See also R. Peckham (ed.), Empires of Panic: Epidemics and Colonial Anxieties (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015).
28.Kaye and Malleson, History of the Indian Mutiny, II, p. 231; and G.B. Malleson, The Indian Mutiny of 1857 (London: Seeley and Co., 1891), p. 43.
29.SCR, p. 116.
30.Ibid., p. 12.
31.See also Mark Condos, ‘“Fanaticism” and the Politics of Resistance along the North-West Frontier of British India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 58, 3 (2016), pp. 717–45.
32.SCR, p. 193.
33.Ibid., p. 211.
34.See Ghosh, Gentlemanly Terrorists, pp. 39–40.
35.See McQuade, ‘Terrorism, Law, and Sovereignty’, p. 88.
36.Condos, Insecurity State, p. 206.
37.See Heehs, The Bomb in Bengal.
38.SCR, p. 196.
39.Ibid., p. 155.
40.Ibid., p. 205.
41.Ibid., p. 161.
42.Ibid., p. 199; and Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 161.
43.SCR, p. 200.
44.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 101.
45.Ibid., p. 157.
46.See also Ghosh, Gentlemanly Terrorist, pp. 32–3.
47.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 162.
48.Ibid., p. 161.
49.See Condos, Insecurity State, p. 205.
50.Satyapal, CPI, II, no. 551, p. 717.
51.Sastri, Rowlatt Bill Debate, Imperial Legislative Council, 7 Feb. 1919, in H.N. Mittra (ed.), Punjab Unrest: Before & After (Calcutta: Annual Register, 1921), pp. 73–4.
52.Judith Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power: Indian Politics, 1915–22 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 162–3; and McQuade, ‘Terrorism, Law, and Sovereignty in India’, p. 91.
53.Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 709.
54.Hans Raj, Amritsar Conspiracy Case, NAI, Acc. no. 1829 (Microfilm), pp. 27 and 83. (Hereafter ACC).
55.Seth Gul Mahammad, CPI, II, no. 21, p. 59.
56.Ibid., p. 60.
57.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 27.
58.Candler, Abdication, p. 11.
59.Gandhi, Evidence, DIC, II, p. 129.
60.Singh, Gandhi, Rowlatt Satyagraha, p. 7.
61.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 2. See also Dr Muhammad, ibid., p. 107.
62.For a full list of the rumours concerning the Rowlatt Act, see Evidence, DIC, VI, in V.N. Datta (ed.), New Light on the Punjab Disturbances in 1919: Volumes VI and VII of Disorders Inquiry Committee Evidence, 2 vols (Simla: Indian Institute for Advanced Studies, 1975), I, p. 36.
63.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 221.
64.See also K.L. Tuteja, ‘Jallianwala Bagh and the Indian National Movement’, in V.N. Datta and S. Settar (eds), Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (Delhi: Indian Council of Historical Research, 2000), pp. 223–4.
65.Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, p. 187.
66.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, 179.
67.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 221.
68.MWD, p. 170.
69.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 163.
70.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 269.
71.See for instance Anon., The ‘Rowlatt Act’: Its Origin, Scope and Object (Bombay and Madras: Oxford University Press, 1919).
72.Mittra, Punjab Unrest Before & After, p. 33.
73.Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, p. 164.
74.Ibid., pp. 164–5. See also H.F. Owen, ‘Organising for the Rowlatt Satyagraha of 1919’, in Kumar, Essays on Gandhian Politics, pp. 64–92.
75.Mittra, Punjab Unrest Before & After, p. 50. See also Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, pp. 160–2.
76.Gandhi, Evidence, DIC, II, p. 108.
77.Mittra, Punjab Unrest Before & After, p. 50.
78.See Tuteja, ‘Jallianwala Bagh and the Indian National Movement’, pp. 222–3. See also Shahid Amin, Event, Metaphor, Memory: Chauri Chaura, 1922–1992 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).
79.Kumar, Essays on Gandhian Politics, p. 4.
80.Gandhi, Evidence, DIC, II, p. 109.
81.Ibid., p. 252.
82.Ibid., p. 109.
83.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 84.
84.Ibid., p. 27.
85.Muhammad Ashraf Khan, ibid., 104.
86.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 27, and Asghar Ali, ibid., p. 116.
87.Muhammad Ashraf Khan, ibid., p. 106. See also Kamlesh Mohan, ‘The Jallianwala Bagh Tragedy: A Catalyst of Indian Consciousness’, in Datta and Settar (eds), Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, pp. 59–68.
88.Asghar Ali, ACC, p. 116.
89.Muhammad Ashraf Khan, ibid., p. 104, and Asghar Ali, ibid., p. 113.
90.Muhammad Ashraf Khan, ibid., pp. 104–5. It should be noted that these speeches were delivered in Punjabi and only the English translations have been preserved. Some of the finer details have inevitably been lost in translation.
91.Muhammad Ashraf Khan, ibid., p. 106.
92.Ibid.
93.Ibid.
94.Satyapal, CPI, II, no. 551, p. 718.
95.Kitchlew, ibid., no. 550, p. 711.
96.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 28.
97.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 267.
98.Ibid.
99.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 176–7.
100.Thompson, ibid., pp. 34–5.
101.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 2.
102.Lawrence, Indian Embers, p. 282.
103.MWD, p. 171.
3 Party of Anarchy
1.MWD, p. 171.
2.Ibid.
3.Trevelyan, The Golden Oriole, pp. 477–8. This is based on a letter by Melicent that I have not had access to.
4.MWD, p. 171. As Antoinette Burton has pointed out, British concerns about local unrest at Amritsar revolved around the ‘racial ordering of space in colonial cities’; see Amanda Burton, ‘Reterritorializing Empires’, in Rosenberg (ed.), A World Connecting, p. 309.
5.See also Guha, ‘Not at Home in Empire’; and Fischer-Tiné (ed.), Anxieties, Fear and Panic.
6.See D.W. Ferrell, ‘The Rowlatt Satyagraha in Delhi’, in Kumar (ed.), Essays on Gandhian Politics., pp. 189–235.
7.Report, DIC, pp. 1–5.
8.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 202. See also J.P. Thompson Diary, 8 Aug. 1919, BL, AAS, Mss Eur F/137.
9.Gandhi, 6 April 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 15 (Ahmedabad: The Publication Division, 1965), p. 186.
10.Gandhi, Evidence, DIC, II, p. 113.
11.Ibid., p. 114.
12.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 65.
13.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 164.
14.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, pp. 129–31.
15.Satyapal, CPI, II, no. 551, p. 718.
16.See Wagner, “Treading Upon Fires”.
17.G.O. Trevelyan, Competition Wallah (London: Macmillan, 1866), p. 429.
18.See C.A. Bayly, Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
19.See Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 8 and 24–5; and O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 263.
20.Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 710.
21.Irving, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 39.
22.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 2.
23.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 28 and 84.
24.Irving, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 37.
25.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 28.
26.Irving, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 37.
27.‘War Diary, Amritsar’, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 217.
28.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 29.
29.See also Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 712, and Satyapal, ibid., no. 551, p. 719.
30.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 73.
31.Gandhi, 7 April 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.15, p. 191.
32.Candler, Abdication, pp. 5–6.
33.See Lord [F.S.] Roberts, Forty-One Years in India: From Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief (London: Macmillan, 1897), p. 46.
34.MWD, p. 171.
35.Ibid., pp. 171–2.
36.Ibid., p. 171.
37.Ibid.
38.Ibid., p. 172.
39.Ibid.
40.Ibid.
41.Ibid.
42.Lawrence, Indian Embers, p. 388.
43.Irving, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 38.
44.Ibid.
45.Ibid.
46.Ibid., p. 39.
47.Ibid.
48.Ibid.
49.Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 65–6.
50.See also Thompson Diary, 9 April 1919.
51.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 129.
52.Thompson, ibid., p. 66.
53.Muhammad Abdullah Fauq, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 108.
54.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 167.
55.Ibid.
56.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 6.
57.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 167.
58.Smith, Evidence, DIC, III, p.192.
59.Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 712, and Satyapal, ibid., pp. 718–19.
60.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 74.
61.Malaviya, Open Rebellion, p. 13.
62.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 3.
63.Moulvi Gholam Jilani, CPI, II, no. 134, p. 180.
64.Girdhari Lal, ibid., no 1, p. 6.
65.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 19.
66.Ibid., pp. 3 and 23.
67.Ibid., p. 31
68.Ibid., p. 23.
69.Ibid., p. 3.
70.Morgan to Thompson, 17 May 1919, NAI, Home Political, A, Oct. 1919, nos 421–4, p. 4.
71.See Gandhi, Evidence, DIC, II, p. 110.
72.Gandhi, 10 April 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 15, pp. 208–9.
4 Like Wildfire
1.Satyapal, CPI, II, p. 720.
2.Ibid.
3.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 76.
4.Massey, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 45 and 191.
5.Ibid., p. 191.
6.Irving, ibid., p. 3.
7.Massey, ibid., p. 45.
8.Kitchin, ibid., p. 163
9.Satyapal, CPI, II, p. 720.
10.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 76.
11.Ibid.
12.Ibid.
13.Ibid., p. 32.
14.Ibid., p. 76.
15.Ghulam Muhammad, ACC, p. 61.
16.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 2.
17.H. Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson: Being a Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases (London: John Murray, 1903), p. 526.
18.Malaviya, Open Rebellion, p. 14.
19.Mian Feroz Din, CPI, II, no. 2, p. 21.
20.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 15; and Mian Feroz Din, CPI, II, no. 2, p. 20.
21.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 76.
22.Gandhi, 6 April 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 15, p. 186.
23.Obaidullah, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 173. Full text in Annexure A, ibid., p. 34.
24.See also Amin, Event, Memory, Metaphor, pp. 178–80.
25.Fakir, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 1; and Ratto, 31 May 1919, PSA, p. 15.
26.Pandit Sarup Narain Rozdan, CPI, II, no. 89, p. 137.
27.Muhammad, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 107.
28.Ibid.
29.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette (Lahore: Civil and Military Gazette Press, 1919), pp. 9–10.
30.Gertrude Lewis, CPI, II, no. 15, p. 51.
31.Saadat Hasan Manto, ‘A Tale of the Year 1919’, in My Name is Radha: The Essential Manto (Gurgaon: Penguin India, 2015), p. 203.
32.Elisabeth Beckett (John Wrake, ed.), The British Raj, vol. II: Decay (Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011), pp. 192–3.
33.Simeon Shoul, ‘Soldiers, Riot Control, and Aid to the Civil Power in India, Egypt, and Palestine, 1919–1939’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University College London, 2006), p. 19.
34.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 34.
35.Ibid., p. 12.
36.Ibid., p. 23.
37.Mian Atta Mohamed, CPI, II, no. 7, p. 35, and Lala Gian Chand, ibid., no. 12, p. 40.
38.MWD, p. 174.
39.Beckett, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 42.
40.Lala Gian Chand, CPI, II, no. 12, p. 41.
41.Ratto, 31 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 15.
42.Beckett, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 42.
43.Ibid.
44.Ibid.
45.Beckett, The British Raj, vol. II, p. 194.
46.Ibid.
47.Mian Husain Shah, PCI, II, no. 53, p. 98.
48.Lal Atmaram, ibid., no. 4, p. 28.
49.Ibid.
50.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 4.
51.Khushabi, ibid., pp. 175–6.
52.Massey, ibid., p. 46.
53.Precis of the Case, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 1.
54.Massey, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 46.
55.Ibid.
56.Ibid.
57.Irving, ibid., p. 4.
58.Kushabi, ibid., pp. 175–6.
59.Beckett, ibid., p. 42.
60.Lala Gian Chand, CPI, II, no. 12, p. 41.
61.Kushabi, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 175–6.
62.Plomer, ibid., p. 38.
63.Connor, ibid., p. 43.
64.Ibid.
65.Ibid.
66.Ibid. See also Lala Kushabi Ram, ibid., pp. 175–6.
67.Plomer, ibid., p. 35.
68.Connor, ibid., p. 43.
69.Plomer, ibid., p. 35.
70.Ibid., p. 38. See also Kushabi, ibid., p. 671
71.Khushabi, ibid., p. 176.
72.Connor, ibid., p. 44.
73.Ibid.
74.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, pp. 29–30.
75.Gurdial Singh Salaria, ibid., no. 87, p. 129.
76.Connor, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 44.
77.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, pp. 29–30.
78.Malviya, Open Rebellion, p. 28.
79.Maneckji Bhicaji Dhaber, CPI, II, no. 3, p. 25.
80.Girdhari Lal, ibid., no. 1, p. 3.
81.See Donald L. Horowitz, The Deadly Ethnic Riot (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003), especially pp. 62 and 84.
82.Rogers to Thompson, 24 June 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, July 1919,
no. 71.
83.Ibid.
84.See also ‘War Diary, Amritsar’, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 217.
85.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 9.
86.Burton, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 195.
87.Irving, ibid., p. 180.
88.Fazal Dad, ibid., p. 199.
89.Tara Singh, 7 June 1919, PSA, 5275: Home Judicial, B, June 1919, nos 429–31, p. 3; and Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 10. See also Thompson Diary, 8 August 1919. A number of bamboo sticks were later purchased by the residents of Amritsar, but that was to arm the locally organised neighbourhood watch; see Muhammad Abdullah Fauq, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 109.
90.Kaim, 7 June 1919, PSA, 5275: Home Judicial, B, June 1919, nos 429–31, p. 1; and Jai Kishan, ibid., p. 3.
91.Smith, ibid., p. 1.
92.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 12; and Craik, ‘List of incidents’, 18 July 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, October 1919, no. 28, p. 6.
93.See Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, especially pp. 136–9.
94.Ghulam Muhammad, ACC, p. 61.
95.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 76; and Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 5.
96.Omar, 26 April 1919, PSA, 5336: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 806–16, p. 11.
97.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 76. See also Fakir, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 1.
98.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 180.
99.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
100.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 10.
101.Farquhar, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 197–8.
102.Ahmad Jan, ibid., pp. 142–3.
103.Ashraf Khan, ibid., p. 83.
104.Ahmad Jan, ibid., p. 144.
105.Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, p. 60.
106.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 11.
107.Lala Jowahar Lal, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 151.
108.Amrao Singh, 28 May 1919, PSA, 5337: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 1152–61, p. 3.
109.Amin Chand, ibid., p. 4.
110.Smith, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 51.
111.Irving, ibid., p. 5.
112.Smith, ibid., p. 51.
113.Ibid.
114.Easdon, 26 May 1919, PSA, 5259: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 72–85, p. 1.
115.Dina, 1 May 1919, PSA, 5336: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos. 806–816, p. 7.
116.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 11.
117.On the function of rumours during riots, see Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, pp. 74–86.