Amritsar 1919
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118.See also Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 220–77; and Anand Yang, ‘A Conversation of Rumours: The Language of Popular “Mentalités” in Late Nineteenth-century Colonial India’, Journal of Social History, 20, 3 (spring, 1987), pp. 485–505.
119.Gilbert, Servant of India, p. 90; and Wagner, The Great Fear, pp. xxi–xxii.
120.David Arnold, ‘The Poison Panics of British India’, in Fischer-Tiné (ed.), Anxieties, Fear and Panic, pp. 49–71.
121.Lawrence, Indian Embers, p. 384.
122.See also Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, p. 155.
123.Easdon, 26 May 1919, PSA, 5259: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 72–85, p. 1. See also Mrs Easdon’s earlier, but much more brief statement in Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 150–1.
124.Kidarnath, CPI, II, no. 13, p. 42.
125.Easdon, 26 May 1919, PSA, 5259: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 72–85, p. 1.
126.Benjamin, CPI, II, no. 16, p. 51.
127.Kidarnath later claimed that Easdon had actually refused to give him dressing materials when he asked; see Kidarnath, ‘Law Report, 27 May 1919: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 28 May 1924.
128.Haji Mohammad Hussain, CPI, II, no. 17, pp. 52–3.
129.Ibid.
130.Easdon, 26 May 1919, PSA, 5259: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 72–85, p. 2.
131.Ibid.
132.Ibid.
133.Hussain Baksh, ibid., p. 4; and Thakri, ibid., p. 6.
134.Lala Nanak Chand, ibid., p. 5.
135.Banshi Ram, ibid., p. 5; Jagan Nath, ibid., p. 6; and Sham Das, ibid., p. 6.
136.Banshi Ram, ibid., p. 5.
137.Benjamin, ibid., p. 4.
138.Ibid., p. 3.
139.Easdon, ibid., p. 2.
140.Ibid., p. 3.
141.Muhammad Sharif, ibid., p. 4.
142.Easdon, ibid., p. 2.
143.‘At the Mercy of an Indian Mob’, Daily Express, 16 Dec. 1919.
144.Lalu, 28 May 1919, PSA, 5268: Home Judicial, B, June 1919, nos 249–70, p. 2.
145.Sherwood, 26 April 1919, ibid., p. 1.
146.Lalu, 28 May, ibid., p. 3.
147.Balwant Singh, 26 April 1919, ibid., p. 1.
148.See also ‘At the Mercy of an Indian Mob’, Daily Express, 16 Dec. 1919.
5 Tokens of Violence
1.MWD, p. 172.
2.Letter by Melicent, quoted in Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 479.
3.Beckett, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 42–3.
4.MWD, p. 174.
5.Letter by Melicent, quoted in Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 479.
6.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 157.
7.‘Statement of the Government of Punjab’, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 374. See also Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 6.
8.MWD, p. 174.
9.Anon. (Norah Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, Blackwoods Magazine (April 1920), pp. 441–6; p. 441.
10.Ibid., pp. 441–2.
11.‘Amritsar – April 1919’, Papers of Brigadier F.M. McCallum, CSAS, p. 1.
12.Massey, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 191.
13.Connor, ibid., p. 44.
14.Irving, ibid., p. 15.
15.Ibid., p. 17.
16.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 30.
17.Maneckji Bhicaji Dhaber, CPI, II, no. 3, p. 26.
18.Plomer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 35.
19.Irving, ibid., p. 20.
20.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 30.
21.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 20.
22.Irving, ibid., p. 4.
23.Rajindar, 31 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 20.
24.Ratto, ibid., p. 15.
25.Maqbul Hussain, ibid., p. 20.
26.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 4 and 20.
27.Irving, ibid., p. 20
28.Massey, ibid., p. 48. A total of 73 shots were fired on 10 April at the bridges, but this includes the earlier shooting by the mounted pickets and reserve under Beckett and Lieutenant Dickie, see ‘War Diary, Amritsar’, ibid., p. 217.
29.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 31; and Maqbul Hussain, 31 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 20. This is the same person, despite the different names recorded.
30.Ibid.
31.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 23.
32.Maqbool Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, pp. 31–2.
33.Golam Yaseen, ibid., no. 6, p. 32.
34.Ishar Das Bhatia, ibid., no. 10, p. 38.
35.Maqbool Mahmood, ibid., no. 5, p. 31.
36.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 4.
37.Plomer, ibid., p. 35.
38.Maneckji Bhicaji Dhaber, CPI, II, no. 3, pp. 26–7.
39.Kesho Ram, ACC, p. 63.
40.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 4.
41.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77; and Bashir, ACC, p. 72.
42.See also Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, p. 73.
43.Asdulla, 26 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, pp. 2–3.
44.Lala Atmaram, CPI, II, no. 4, p. 28.
45.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 78.
46.Fakir, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 18.
47.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 5.
48.Pandit Sarup Narain Rozdon, CPI, II, no. 89, p. 137.
49.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
50.Basant Singh, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 5.
51.J. Singh, 18 June 1919, PSA, 5340: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 1264–71, p. 2.
52.Wadhawa Singh, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 13.
53.Asdulla, 26 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 3.
54.Ibid.
55.Ibid.
56.Farquhar, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 78; and Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 2.
57.Fakir, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 1.
58.Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 6.
59.Ibid.
60.Fakir, ibid., p. 3.
61.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
62.Ghulam Muhi-ud-Din, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 8.
63.‘Statement of the Government of Punjab’, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 374.
64.Lala Nanak Chand, 26 May 1919, PSA, 5259: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 72–85, p. 5.
65.Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 7.
66.Fakir, ibid., p. 2.
67.See also Farquhar, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 79.
68.Ahmad Jan, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 141.
69.Fakir, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 1.
70.Ibid., p. 2.
71.Nand Lal Joshi, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 1.
72.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
73.Nand Lal Joshi, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 1.
74.Asdulla, 26 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 3.
75.Omar, 26 April 1919, PSA, 5336: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 806–16, p. 12.
76.Ibid.
77.Nand Lal Joshi, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 2.
78.Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 7.
79.Nand Lal Joshi, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 2. See also Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 7.
80.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
81.Hosaina, 30 April 1919, PSA, 5336: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 806–16, p. 13.
82.Nand Lal Joshi, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 1.
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83.Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, pp. 70–2 and 117.
84.My reading of the riots and violence draws on S. Tambiah, Levelling Crowds: Ethnonationalist Conflict and Collective Violence in South Asia (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996); Paul Brass, Theft of an Idol: Text and Context in the Representation of Collective Violence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997); and Veena Das, Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2007).
85.Ghulam Hassan, 29 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 6. When weapons fell into their hands, such as the bank managers’ pistols, no-one in the crowd attempted to use them; see Asdulla, 26 April 1919, ibid., p. 4.
86.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 10.
87.Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power (London: Victor Gollancz, 1962), p. 20. See also Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, pp. 113–14.
88.Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 7. See also Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1986).
89.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 6.
90.Amin, Event, Metaphor, Memory, p. 173. See also Tuteja, ‘Jallianwala Bagh and the Indian National Movement’, p. 225.
91.See also Ranajit Guha, ‘The Mahatma and the Mob – “Essays on Gandhian Politics: The Rowlatt Satyagraha of 1919” edited by R. Kumar’, South Asia, 1, 3:1 (1973), pp. 107–11.
92.Ghulam Hassan, 25 April 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 7. See also Horowitz, Deadly Ethnic Riot, p. 130.
93.Ghani, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5260: Home Judicial, B, July 1919, nos 86–106, p. 5.
94.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 77.
95.Ibid., p. 78.
96.MWD, p. 175.
97.Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 479.
98.MWD, p. 175.
99.Ibid. See also Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, pp. 479–80.
100.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 442.
101.Ibid., pp. 442–3.
102.Massey, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 48.
103.Fazal Dad Khan, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 199.
104.Forster, A Passage to India, p. 170.
105.McCallum, CSAS, p. 2.
106.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 445.
107.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 7.
108.War Diary, Amritsar, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 217; and Appendix XIII, ibid., p. 215.
109.Appendix XIII, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 215; and MacDonald to Beynon, 11 April 1919, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 378.
110.See Collett, The Butcher of Amritsar, p. 236.
111.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 172.
112.Ibid., p. 158.
113.Ibid., p. 172.
114.Ibid., p. 157.
115.Ibid.
116.Ibid.; see also ibid., p. 168.
117.Massey, ibid., p. 192; and Plomer, ibid., p. 35.
118.Irving, ibid., p. 6.
119.Punjab Disturbances: Compiled from the Civil and Military Gazette, p. 10.
120.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 445.
121.Ibid., pp. 444–5.
122.War Diary, Amritsar, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 217; and Beynon, ibid., IV, p. 321.
123.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 444.
124.MWD, pp. 175–6.
125.Ibid., pp. 176–7. This description was far from accurate, and it was, for instance, not the Gurkhas who actually fired on the crowd at the bridges.
126.Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 480.
6 All Force Necessary
1.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 1.
2.Ibid., p. 2.
3.Irvine, Land of No Regrets, p. 242.
4.Smith, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 52.
5.Ibid., pp. 51 and 56.
6.Irving, ibid., p. 11.
7.Forster, A Passage to India, p. 155.
8.Orwell, Burmese Days, pp. 147–8.
9.Conversation between Thompson and Craik, 11 April, NAI, Home Political, B, May 1919, nos 148–78, p. 4.
10.Kitchin to Thompson, 10 April 1919, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 375.
11.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 172.
12.P. Mohan, An Imaginary Rebellion (Lahore, 1920), I, p. 127. This order differs on some points from the one included in Evidence, DIC, III, p. 212, yet Mohan’s is the original one.
13.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 172.
14.Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 32.
15.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 158.
16.MWD, p. 177.
17.Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 32.
18.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 158.
19.Mahmood, CPI, II, no. 5, p. 32.
20.Girdhari Lal, ibid., no. 1, p. 6.
21.Mohammad Sadiq, ibid., no. 19, pp. 53–4.
22.MWD, p. 177.
23.Mohammad Sadiq, CPI, II, no. 19, pp. 53.
24.MWD, p. 177.
25.Ibid., p. 178. Hugh Walpole, The Secret City: A Novel in Three Parts (London: Macmillan, 1919).
26.Walpole, Secret City, p. 222.
27.Ibid., p. 298.
28.See also Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 481.
29.Lawrence, Indian Embers, pp. 387–8.
30.Putnam Weale, Indiscreet Letters from Peking (London: G. Bell, 1906).
31.Lawrence, Indian Embers, p. 388. The reference is to Balzac’s Comédie Humaine.
32.Mrs Kenneth Combe, Cecilia Kirkham’s Son (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1909), p. 41.
33.Orwell, Burmese Days, p. 142.
34.See also Christine Doran, ‘Gender Matters in the Singapore Mutiny’, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 17, 1 (April 2002), pp. 76–93.
35.MWD, p. 178.
36.Ibid., pp. 178–9
37.Hans Raj, ACC, pp. 79–80.
38.Mian Husain Shah, CPI, II, no. 53, p. 98.
39.The threat of bombing was known and talked about among the residents of Amritsar, see Bikram Singh, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 99.
40.Thompson Diary, 11 April 1919.
41.Khawja Muhammad Hasan, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 3. No person of status could be seen to eat at a langar, and many women were in purdah and thus unable to avail themselves of the communal kitchens.
42.Hans Raj, ACC, pp. 80–1.
43.See also Muhammad Abdullah Fauq, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 109–10.
44.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 81.
45.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 30.
46.MWD, p. 179.
47.Ibid., pp. 179–80.
48.Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, p. 481.
49.MWD, pp. 180–1.
50.Sir John Smyth, The Only Enemy (London: Hutchinson & Co., 1959), p. 99.
51.Bal Mukund, CPI, II, no. 20, p. 56.
52.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 221.
53.Lieutenant-Colonel M.H.L. Morgan, ‘The Truth about Amritsar: By an Eye Witness’, IWM, 72/22/1, p. 3. See also Beynon, Evidence, DIC, IV, p. 321.
54.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 114.
55.Ibid., p. 202.
56.Shoul, ‘Soldiers, Riot Control, and Aid to the Civil Power’, p. 67.
57.Colvin, The Life of General Dyer, p. 162.
58.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 202.
59.Ibid., p. 114.
60.Ian Colvin, The Life of General Dyer (Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1929), p. 162.
61.Command 771 (Disturbances in the Punjab): Statement by Brig.-General R.E. Dyer, C.B. (London, 1920), p. 6. (hereafter: Statement by Dyer, 3 July 1920).
62.Ibid.
63.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 114.
64.Appendix I, ibid., p. 212.
65.Beynon, Evidence, DIC, IV, p. 321.
66.Shoul, ‘Soldiers, Riot Control, and Aid to the Civil Power’, pp. 19–20.
67.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 125 a
nd 132.
68.Ibid., p. 122; and O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 278–9.
69.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 9. See also Dyer, ibid., p. 114.
70.Irving, ibid., p. 24.
71.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 226. See also O’Dwyer, ‘Law Report, 2 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 3 May 1924.
72.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 133.
7 A State of Rebellion
1.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 115.
2.Ibid., p. 132.
3.Ibid., p. 202.
4.Ibid., p. 115.
5.Ibid., p. 202.
6.Ibid., p. 115.
7.Irving, ibid., p. 30.
8.Malaviya, Open Rebellion, pp. 16–17.
9.McCallum, CSAS, p. 3.
10.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 115.
11.Malaviya, Open Rebellion, p. 34.
12.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 125.
13.Ibid.
14.McCallum, CSAS, p. 4.
15.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 115.
16.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 445.
17.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 115.
18.Appendix V, ibid., p. 212.
19.Dyer, ibid., pp. 115 and 202; and Beynon, ibid., DIC, IV, p. 321.
20.Irving, ibid., DIC, III, p. 30.
21.Ibid., p. 135.
22.Ibid., p. 30.
23.Dyer, ibid., pp. 119, 136 and 204; and Kitchin, ‘Law Report, 19 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 20 May 1924.
24.Collett, Butcher of Amritsar, p. 275. See also Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 43.
25.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 202.
26.Bikram Singh, ibid., pp. 97–9.
27.Dyer, ibid., p. 118.
28.Ibid., p. 137.
29.Ibid.
30.Kitchin, ‘Law Report, 19 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 20 May 1924.
31.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 445.
32.Ashford letter, 19 April 1919, in Hill to Saunders, 24 May 1919, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650, p. 3.
33.Ibid.
34.See Muhammad Abdullah Fauq, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 109 and 112; Irving, ibid., p. 25; and Appendix IX, ibid., p. 214.
35.Irving, ibid., p. 25.
36.Ibid., pp. 25–6.
37.Kitchin, ibid., pp. 164–5.
38.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 280. See also O’Dwyer, ‘Law Report, 7 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 8 May 1924.
39.C.E. Callwell, Small Wars: Their Principles and Practice (London, 1896; 3rd edn, 1906), p. 72.
40.Ibid., p. 40.
41.Ibid., pp. 23–4.