Amritsar 1919
Page 42
22.Ibid.
23.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 134.
24.‘Defiant Crowd at Amritsar’, The Times, 19 April 1919.
25.See also Chandrika Kaul, Reporting the Raj: The British Press and India, c. 1880–1922 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), pp. 199–229.
26.NAI, Home Political, A, Feb. 1920, nos 347–58, pp. 23.
27.Wathen, ‘Law Report, 26 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 27 May 1924.
28.See for instance Khushal Singh, CPI, II, no. 34, pp. 82–3; Sardar Partap Singh, ibid., no. 49, p. 95; and Girdhari Lal, ibid., no. 1 p. 10.
29.Ashford letter, 19 April 1919, in Hill to Saunders, 24 May 1919, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650, p. 3.
30.MWD, p. 183. See also Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 165.
31.NAI, Home Political, A, Feb. 1920, nos 347–58, p. 23.
32.Colvin, Life of General Dyer, pp. 188–9.
33.Collett, The Butcher of Amritsar, p. 271.
34.Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 7.
35.Pandit Rajendra Misra, CPI, II, no. 94, p. 154.
36.Duni Chand, D.W. 106, O’Dwyer v. Nair, TNA, J17/634, p. 360; and Sardar Bikram Singh, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 100.
37.Lala Vaishno Das, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 103.
38.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 12.
39.Ibid., pp. 12–13.
40.Ibid., p. 13.
41.Appendix IX, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 214.
42.Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 40.
43.O’Dwyer, Note on Punjab Disorders, Evidence, DIC, VI, ibid., p. 795; and Thompson Diary, 13 April 1919.
44.Kitchin, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 223. See also O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 228.
45.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 135 and 139.
46.See ‘Martial Law orders issued at Amritsar’, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 208–11.
47.Dyer, ibid., p. 120; and Kitchin, ibid., p. 164.
48.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 14.
49.See also Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 8–9.
50.Dyer, ibid., pp. 127 and 132. There exists a photograph of Indians being drilled in salaaming at the Ram Bagh; see Amal Home, ‘Amritsar: The City of the Golden Temple’, The Modern Review (Jan. 1920), pp. 57–71, p. 70.
51.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 131.
52.Thompson Diary, 6 April 1919.
53.Sardar Sukha Singh, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 149. See also Malaviya, Open Rebellion, p. 36.
54.Sardar Sukha Singh, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 146.
55.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, pp. 14–15. See also Howell, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 155–7.
56.Nelly Benjamin, Evidence, DIC, III, no. 16, p. 52.
57.Mohammad Amin, CPI, II, no. 14, p. 50.
58.Moulvi Gholam Jilani, ibid., no. 134, p. 181.
59.Ibid, p. 182.
60.Pir Ahmad Shah, ibid., no. 137, pp. 187–8.
61.Gholam Mohammad, ibid., no. 138, p. 188; and Haji Shomas-ud-din, ibid., no. 135, p. 187.
62.See for instance Anupama Rao, ‘Problems of Violence, States of Terror: Torture in Colonial India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 36, 43 (27 Oct.–2 Nov. 2001), pp. 4125–33; and Derek Elliott, ‘Torture, Taxes and the Colonial State in Madras, c. 1800–1858’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015).
63.Shirley, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 207.
64.Thompson to Marris, 13 May 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, June 1919, no. 307.
65.Shirley, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 207.
66.Dyer, ibid., p. 132.
67.Girdhari Lal, CPI, II, no. 1, p. 15.
68.Orwell, Burmese Days, p. 251.
69.Dr Bal Mukund, CPI, II, no. 20, p. 57.
70.Ashford letter, 19 April 1919, in Hill to Saunders, 24 May 1919, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650, p. 3.
71.Panna Lal, CPI, II, no. 103, p. 163; Lala Ishar Das, ibid., no. 104, p. 163; and Lala Data Ram Kurrich, ibid., no. 100, p. 160.
72.Sunder Singh, 28 May 1919, PSA, 5268: Home Judicial, B, June 1919, nos 249–70, p. 3.
73.Mst. Lachman Kour, CPI, II, no. 125, p. 177. Purda nashin – a woman who observes purdah.
74.Labh Chand Seth, ibid., no. 97, pp. 157–8.
75.Rakha Ram, ibid., no. 108, p. 166; and Ralia Ram, ibid., no. 107, p. 165.
76.Colvin, Life of General Dyer, pp. 196–7.
77.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 138. See also Ashford letter, 19 April 1919, in Hill to Saunders, 24 May 1919, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650, pp. 3–4.
78.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 205. See also Vinay Lal, ‘The Incident of the “Crawling Lane”: Women in the Punjab Disturbances of 1919’, Genders, 16 (spring 1993), pp. 35–60.
79.Statement by Dyer, 3 July 1920, p. 17.
80.Sebastian Pender, ‘The Commemoration and Memorialisation of the “Indian Mutiny”, 1857–2007’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015), p. 160.
81.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 123.
82.See Andrew Ward, Our Bones Are Scattered: The Cawnpore Massacre and the Mutiny of 1857 (London: John Murray, 1996), pp. 454–6.
83.Statement by Dyer, 3 July 1920, p. 17.
84.Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 1. Dyer told the same to O’Dwyer; see O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, p. 137.
85.Colvin, Life of General Dyer, p. 196.
86.McCallum, CSAS, p. 3.
87.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 120. See also Thompson Diary, 8 August 1919.
88.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 127.
89.Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, pp. 1–2.
90.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 120–1.
91.Hudson, ‘Speeches by Members during Indemnity Act’, Evidence, DIC, VII, in Datta, New Light, II, p. 1104. See also ‘Statement of the Government of the Punjab’, Evidence, DIC, VI, in ibid., I, p. 281.
92.Kanhya Lal, CPI, II, no. 98, p. 159.
93.Ganga Devi, ibid., no. 130, pp. 178–9.
94.Devki, ibid., no. 131, p. 179; Lala Ganpat Rai, ibid., no. 122, p. 174; and Rakha Ram, ibid., no. 108, p. 166.
95.Lala Megha Mal, ibid., no. 114, p. 170.
96.Kahan Chand, ibid., no. 105, p. 164.
97.Richard Ward (ed.), A Global History of Execution and the Criminal Corpse (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2015).
98.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 121.
99.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, p. 136.
100.A total of twenty-six whippings were carried out during this period; see Irving, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 10. See also Hugh Tinker, The Ordeal of Love: C.F. Andrews and India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp. 152–3.
101.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 124.
102.Dyer, ibid., pp. 123–4. See also Statements of accused, PSA, 5268: Home Judicial, B, June 1919, nos 249–70, p. 5.
103.Pandit Salig Ram, CPI, II, no. 115, p. 171.
104.Lala Dadu Mal, ibid., no. 116, p. 172; and Jamna Devi, ibid., no. 117, p. 172.
105.Khem Kour, ibid., no. 128, p. 178.
106.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 124.
107.Orwell, Burmese Days, p. 250. This was actually an ‘unconscious quote’, as Orwell put it, from Dickens’s Bleak House, via Bernard Shaw’s Androcles and the Lion.
108.Appendix XXIII, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 675.
109.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in ibid., pp. 84 and 134.
110.Manohar Lal, CPI, II, no. 72, p. 114.
111.Howgego Papers, BL, AAS, Mss Eur C340/10.
112.Ibid.
113.Seth Gul Mahammad, CPI, II, no. 21, p. 62.
114.Ibid., p. 64.
115.Sohan Lal, ibid., no. 35, p. 84.
116.Jowahar Lal, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 153.
117.Ibid.; and Hans Raj, ACC, p. 37.
118.Wagner, ‘“In Unrestrained Conversation”’.
119.See Aparna Vaidi
k, ‘History of a Renegade Revolutionary: Revolutionism and Betrayal in Colonial India’, Postcolonial Studies, 16, 2 (2013), pp. 216–29.
120.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 73.
121.See Shahid Amin, ‘Approver’s Testimony, Judicial Discourse: The Case of Chauri Chaura’, in Subaltern Studies V (Delhi: Oxford University Press India, 1987), pp. 166–202.
122.Brij Lal, CPI, II, no. 22, p. 65.
123.Badr-ul-Islam Alikhan, ibid., no. 88, p. 137.
124.Hans Raj, ACC, p. 31.
125.Satyapal, CPI, II, no. 551, p. 720.
126.Charge sheets, ACC, p. 10.
127.‘Statement of the Government of Punjab’, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 697.
128.Fakir, 30 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, p. 18.
129.Manohar Singh, ibid., p. 18.
130.Schedule: Finding, 2 June 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, page 2. See also Judgment, PSA, 5340: Home Judicial, C, April 1920, nos 1264–71, p. 3.
131.‘Statement of the Government of Punjab’, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 643–97; Mohan, An Imaginary Rebellion, II, pp. 352–74; Report, DIC, p. 131; and Statement showing sentences of death passed by the Martial Law Commissions and orders of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor in regard to them, NAI, Home Political, A, Oct. 1919, nos 228–50.
132.Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 714.
133.‘A Letter by Dr. Hafiz Mohammad Bashir’, Bombay Chronicle, 17 July 1920.
134.See for instance Datta, Jallianwala Bagh, pp. 166–8. Irving strongly denied these allegations, see Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 2.
135.Jowahar Lal, ACC, p. 42.
136.Candler, Abdication, p. 162.
137.Rup Lal Puri, D.W. 104, O’Dwyer v. Nair, TNA, J17/634, p. 341. See also Mohan, An Imaginary Rebellion, I, pp. 130–9.
138.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 205.
139.Colvin, Life of General Dyer, p. 202.
140.Ratto, 31 May 1919, PSA, 5315: Home Judicial, C, May 1920, nos 268–322, pp. 14–15; Bugga, ibid., pp. 15–16; and Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, pp. 709–10.
141.See Mohinder Singh, ‘Jallianwala Bagh and Changing Perceptions of the Sikh Past’, in Datta and Settar (eds), Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, pp. 99–113; and Yong, The Garrison State, p. 127.
142.Tinker, Ordeal of Love, p. 155.
11 Testimony of Blood
1.Ashford letter, 19 April 1919, in Hill to Saunders, 24 May 1919, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650, p. 5. See also Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 446.
2.MWD, pp. 185–6.
3.P.E. Richards, Indian Dust: Being Letters from the Punjab (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1932), p. 186.
4.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 312.
5.L.V.S. Blacker, On Secret Patrol in High Asia (London: John Murray, 1922), p. 275.
6.Satyapal, CPI, II, no. 551, p. 725.
7.B.R. Nanda, The Nehrus: Motilal and Jawaharlal (London: George Allen, 1962), p. 166. See also Collett, The Butcher of Amritsar, p. 275.
8.Thompson Diary, 17 November 1919. See also Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, pp. 42 and 46.
9.O’Dwyer, India as I Knew It, p. 263. See also G.F. MacMunn, Turmoil and Tragedy in India, 1914 and After (London: Jarrolds Publishers, 1935), chapter XVII, which is called ‘The Indian Rebellion of 1919’.
10.Darling to Forster 11 July 1919, Dewey, Anglo-Indian Attitudes, p. 161. ‘Twink’ meant ‘in an instant’, while ‘zemindars’ referred to villagers.
11.Forster, A Passage to India, pp. 175–8.
12.Dewey, Anglo-Indian Attitudes, p. 162.
13.Forster, A Passage to India, p. 176.
14.Orwell, Burmese Days, p. 198.
15.Trevelyan, Golden Oriole, pp. 482 and 485.
16.Anon. (Beckett), ‘Amritsar: By an English Woman’, p. 446.
17.E.J. Thompson, A Letter from India (London: Faber & Faber, 1932), p. 99.
18.Mian Feroz Din, CPI, II, no. 2, p. 24.
19.Jawaharlal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography (London: Lowe & Brydon, 1936), p. 42.
20.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, pp. 131–2.
21.Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, p. 231.
22.Ibid.
23.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, pp. 193–6.
24.Ibid., p. 210.
25.Gandhi, 18 April 1919, The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 15, p. 243; and 6 July, ibid., p. 436.
26.‘Rabindranath Tagore’, Globe, 18 June 1919.
27.Andrews to Editor of The Statesman, 18 June 1920, in V.N. Datta and S.C. Mittal, Sources on National Movement, 3 vols (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1985), I, p. 126.
28.Robb, The Government of India, p. 189.
29.Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, p. 236.
30.Singh, Gandhi, Rowlatt Satyagraha and British Imperialism, p. 166.
31.Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 2. See also Mohan, An Imaginary Rebellion, II, p. 943.
32.Nathi, CPI, II, no. 65, p. 108; and Lala Churanji Lal, ibid., no. 68, p. 111.
33.Malaviya, Open Rebellion in Punjab, p. 60; and Craig to Fagan, 10 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 2.
34.Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 2; and Burton to Thompson, 8 Oct. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 31.
35.‘Extract from the “Amrita Bazar Patrika” dated Calcutta, the 7th August 1919’, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 1.
36.Letter by V.N. Tivary, 21 Sept. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 31.
37.Burton, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 62–3.
38.Report by Sant Singh, 26 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 12.
39.Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, NAI Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 3.
40.Thompson to Craik, 14 Aug. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 2.
41.Puckle to Thompson, 3 Sept. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 3. See also Burton, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 62–3.
42.Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. I, p. 133.
43.Andrews to Editor of The Statesman, 18 June 1920, in Datta and Mittal, Sources on National Movement, I, p. 127.
44.Puckle to Thompson, 3 Sept. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 3; and ‘The fourth report’, NAI, Home Political, A, Feb. 1920, nos 347–58, p. 2.
45.Puckle to Thompson, 3 Sept. 1919, NAI, Home Political, Deposit, Sept. 1919, no. 23, p. 3.
46.Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. I, p. 148.
47.See Mohan, Imaginary Rebellion, II, pp. 297–319.
48.Ibid., p. 796.
49.Ibid., pp. 942 and 682–3.
50.Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. I, p. 149.
51.Burton, Evidence, DIC, III, pp. 62–3.
52.The process, and logic, by which Burton made those calculations remains little more than conjecture.
53.Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, pp. 78–9; and Thompson Diary, 7 Dec. 1919.
54.See ‘The Amritsar Riots: Statement by Sir M. O’Dwyer’, The Times, 9 Feb. 1920; and Report, DIC, pp. 29 and 112.
55.Appendix C: ‘List of persons killed in the Jallianwala Bagh on 13th April, 1919 (Pb. Govt. Home-Military-Part B – 1921 – No. 139)’, in Raja Ram, The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, pp. 128–51.
56.There is evidence of at least one infant being killed: one-year-old Abdul Rahim was listed as no. 88 on Statement 1, ‘List of persons killed belonging to Amritsar city’, p. 9, in Langley to Montmorency, 22 Dec. 1921, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650.
57.Thompson, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, p. 79; and Burton, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 63.
58.Dyer, Report 14 April 1919, in Statement 3 July 1920, p. 28. Hans Raj, ACC, p. 83. See also Thompson Diary, 29 July
and 9 August.
59.Khushal Singh, CPI, II, no. 34, pp. 82–3.
60.Sardar Partap Singh, ibid., no. 49, p. 95.
61.Girdhari Lal, ibid., no. 1 p. 10.
62.Report, CPI, I, p. 57.
63.See photographs of Uttam Chand and Mangal Singh, Report, CPI, I, facing pp. 58 and 59; and List of Statements (persons killed or wounded), nos VIII–XI, in Langley to Montmorency, 22 Dec. 1921, BL, AAS, IOR/L/PJ/6/1650.
64.See Tinker, Ordeal of Love, p. 159; and Nanda, The Nehrus, p. 168.
65.Singh, Gandhi, Rowlatt Satyagraha and British Imperialism, p. 166.
66.Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. I, p. 130.
67.‘Views of Scenes Connected with the Unrest and Massacre at Amritsar’, BL, Photo 39 (44-104).
68.See also Christopher Pinney, The Coming of Photography in India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 85.
12 A Piece of Inhumanity
1.Report, DIC, p. iii.
2.Brown, Gandhi’s Rise to Power, p. 236.
3.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, pp. 197–8.
4.MWD, pp. 188–9.
5.Ibid., p. 190.
6.See for instance Swinson, Five Minutes to Sunset, pp. 186–203; and Collett, The Butcher of Amritsar, p. 266.
7.O’Dwyer, Evidence, DIC, VI, in Datta, New Light, I, p. 173; Thompson Diary, 8 Aug. 1919.
8.Furneaux, Massacre at Amritsar, p. 119.
9.Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, vol. I, p. 134; and Report by Irving, 4 Aug. 1919, Home Political, Deposit, Oct. 1919, no. 62, p. 2.
10.Dyer, Evidence, DIC, III, p. 126.
11.E.J. Thompson, Rise and Fulfilment of British Rule in India (London: Macmillan, 1934), p. 611.
12.Candler, Abdication, p. 145.
13.O’Dwyer, ‘Law Report, 2 May 1924: High Court of Justice’, The Times, 3 May 1924.
14.Andrews, 25 Nov. 1919, in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 16, p. 313.
15.Robb, The Government of India and Reform, p. 167.
16.Kitchlew, CPI, II, no. 550, p. 715. Not everyone was so fortunate, however, and the amnesty did not extend to Ratto and Bugga, who ended up spending fifteen years under gruelling conditions in the penal colony of the Andaman Islands.
17.See also Sayer, ‘British Reactions’; and Kaul, Reporting the Raj, pp. 199–229.
18.‘An Astonishing Story from India, Manchester Guardian, 13 Dec. 1919. See also ‘2,000 Indians Shot Down’, Daily Express, 13 Dec. 1919.