Le massacre d'Amritsar en Inde

DNL

A day of prayer and fasting took place on the 6th April 1919 and it was a success, because he had the effects of a general strike in India. But therefore the British Government decided to forbid all the gatherings in case of suspicion of making troubles, and to arrest people considered as dangerous. The problem is that no efforts had been made to make sure that people were aware of that decision.

On the 13th of April, in Amritsar, a northern city of India, known for its regular religious meetings, there was a non-violent rally of several thousand people, taking place in a public garden. The general Dryer arrived with many soldiers to stop it. He didn’t send any warnings and ordered his soldiers to shoot the crowd; he didn’t care the women and children. As the place of the meeting was surrounded by building and walls on all sides, and had few narrow exit points, there were 379 killed and 1100 injured according to British authorities. The soldiers shot down people until they ran out of ammunitions (roughly 1650 have been fired).

After this event the General Dryer was questioned at a commission of inquiry.

This massacre had a big impact in the whole India because a feeling of fear set in the country, but also a will to avenge the deaths.

It led to the Non-cooperative movement in 1920. It aimed to resist the British authorities with non-violent actions but with an active and provocative resistant. Otherwise it could have justified the British abuses on Indians people.

I don’t think the queen should have apologised for the massacre and I think she is totally right when she says that we can change the past and just learn from it, not to repeat the errors of the past. Moreover she is not responsible for this event.

Besides it was a turning point that led to India’s independence. And maybe the current India wouldn’t be the same as now if this event had not taken place, we don’t know but what is sure is that it’s the India’s history and we can’t rewrite it.

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