Remebering a shameful colonial massacre

The Jallian Wala Barg is one of the most disgraceful massacres of the British Empire. Of course, all massacres are disgraceful, but some have a perverse logic. What general Dyer did in Amritsar in 1919 defies any logic. It was unprovoked mass murder. The park that was used then by thousands to celebrate a religious festival is now a memorial park. There is still the well where 120 bodies were found. There are still walls with many bullet holes in them. It’s a sombre, tasteful place of remembrance. What did Dyer and his troops do? He had issued a blanket ban on protests in the region, in part to prevent Ghandi from coming. In the Jallan Walla Barg, the locals congregated to for a religious festival, but Dyer classified this as protest. He marched his soldiers into the park and ordered them to fire until their ammunition was used up. Panic ensued, and an untold number died. At least a 1000, possibly more. A rare thing in those days, even the British Empire found Dyer had gone too far, but gave him a very light punishment. He was only relieved of his position and banned from further employment in India. However the massacre did have some impact in that, afterwards the use of force was to be a last resort and new approaches to dealing with protests were implemented, but there were situations where the British felt pressured and they went back to shooting without reason.

In the last two months, we have seen so many terrible examples of colonialism in Africa, and now in India. If I am not mistaken, none of this is taught to children in England. Instead, they "teach" that Britain was the good guy against Napoleon, WWI, and Hitler . On its own ok, but totally lacking balance.Weiterlesen