Artistic tribute to untold Jallianwala Bagh tales

Ananya Panda
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, April 18

The history behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, its aftermath and untold sagas of the victims have been brought together in the national capital for all to witness to pay tributes to the martyrs and understand the significance of the incident in the freedom movement.

Put up by Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust (ACHT) in collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), the Jallianwala Bagh Centenary Commemoration Exhibition (1919-2019) provides insights into the years that unfolded the situation in Amritsar in 1919, the firing on peaceful protesters and the subsequent happenings in the country due to imposition of martial law by the British empire.

The exhibition, underway till April 28 at IGNCA, has archival materials, newspaper reports and photographs and eyewitness accounts, such as that of noted Punjabi novelist Nanak Singh whose “Khooni Vaisakhi” encapsulates the scenes of Hindu-Muslim unity and trauma at Jallianwala. They eloquently depict the unrest that Punjab and other parts of the country witnessed in the backdrop of oppressive colonial measures such as the Rowlatt Act, also dubbed as a “black law”.

Installations recreate the entire horror of April 13, 1919, through aesthetic representation of what Jallianwala looked like—with strewn bodies, turbans, bangles and ‘dupattas’ all around on the fateful day, which went on to fuel national consciousness, paving way for India’s freedom later.  The well, whipping post, jail and ban on cycle are some of the artefacts that explore the pain and excruciating experiences of those killed on the day of Baisakhi and the events that followed.

A web — a symbolic representation of the helplessness of peaceful protestors who were trapped at the site — and recreated audio visuals against a backdrop of a bullet-ridden wall of the Jallianwala Bagh are bound to leave one with sombre thoughts.

Curated by the ACHT, the exhibition employs various mediums and popular culture forms to portray the happenings in the run-up to the massacre and the disturbing aftermath.

“We have tried to focus on people’s stories and what they have actually gone through. A lot of materials here paint the picture of Jalianwala Bagh through the eyes of citizens instead of leaders while referring to a broader context,” says Anusha from the ACHT.

An animated film, ‘Frank Brazil’, of Ska Vengers tells the story of Ghadarite martyr Udham Singh, who shot dead Lt Governor of Punjab province Michael O’Dwyer in 1940. Dwyer had justified the Jallianwala killings.

Broadly on display are exhibits spanning from the emergence of revolutionary Sardar Ajit Singh, who founded Bharat Party in 1906-07, Lala Lajpat Rai, formation of Ghadar Party in the US in 1913 to Khilafat Movement led by Muslim leaders, which was used by Mahatma Gandhi to reunite the Muslim and Hindus against the colonialists after World War-I and resentment over arrest of Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal followed by the horrific killings in Amritsar.