How the young saw, see Jallianwala

Anniversaries serve as occasions for revisiting and re-examining major historical events. It’s an opportunity to consider their significance for the present generation and looking at history afresh. As the country observes the 106th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13, 1919, it is perhaps pertinent to ask — how does this event speak to us today, particularly to young Indians? How do we recontextualise this event for the current generation of Indians?

For Tript, a young professional who has grown up in Punjab but works in Bhubaneswar, “Jallianwala Bagh has not only been a part of my history textbooks, but also cultural memory.” She says in addition to the school textbooks, she learnt about the tragedy from her parents and also through popular culture and films like ‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’. “I recently visited the renovated memorial complex in Amritsar and saw the light and sound show. In its new avatar, though, the site seems to have lost its sanctity,” she adds.

According to Prannv Dhawan, a young lawyer, “Jallianwala Bagh evokes a fair degree of anti-colonial zeal because you tend to perceive the colonial state as a violent and uncivilised force. This turns the notion of the Empire as a civilising force on its head.” Another young advocate, Abhijeet Rawaley, corroborates this sentiment: “The Jallianwala Bagh massacre exemplified the absolute tyranny of colonialism.”

A stark example of the brutality of the British Empire, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre has been the subject of heated and vigorous historiographic debates, literary portrayals and representations, and a controversy over how it should be commemorated. But beyond the politics of commemoration, histories of colonial violence and anti-colonial resistance are narratives which resist any neat teleologies. The story of Jallianwala Bagh and its aftermath, through the testimonies and experiences of students of the time, is one such narrative which gets lost in the meta-narratives of colonial and nationalist histories. How did it impact students of the time? What were their perceptions of the event? How were their lives transformed in the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?

The writings and debates on the massacre have spanned microhistories of the event, works which have juxtaposed local history and memory against nationalist appropriation of the event. Commentary has focused on critiques of the renovated memorial complex among other aspects.

Zooming out a little, there is also a need to study the immediate contexts that preceded and followed the event. These include the context of what in colonial records has been referred to as the ‘Punjab disturbances’ and also the oppressive and draconian martial law regime which followed the massacre.

That students constituted one of the major classes which participated in the Rowlatt Satyagraha and ‘Punjab disturbances’ of 1919 is corroborated by the official report of the Political and Secret Department on Punjab Disturbances. The report goes on to say, “The evidence at present available appears to indicate that among the classes most deeply implicated are — Pleaders and their Munshis, College Students and Schoolboys (emphasis added), Traders, Members of Arya Samaj…”

The involvement of students in the Rowlatt Satyagraha and the ‘Punjab disturbances’ apart, there is evidence of testimonies of students of Khalsa College, Amritsar, on what transpired on the fateful day of April 13, 1919.

“On the 13th, I did not hear of any proclamation prohibiting public meetings. I went to attend the meeting at about 4 pm. When I arrived there, a Sikh gentleman was addressing the meeting. Then he sat down, and another gentleman whose name I do not know spoke for a short time… Shortly after, I heard the sound of firing, and people began to run on all sides. I did not see any soldiers, as there was a large number of people all around me. I kept sitting where I was. As soon as the first firing ceased, I took the opportunity to run away towards the mud wall to the east. When I was jumping over the wall, the firing began again, and I got a bullet on my right forearm.”

This testimony of Ratan Chand, son of Lala Gokal Chand, 17 years of age, a student of Khalsa College, is one among a handful of testimonies given by students that can be found in the report of the Congress Punjab Inquiry Committee (Volume II).

The historian VN Datta identified another student of Khalsa College, Deva Singh Cheema, who was wounded during the massacre. In a letter to the historian, Deva Singh admitted that he had visited the site of the massacre despite Principal Wathen’s warning to the contrary. Deva Singh also stated that their Principal had some inkling of the meeting at the Bagh turning disruptive, even violent.

The aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre saw martial law being declared in both Amritsar and Lahore. If one goes through the martial law orders and notices issued in 1919, the names of the students, along with their institutions and the quantum of punishment given to each, is indicated very clearly in these notices.

In all, 64 martial law notices were issued at Lahore, between April 15, 1919, and June 6, 1919. Out of these, seven notices i.e. notice numbers 7, 13, 16, 30, 36, 44 and 46, dealt exclusively with various kinds of punitive action recommended against the students of different colleges. Apart from general punishment announced for the students who were found guilty of “seditious activities”, specific punishments were announced by name for the students of King Edward Medical College, Dyal Singh College, Sanatan Dharam College, Forman Christian College and other educational institutions in Lahore.

These notices adversely affected the careers of around 254 students, as most of them had to pay heavy penalties, which ranged from imposition of fine to suspension for a year, but some even had to face expulsion or permanent ban on seeking re-admission. Of the total number of 254 students listed in these notices, 78 have not been named at all. Some of the students whose names figure in these notices were: Nanak Chand Kapur, Pran Nath, Shamsher Singh, Fahur-ud-din, Bhagwan Das, Dina Nath, Sher Singh, Manzur Hasan Khan, Durga Dutt, Din Dayal, Des Raj.

The martial law regime was thus particularly hostile to students, with thousands of them from Lahore colleges even being forced to attend roll call before military officers four times a day for three weeks before their examinations.

The history of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and its fallout from the vantage point of students deserves closer attention. The tragedy left a deep mark on the students who were witness to it, and the lives of countless students was altered by the events that followed it. It is a history of wounded bodies and jeopardised careers.

It is also a history of how brutally the colonial state snuffed out any dissent. As Professor Amandeep Bal, who is the Jallianwala Bagh Chair at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, says, “The history of Jallianwala Bagh is a reminder for the current generation to be vigilant about its rights.”

This narrative is but a small slice of a complicated and contested history. However, it is a narrative which could possibly resonate with the young and serve as a point of reflection and inspiration for them. Recovering a history of student voices and experiences with respect to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre thus is perhaps one way in which that history can become more meaningful for the current generation of young Indians.

— The writer, a freelance contributor, did his Masters in history from SOAS