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Reviews: ‘‘A brilliant piece of almost forensic revisionist history.’
— Denis Judd, author of Empire: The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present.
‘Nick Lloyd’s study of the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh is a stirring tale well told.’
— Kaushik Roy, author of The Oxford Companion to Modern Warfare in India
Description: At approximately 5:10 pm on 13 April 1919, Brigadier – General ‘Rx’ Dyer led a small party of soldiers through the centre of Amritsar into a walled garden known as the Jallianwala Bagh. He had been informed that an illegal political meeting was taking place and had come to disperse it. Dyer’s men entered the garden and immediately opened fire upon the huge crowd that had gathered there. 379 people were killed and at least 1,000 more were wounded in what has became known as the Amritsar Massacre.
The massacre is the most infamous atrocity in the history of British rule in India. Opening fire on an unarmed gathering of people, it was the most brutal incident of its kind, fatally weakening the British position in India and uniting the people of the subcontinent against their colonial masters. It is commonly seen as the turning point in India’s struggle for freedom, an episode that has become enshrined in Indian national myth and which is still recounted to generations of school children as a moment of inexplicable imperial barbarity.
This important new book aims to dispel the myths and misconceptions surrounding the massacre. It challenges the conventional historiography by offering a defence of the British Raj through a more balanced account of events and the decisions that were taken in 1919. Nick L Lloyd begins his retelling with Britain’s hopes for as new age of collaboration and reform in1917 and 1918 and then explains the growth of nationalist discontent, before taking the reader into the claustrophobic streets of the Punjab in April 1919 when violence broke out. Part historical account of a boldly massacre, part history of an empire in a period of great change, The Amritsar Massacre will appeal to both history enthusiasts and the general reader.
Contents: Part One: Beginnings • The Raj in an Age of Change • The Great War and Reform in India • Gandhi and the Rowlatt Satyagraha • Hartals, Processions and Arrests • Violence in Ahmedabad • O’Dwyer in the Punjab • Part Two: Disturbances • A ‘Great Calamity’ in Amritsar • A ‘Terrible Quietness’ • Protest and Response in Lahore • A ‘Serious Rising’ at Kasur • The ‘High-Water Mark’ • Causes and Conspiracies • Part Thee: Aftermath • The Introduction of Martial Law • ‘Fancy Punishments’ and Erratic Acts’ • Lord Hunter and the Disorders Inquiry Committee • Debates and Disagreements • Dyer and the Jallianwala Bagh • Shadows of Amritsar • Conclusion: Amritsar and the British in India • Epilogue: Operation Blue Star • Glossary of Selected Indian Words • Bibliography • Index ISBN - 9781848857230
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Pages : 300
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