Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday virtually inaugurated the renovated complex of Jallianwala Bagh memorial. It happened on April 13, 1919 when the British forces fired indiscriminately on a large and peaceful gathering of protesters, killing over 1,000 people and wounding hundreds of them.

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The day  remembered the heinous act of killing around 1000 non-violent protesters and pilgrims and injuring another 1000 who had assembled in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab for Baisakhi celebrations on the command of Reginald Edward Harry Dyer.

                        Punjab was restive since the promulgation of the Rowlatt Act  1919 and had seen intermittent violent protests in March.  It was in this charged atmosphere that orders of deportation for Satyapal and Dr. Saifuddin Kichlew came into circulation. The public reacted agitatedly, spontaneously and a public meeting was called in the nearby park to condemn the deportation of two leaders.

            On April 13, 1919, around 10,000 people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in the afternoon to condemn the arrest and deportation of two national leaders, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew. They included unarmed men, women, and children of all ages. After the government was alerted about their presence, Dyer reached the spot with 50 soldiers armed with the rifles. The soldiers trapped the visitors and launched an indiscriminate fire. The firing continued for the next ten minutes, killing 379 people officially and wounded 1,500 more.

                      Lt. Governor of Punjab, Michael O’Dwyer and Col. Reginald Dyer who carried out the indiscriminate shooting were given no punishment by the British Crown.

In protest of this massacre Mahatma Gandhi renounced his Kaisar-i-Hind medal. Gurudev Tagore returned his Knighthood

The Hunter Commission Report on the Punjab Disturbance was described by Gandhi as a ‘whitewash’

                                Jallianwala Bagh shattered the faith that the people had in the British sense of justice and fairness. To most native Indians, the massacre of the unarmed was a betrayal of the trust that they had placed on the British to rule them wisely, justly and with fairness.

 Shaheed Udham Singh, a revolutionary nationalist, was born on 26 December 1899, at Sunam, in the then princely state of Patiala.

Born as Sher Singh, the brave Indian revolutionary is remembered for assassinating Sir Michael O’Dwyer, in order to avenge the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre. He was sentenced to death and hanged for the murder on July 31, 1940.

                 Rowlatt Act which gave enormous powers to the police to arrest any person without any trial,reason whatsoever. The purpose of the Act was to curb the growing nationalist upsurge in the country