Question

of all events in the period 1911-1919 was the Amritsar Massacre the one that had the greatest impact on relations between the British and The Indian people? (14 marks)

Answer 1

The massacre of Jallianwala Bagh, also known as the massacre of Amritsar, took place on 13 April 1919, when Acting Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer directed British Indian Army troops to aim their rifles towards a crowd of helpless Indian civilians in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab, killing 379 people and injuring more than 1,000 others.

The 1919 Amritsar Massacre was incredibly significant in causing a deterioration in relations between the British and Indians, and in India it is remembered as the 'watershed that irrevocably set Indian nationalists on the road to independence.'

The event shocked Indians nationwide and had a profound effect on one of the movement's leaders, Mohandas Gandhi who saw the massacre as ‘an insufferable wrong.’