HVK Archives: Call to cleanse blood-stained history with Queen's visit
Call to cleanse blood-stained history with Queen's visit - The Indian Express
Nirupama Dutt
()
28 July 1997
Title: Call to cleanse blood-stained history with Queen's visit
Author: Nirupama Dutt
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: July 28, 1997
While Punjab is getting ready for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II of
England and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on October 14, 1997, at
Amritsar, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the country's
Independence, there has come a demand for an apology by the British
Government for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919.
The demand comes from none other than a descendant of Bhagat Singh, one of
the most loved heroes of the freedom struggle, who went to the gallows with
his comrades Sukhdev and Rajguru in 1931 after being sentenced to death in
the second Lahore Conspiracy case.
Talking to The Indian Express, Jagmohan Singh, a professor of computer
science and nephew of Bhagat Singh, said, "If Japan can apologise to Korea
for excesses against Korean women who were used for the pleasure of the
soldiers, there is no reason why Britain should not apologise to us. The
backlog of the history should be cleansed within this century."
Many are taking the very decision of the Queen in visiting the Martyrs
Memorial at Jallianwala Bagh as a gesture of atonement. The British High
Commissioner to India, Sir David Gore Booth, who visited Amritsar on July
22 along with a 12-member team to chalk out the Queen's visit here also
visited the Jallianwala Bagh. The British High Commissioner's remarks in
the visitors' book at the Martyrs Gallery in the Bagh indicate the mood of
his government: "I feel privileged and touched to have this opportunity to
visit Jallianwala Bagh and pay my respects at what is a beautiful monument
that reminds us all of the sadness of history."
Jagmohan and some others feel that a direct apology would be a better
gesture. As per the tentative programme, Queen Elizabeth II will visit the
Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh and a civic reception in her honour will
be held in the beautiful heritage building of Khalsa College, Amritsar. The
massacre at Jallianwala Bagh on the Baisakhi of 1919 was a turning point in
the freedom struggle for it shocked the whole world and was a
conscience-jerker for all Indians. Poet Rabindranath Tagore returned his
knighthood following the gruesome incident.
A public meeting was being held at this place which was an open enclosure
with tall buildings on all four sides and only a narrow passage leading up
to it. Some 25,000 men, women and children gathered there and many of them
came here after offering their prayers at the Golden Temple. The meeting
was called in protest against the ban on the people's right to assemble and
protest following the imposition of the Martial Law by the Lieutenant
Governor of Punjab, Michael O'Dyer.
Soon after the meeting started, General Dyer came through the narrow
passage along with his troops and opened fire on the people. Official
figures of the time said that 379 people were killed on the spot and thrice
as many wounded, to die later. The unofficial number of the dead runs into
four figures. "It was a peaceful meeting but the British rulers tried to
give it the colour of sedition. It was painful to see the scene given such
a colour even in Attenborough's 'Gandhi'. They showed a turbaned speaker
brandishing the sword and making a fiery speech. Such militancy by the
Sikhs against the British did not come up till 1921," says Jagmohan.
The Jallianwala Bagh memorial is also seen as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim
unity and interestingly Pakistan Television showed a feature on it which
has been much appreciated by the people of Amritsar.
However, the Punjab Government is looking forward to the visit of Queen
Elizabeth. Says a senior Punjab police officer, "Such a demand will only
be a dampener. The remarks of the High Commissioner and the Queen's visit
here are atonement enough." Surjit Hans, A former professor of history at
Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, says that this demand is out of place
in the present circumstances.
Jagmohan, who has extensively edited and published the writings of Bhagat
Singh, has also made a demand for a similar apology for cutting up in
pieces the bodies of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. He adds, "Bhagat
Singh in his public statement offered an apology for killing police officer
Saunders by saying that he was sorry to have shed the blood of a man but it
was done to protest against the atrocities of the British regime. But an
apology is still due from the other side." Pieces of the cut bones are
still preserved in the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh Museum at Khatkar Kalan,
the ancestral village of Bhagat Singh near Jalandhar.
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