HVK Archives: Apology for honour, not for revenge
Apology for honour, not for revenge - The Asian Age
Madhuri Santanam Sondhi
()
8 September 1997
Title: Apology for honour, not for revenge
Author: Madhuri Santanam Sondhi
Publication: The Asian Age
Date: September 8, 1997
We must be grateful to the Queen of England and members of the academic
community in Punjab, who, with some help from the Prime Minister, have
returned Jallianwala Bagh to the national consciousness. This return
cannot be a means of settling old scores - which is impossible - but
demonstrates the fact that history sought to be denied or ignored has a way
of returning to demand a fair accounting.
The massacre committed by General Dyer at Jallianwala on April 13, 1919 is
fairly well etched in the minds of those generally acquainted with national
history: it was also highlighted in Attenborough's film on Gandhi.
However, fewer people are aware that the term Jallianwala Bagh is also used
to describe the reign of terror unleashed in large parts of Punjab which
began on that
date and continued till June 9.
The facts concerning the draconian martial law regime that was slapped on
Punjab between April 15 and June 9 has slipped from public memory. However
this is not because the report of the inquiry commission instituted by the
Congress Party (whose members included Motilal Nehru, Madan Mohan Malaviya,
M.K. Gandhi, C.R. Das, Abbas S. Tyabji, M.R. Jayakar, and secretary, K.
Santanam), published in 1920, whose second volume contains 784 pages of
direct evidence, has been out of print till 1994 (re-issued by The National
Book Trust). The Amritsar massacre was part of a series of vindictive
responses to the April 6 hartal which had been jointly observed by all
communities as a protest against the Rowlatt Bills which sought to continue
emergency wartime measures after the peace of Versailles.
British motivations for indulging in this excessive and unjustified terror
was apparently to give a warning lesson to the would-be disaffected, and
can only be traced to their paranoid apprehensions concerning a possible
repeat of the events of 1857.
According to the martial law regulations, Punjab was to be cut off from the
rest of the world in terms of communications: the local nationalist papers,
including the Tribune, were closed down, and news reportage was strictly
controlled by the authorities. Cars belonging to Indians were commandeered
and travel in or out of Punjab was severely restricted. Apart from
political leaders, lawyers and their employees were especially suspect as
potential disrupters of this other face of the Pax Britannica, and could
neither enter nor leave Punjab.
Public flogging, public harassment, and general terrorisation of the
populace marked the period of martial law, carefully hidden from the gaze
of those outside the concerned districts of Punjab. According to the
evidence in the report, garnered from various parts of Punjab, the
authorities were deliberately provocative, seeking excuses to justify their
barbarous reprisals. One sample out of thousands will suffice for the
present. On April 14 in Gujranwala, a crowd of (Baisakhi) holiday makers
indulged in some five hours of rioting and some incendiarism in broad
daylight (which caused no harm to any human person) following the sighting
of butchered calves slung up near and inside the Railway Station (by agents
provocateurs?). "About half an hour later, (after the rioting stopped)...
aeroplanes arrived on the scene and commenced an indiscriminate bombardment
of the town proper by means of bombs and machine guns... the bombs and
bullets fell into mostly thickly populated portions of the town... the
aeroplanes operated from an extremely low range and there was absolutely no
chance of mistaking if there were any group of rioters or not." The planes
continued their macabre forays from 3 pm. The riots had actually occurred
on the other side of the clearly visible railway line which was known as
the Civil Station, but.. no punitive bombs and bullets fell there: clearly
what was being meted out was not even primitive justice, but barbaric
vindictiveness. In the evening, when the commanding officer discovered that
only 50 to 60 people had died he expressed the following regret: "I wish we
could butcher more. It is a pity, Heron (Superintendent of Police) did not
kill more than he did in the morning." (Vol. II pp. 6734). The arrested
were subjected to vicious treatment, and the farcical trials that followed
were a total travesty of the much vaunted British justice for which the
natives were supposed to be grateful.
My father, Pandit K. Santanam, (then still known as Mr K. Santanam), at the
behest of Lala Lajpat Rai had made Lahore his home since 1911 and was
enrolled at the bar. It fell to him to assist in the "defence" of
prisoners arraigned before the martial law tribunals, whose operations he
described in his deposition as a "colossal sham." Many prominent lawyers
hesitated to accept briefs for fear of incurring the wrath of the
authorities. In mid-May K. Santanam was engaged on behalf of the Lahore
Leaders Case (accused of "waging war" against the government!) which
included Lala Harkishen Lal and others. To ensure better justice, including
transferring the case to another court and engaging outside counsel, he
made a dramatic journey out of Lahore by stealth to Simla, hiding under a
bunk in a railway carriage where an Englishman happened to seat himself.
His plea before a higher authority was, of course, refused, but he was able
to apprise Sir Sankaran Nair, the Indian member of the Viceroy's Executive
Council, of the events that were occurring in Punjab, and thus much
information was able to leak out to other concerned citizens of India.
Given the enormity of the crimes committed during the three months of
terror in Punjab, it is an insult to the memory of those slaughtered,
wounded or tortured to describe the demand of their children or
grandchildren for an apology from the British government as trivial or
immature.
They are not seeking revenge, but honour and peace of mind for themselves
and the spirits of the deceased. Seeking pardon for wrongs committed,
together with the opportunity for forgiveness on the part of the wronged is
one of the most essential enablers of social life, whether in families,
schools, workplaces or public life. Sulkha, the Arabic version of our Urdu
sulha is a means for reconciliation between tribes whose members have
harmed or hurt one another. Members of both communities meet in public,
the erring individual apologises and is forgiven, and requisite
compensation is decided upon by mutual agreement by the leaders of both
sides, after which life returns to normal. Several Israeli scholars are
exploring the adoption of such techniques to ease the relationship between
themselves and the Palestinians, which otherwise threatens to continue in a
spiral of revenge and counter-revenge.
Japan seeks to normalise its relations with concerned countries in east
Asia through apologising for the crimes and excesses of the World War II.
Britain herself has apologised to the native New Zealanders and the Irish
for the iniquities of colonisation: there is nothing amiss therefore in
seeking a formal apology from the descendants of the perpetrators of the
"reign of terror" in Punjab.
Those who have sought to protect the British government from making this
"humiliating" apology cannot be from families which suffered during the
martial law regime.
Of course, there have always been collaborators and approvers, including
the sycophants who debased themselves by welcoming General Dyer into the
precincts at the Golden Temple with his boots on. In other parts of India
also, the descendants of those who benefited from imperialism continue to
advise their fellow-countrymen to remember the benefits of British rule (a
favourite essay subject set by teachers in missionary schools before
Independence), such as familiarity with the English language and the
railway system - neither of which have prevented India from economically
ranking amongst the least developed in the world: indeed, those denied the
pleasure of Shakespeare and British justice like the Japanese seem to be
doing much better in all walks of life, including science and technology
access to which through the English language is said to be one of India's
unique advantages. Punjab is a province which has suffered much in the
history of India. Punjabis, whether Hindu, Muslim or Sikh, are a brave and
generous people though fractious and not always wise. They have many
traumas to live with, including Partition and a decade of terrorism. They
deserve, if anyone does, an apology to act as salve for their many wounds.
Such a symbolic gesture might even inaugurate an era of sulha in Indian
domestic politics, sorely riven by conflicts and burdened by embittering
historical memories, both recent and remote.
(Madhuri Santanam Sondhi is a daughter of Pandit Santanam who was
intimately connected with the consequences of the Jallianwala Bagh tragedy
and wrote most of the report of the Congress Enquiry Committee. She has
herself worked on the original documents over a period of time.)
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