Reference Ramchandra Guha's article in The Sunday Tribune, "Gandhi and the Punjab in 1919". The mass shooting in the Jallianwala Bagh ordered by Gen Dyer, leading to a violent and tragic massacre of four hundred or more peaceful worshipers, is written indelibly on the nation's or, should I say, Punjab's collective psyche. One would have expected an immediate uproar among the Indian leadership and a strong reaction towards the British.Gandhi's reaction was too mild, too little. He ridiculously responded that he did not know what to believe! Who did he doubt? The dead bodies of Punjabis who dared to defy the curfew to assert their independence to pray, to bow to a foreign diktat? He took one month to send a confused, nilly-willy letter to the Viceroy's Private Secretary. Compare this to his observation to the press after Udham Singh avenged massacre in 1940 by shooting Dyer in Caxton Hall. Gandhi :"The outrage has caused me deep pain. I regard it as an act of insanity...I hope this will not be allowed to affect political judgement."
Rabindranath Tagore, on the other hand, tried to organize a protest in Calcutta and later gave up his knighthood in protest.
He had never been to Punjab before,and it took him six months before he arrived after the massacre in October 1919.
By and large the Indian leadership had failed to give due acknowledgement to the efforts and sacrifices of the Ghadar party who had started resistance for complete independence much before Congress. By 1915, Ghadaris had returned to fight along with Babar Akalis in Punjab.
Had the leaders not been in a partial disconnect with this border state which had historically been shedding blood to resist various invaders, they might have been able to foresee the great tornado of human destruction, violence and misery their decision for partition of the country would bring.
Rabindranath Tagore, on the other hand, tried to organize a protest in Calcutta and later gave up his knighthood in protest.
He had never been to Punjab before,and it took him six months before he arrived after the massacre in October 1919.
By and large the Indian leadership had failed to give due acknowledgement to the efforts and sacrifices of the Ghadar party who had started resistance for complete independence much before Congress. By 1915, Ghadaris had returned to fight along with Babar Akalis in Punjab.
Had the leaders not been in a partial disconnect with this border state which had historically been shedding blood to resist various invaders, they might have been able to foresee the great tornado of human destruction, violence and misery their decision for partition of the country would bring.
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