Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in the Punjab region of India in 1919

With reference to the appalling massacre in Amritsar, I have recently been given a book about the Raj, and there is an account of the reasons for the massacre. Brigadier General Dyer had just dealt with a dangerous situation where 100 British women and children were in danger of being attacked by a mob. His reaction was in connection with that.

I had known the two Dyer sons when we were young children playing together when we lived in New Delhi. It was a long time ago (I am 92 now), but I recall that the boys always seemed troubled. – Yours, etc,

Maeve Davison,
County Wexford

Irish Times Letters

Mrs Maeve Davison references a book she read about the massacre at Amritsar which suggests the cause of the atrocity might be connected to Brig Gen Dyer having dealt with a dangerous situation where 100 British women and children were in danger of being attacked by a mob. That was not a reason, that was an excuse.

The very same propaganda was propagated all around the British empire whenever British colonial atrocities occurred, including Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972 and Ballymurphy in 1971.

The events at Amritsar whereby British Indian troops slaughtered hundreds of Indian civilians, reflected the ultimate success of British colonialists in India in that the colonised not alone defended the coloniser but denigrated the colonised. – Yours, etc,

Tom Cooper,
Templeogue, Dublin 6w

Irish Times Letters

AR writes:

Anything good in the Irish Times letters page? Only Chris De Burgh’s mother (top) excusing the massacre at Amritsar, during which British soldiers opened fire on a peaceful protest in Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, Punjab in April 1919, killing anywhere between 400 and 1,600 innocent civilians. Subject to subsequent ‘correction’, as you’d expect, from a Tom Cooper from Templeogue (above)…

FIGHT!

Amritsar Massacre?

Pic: Nehru Memorial Museum