General Reginald Dyer
Nigel Collett
On 13 April 1919, General Reginald Dyer marched a squad of Indian soldiers into the Jallianwala Bagh, a large enclosed public space in the holy city of Amritsar, and opened fire without warning on a crowd gathered to hear political speeches, leaving over 200 dead. To some Dyer was the saviour of India, responding decisively to threatened insurrection, but to many in India, including Gandhi and Nehru, his action proved the moral bankruptcy of the British Empire. The bitter debate that followed the shootings, the worst atrocity perpetrated by the British in the twentieth century, almost brought down the Liberal Government and was a decisive turning point in India's march to independence. The Butcher of Amritsar is a definitive account of the massacre set in the context of a biography of Reginald Dyer, a man whose attitudes reflected many of the views common in the Raj.
'When fire was opened, the whole crowd seemed to sink to the ground, a flutter of white garments, with however a spreading out towards the main gateway, and some individuals could be seen climbing the high wall ... I saw no sign of a rush towards the troops'.
-- SERGEANT ANDERSON
