Genocide1919 CE – 1919 CESouth Asia

Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

On April 13, 1919 (Baisakhi Day), British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire without warning into a crowd of thousands of unarmed civilians gathered in an enclosed garden in Amritsar, Punjab. The official Hunter Commission recorded 379 dead and over 1,200 wounded; Indian estimates place the death toll considerably higher.

Key Figures
Brigadier General Reginald DyerMahatma GandhiRabindranath TagoreUdham SinghLord Hunter

Preceding Causes

The Rowlatt Act (1919) extended wartime emergency powers in peacetime, allowing detention without trial. Mass protests erupted across Punjab and martial law was imposed. Dyer stated he intended to produce a "sufficient moral effect" across the province — his order to fire was premeditated and punitive, not a response to any immediate threat.

Colonialism1858 CE

British Raj

Following the 1857 rebellion, the British Crown assumed direct rule of India from the East India Company. For 89 years, a vast colonial bureaucracy governed hundreds of millions of people, building railways and telegraph systems while systematically extracting India's wealth and suppressing self-governance.

Historical Consequences

A turning point in Indian history. Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest. Gandhi was permanently radicalized toward seeking complete independence. Winston Churchill called it "monstrous" in Parliament, while the House of Lords and sections of British public opinion defended Dyer — revealing deep divisions about imperial methods. The massacre fueled the Non-Cooperation Movement.

Revolution1920 CE

Non-Cooperation Movement

Gandhi's first nationwide mass resistance campaign called on Indians to boycott British institutions, goods, titles, and courts. Millions participated — surrendering British honors, withdrawing from government schools, and boycotting foreign cloth — paralyzing colonial administration.

Cause-Effect Graph

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