Shri Nathji was present at the time of the infamous
massacre at Jalianwala Bagh. He was there along with a devotee amongst the
large group of people gathered at the spot, when the shooting began, under the
orders of a crazed British General, Dyer. Shri Nathji narrowly escaped being
hit by the bullets, and was taken away from the spot by the devotee. Indeed it
was this atrocity by the British rulers that turned Shri Babaji Bhagwan against
them and he found himself saying:
“Unfit! Unfit! Totally unfit! Nikal jaayo mere Hindustan
se! Get out of my Hindustan!”
The presence of Shri Nathji at the scene of the massacre
was like the presence of Lord Krishna at the carnage in the battlefield of
Kurukshetra. It was destined that this was to happen. Shri Nathji’s presence
there gave salvation to the numerous people that lost their lives.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took
place in the Jallianwala Bagh public garden in the northern Indian city of
Amritsar on the traditional festival of vaisakhi. The day was Sunday, 13 April
1919. The shooting that took place was ordered by Brigadier-General Reginald
E.H. Dyer. Dyer was convinced of a major insurrection and thus he banned all
meetings. On hearing that a meeting of 15,000 to 20,000 people including women,
senior citizens and children had assembled at Jallianwala Bagh, Brigadier-General
Reginald Dyer came along with a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five
Baluchi soldiers into the Bagh. Fifty of them were armed with rifles. Dyer had
also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns. But the vehicles were
left outside as they were unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance.
The Jallianwala Bagh was surrounded on all sides by houses and buildings and
had few narrow entrances. Most of them were kept permanently locked. The main
entrance was relatively wider, but was guarded by the troops backed by the
armoured vehicles. General Dyer without warning the crowd to disperse, blocked
the main exits. He explained later about this act; "was not to disperse
the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience." Dyer ordered his
troops to begin shooting towards the densest sections of the crowd (including
women and children). Firing continued for approximately ten minutes. Cease-fire
was ordered only when ammunition supplies were almost exhausted, after
approximately 1,650 rounds were spent.
Many people died in stampedes at the narrow gates or by
jumping into the solitary well on the compound to escape the shooting. A plaque
in the monument at the site, set up after independence, says that 120 bodies
were pulled out of the well.
The wounded could not be moved from where they had
fallen, as a curfew was declared and many more died during the night. Official
Government of India sources estimated that the fatalities were 379, with 1,100
wounded. The casualty number estimated by Indian National Congress was more
than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 getting killed. Dyer was removed from duty
and forced to retire. He became a celebrated hero in Britain among people with
connections to the British Raj. Historians considered the episode as a decisive
step towards the end of British rule in India. A memorial was build in memory of the massacre after Independence. This place is adjacent to the Golden Temple and an important tourist destination for travelers to Amritsar.
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