E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesNot only was no insurrection intended or planned, but according to the HunterReport, 'It appears that the outburst of the 10th April subsided in a few hours,there was no repetition of any serious incident afterwards either on that dateor on subsequent dates. And even with regard to the events on the 10th ... ifthe officer in charge ... had done his duty, the worst crimes, viz., the murdersof the bank officers ... would in all probability have been prevented.'Amritsar had been calm for two and a half days when Dyer's butchery occurred.His unnecessary massacre was the child of the -British military mentality thendominant in India. To characterize this mentality, the Hunter Report quotes anutterance of General Drake-Brockman of Delhi who said, 'Force is the only thingthat an Asiatic has any respect for.''I thought I would be doing a jolly lot of good', was Dyer's airy summary of themassacre at Jallianwala Bagh.To add humiliation to hurt, General Dyer published his infamous 'crawlingorder'. On April 10 Miss Sherwood, the headmistress of a girls' school inAmirtsar, had been barbarously attacked by the mob. Several days after theJallianwalla Bagh blood bath, Dyer issued instruction that anybody passing thestreet where Miss Sherwood was assaulted would have to go on all fours. Thisapplied even to the members of families whose only approach to their homeswas through that street. Gandhi felt worse about this 'outrage', as he called it,than about the massacre.At the spot, moreover, on which Miss Sherwood was beaten, Dyer erected awhipping post for the public flogging of those who ignored his order that Indianson animals and vehicles must alight, Indians carrying umbrellas or parasols mustlower them, and all Indians must salute or 'salaam' with the hand as they passedBritish officers in some districts of Amritsar.The British Secretary of State for India, Edwin S. Montagu, m an officialdispatch to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, dated May 26, 1920, wrote, 'HisMajesty's Government repudiate emphatically the doctrine upon whichBrigadier-General Dyer ased his action' at Jallianwalla Bagh. The crawlingorder, Montagu added 'offended against every canon of civilized government'.www.mkgandhi.org Page 208