Jallianwala Bagh

Jallianwala Bagh

On 13 April, the police in Amritsar fired upon a peaceful procession, provoking widespread attacks on banks, post offices and railway stations. Martial law was imposed and General Dyer took command.

General Dyer’s ‘crawling order’ being administered

by British soldiers, Amritsar, Punjab 1919.

CONSEQUENCES OF JALLIANWALA BAGH INCIDENT:

• Crowds took to the streets in many north Indian towns. There were strikes, clashes with the police and attacks on the government buildings.
• The government responded with brutal repression. Satyagrahis were forced to rub their noses on the ground, crawl on the streets, do salaam to all sahibs. Villages were bombed.
• Seeing violence spread, Gandhiji called off the movement.

KHILAFAT ISSUE:

(i) The Ottoman Turkish Empire was defeated in the First World War.

(ii) A harsh peace treaty was imposed on the Turkish Emperor -The Khalifa. The Khalifa was considered the spiritual head of the Muslim world and protector of their holy places.

(iii) The Turkish Empire was totally dismembered by 1920.

THE KHILAFAT MOVEMENT:

(i) Two brothers, Muhammad Ali and Shaukat Ali. Muslim leaders founded a Khilafat common in March 1919, to defend the Khilafat's rights.

(ii) The anti Rowlatt Satyagraha was limited to cities and towns. Gandhi ji wanted to launch a broader -based movement. This could only be done by bringing Hindus and Muslims together. He took up the khilafat issue.

(iii) At the Calcutta session of the Congress in September 1920, he convinced other leaders of the need to start a non-cooperation movement in support of Khilafat as well as for swaraj.