13th April 1919 at 1730 Jallianwala Baug Massacre.

Jallianvala Baug Massacre.  April 13 1919. 17-30 hrs.

"The incident in Jallian Wala Bagh was 'an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation" =Winston Churchill.

This blind Firing incident in which British troops fired on a crowd of  protesters, killing 400. It left a permanent scar on Indo-British relations and was the prelude to Mahatma Gandhi's Non-cooperation Movement.

In 1919 the British government of India enacted the Rowlatt Acts, extending its World War I emergency powers to combat subversive activities. At Amritsar, about 10,000 demonstrators protesting these measures confronted troops commanded by E.H. Dyer in Jallianwalla Bagh, which had only one exit. The troops fired on the crowd, killing an estimated 400 and wounding about 1,200.

It was a Sunday afternoon and many neighbouring village peasants also came to Amritsar to celebrate Baisakhi . Dyer positioned his men at the sole, narrow passageway of the Bagh, which was otherwise entirely enclosed by the backs of brick buildings. Giving no word of warning, he ordered 50 soldiers to fire into the gathering, and for 10 to 15 minutes 1,650 rounds of ammunition were unloaded into the screaming, terrified crowd, some of whom were trampled by those desperately trying to escape. According to official estimates, nearly 400 civilians were killed, and another 1,200 were left wounded with no medical attention.

Dyer, who argued his action was necessary to produce a "moral and widespread effect," admitted that the firing would have continued had more ammunition been available. The governor of the Punjab province supported the massacre at Amritsar and, on April 15, placed the entire province under martial law. Viceroy Chelmsford, however, characterized the action as "an error of judgment," and when Secretary of State Montagu learned of the slaughter, he appointed a commission of inquiry, headed by Lord Hunter. Although Dyer was subsequently relieved of his command, he returned a hero to many in Britain, especially conservatives, who presented him with a jeweled sword.

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre turned millions of moderate Indians from supporters of the British raj into nationalists who would never again place trust in British "fair play." It thus marks the turning point for a majority of the Congress' supporters from moderate cooperation with the raj and its promised reforms to revolutionary non-cooperation. Liberal Anglophile leaders, such as Jinnah, were soon to be displaced by the followers of Gandhi, who would launch, a year after that dreadful massacre, his first nationwide satyagraha campaign as India's revolutionary response.

It started a few months after the end of the first world war when an Englishwoman, a missionary, reported that she had been molested on a street in the Punjab city of Amritsar. The Raj's local commander, Dyer, issued an order requiring all Indians using that street to crawl its length on their hands and knees. He also authorized the indiscriminate, public whipping of natives who came within lathi length of British policemen.

On April 13, 1919, a multitude of Punjabis  gathered in Amritsar's Bagh as "Baisakhi fair" and to protest at these extraordinary measures. The throng, penned in a narrow space smaller than Trafalgar Square, had been peacefully listening to the testimony of victims when Dyer appeared at the head of a contingent of British troops. Giving no word of warning, he ordered 50 soldiers to fire into the gathering, and for 10 to 15 minutes 1,650 rounds of ammunition were unloaded into the screaming, terrified crowd, some of whom were trampled by those desperately trying to escape killing 400 and injured about 1200.

This incident paved way for freedom of India from the British regime.