Indiaq2

Ans) The Amritsar massacre was on 13th April 1919 after General Dyer banned all public meetings but
one went on in Jallianwala Bahg. Dyer led troops into the meeting and killed 380 people while injuring
1200. Dyer was responsible for the decision taken at the Amritsar and was therefore in a position to
explain his behavior which led him to writing this account for his superior officers and naturally wanted
to present the best light. The source is arguably very significant in regards to an enquiry for the reasons
of the Amritsar massacre of 1919.

The origin of the source is solely written by the precipitator of the atrocities, General Dyer. This itself
provides weight to the source for an enquiry into the Dyer’s reasons as it is a first-person perspective of
the massacre. The General started “I was faced with a dense mass of men, widely holding a seditious
meeting”. However, there are many reasons conflicting reports to revolution of Indians in the square as
what Dyer refers to as “defying Indians” was led by a holy man of whom presented peace and
furthermore, the day of the massacre, April 13th was a Sikh holy day of which was arguably the reason
for attendance.

In addition, he general then goes on to state, “There was no reason to talk with the mob. It was clear
that they were there to defy the law.” However, there was no solid proof of “Seditious activity” or
possibly and revolt nor was any dialogue between Dyer and the organizers., however there was
evidential reports of Dyer banning any organizing of large groups of people to be in town.

Dyer also states “If I gave the order to fire, it needed to be effective.”, this is on top of the fact that he
ordered his troops to fire with no warning shot and was reported to have said to his subordinates,
“They’ve had their warning”. As well as “too little firing would be an act of criminal foolishness” which is
occurring in his regard as it was his own order that the soldiers only ceased firing when bullets ran out,
which proves the words of the disgraced General into conscience.

“I had the choice of carrying out a very horrible duty or of neglecting to do my duty of suppressing
disorder and of becoming responsible for all future bloodshed.” Dyer uses the words “Carrying out” and
“duty” which would give one the impression that General Dyer was given orders by his superiors to
specifically shoot unarmed civilians in Amritsar Square, which was false due to the fact that his meeting
with his military superiors, the superiors were asking for a reason and were questioning the necessity of
the action performed by the general.

In addition, the Viceroy, an Anglo-Irish person by the name of Viceroy O’Dwer did not give any specific
order to General Dyer to fire upon unarmed civilians, however due to the outrage and scandal of the
incident, he later resigns from his position under the pressure.