Jallianwala Bagh

Editor's Note: This is a public letter written by Rabindranath Tagore to Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy of India. In this letter, Tagore protests the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, Punjab (April 1919), and renounces the knighthood that had been conferred on him in 1915. The letter was published in The Statesman (June 3, 1919), and in the Modern Review (July 1919).

http://dart.columbia.edu/library/tagore-letter/letter.html?context=main

Calcutta
31 May 1919

Your Excellency,

The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India.

Editor's note: In  April 1919, under order of General Dyer, troops opened fire on a crowd at Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, killing 379 unarmed civilians and wounding over a thousand. The Commander-in-Chief in India recommended that Dyer should be ordered to retire, and the matter came before the Army Council for review. The Council accepted the recommendation, as did the British Cabinet.

Winston Churchill  defended the Cabinet's decision in Parliament, though he called the firing "a monstrous event." The editor has highlighted certain passages.

This is taken from http://lachlan.bluehaze.com.au/churchill/am-text.htm

Following extracts taken from
Hansard House of Commons (U.K.) Proceedings
July 8th, 1920, Supply-Committee, Punjab Disturbances, pp 1719 - 1734

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1920/jul/08/army-council-and-general-dyer

This includes Churchill's complete speech.

The SECRETARY of STATE for WAR