Overview
Amritsar massacre
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(13 April 1919)
A massacre of unarmed supporters of Indian self‐government by British troops in the city of Amritsar, Punjab. Indian discontent against the British had been mounting as a result of the Rowlatt Act. The massacre in Amritsar followed the killing, three days before, of five Englishmen and the beating of an Englishwoman. Gurkha troops under the command of Brigadier R. H. Dyer fired on a crowd gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, an enclosed park, killing 379 and wounding over 1200. Mounting agitation throughout India followed, and Dyer was given an official, if belated, censure.
In 1984 Indian government troops stormed the Golden Temple of Amritsar and killed 400 members of a Sikh separatist group, in revenge for which Indira Gandhi was assassinated.
