Against colonialism: the Jalianwallahbagh Massacre

April 13, 1919: It was Baisakhi day, a festival when people celebrate the beginning of the harvesting season. As every year, people were congregating in community fairs in the city of Amritsar, Panjab. A large unarmed crowd of ordinary people had gathered near a public square called Jalianwallah Bagh. They did not know that a political meeting was being held there. General Dyer, a powerful Commander in the British army, wanted to break up the meeting by force and ordered the battalion at his disposal to fire. The square was bounded on all sides, with a very narrow entrance and pathway, so that people could not escape from the firing. Official estimates reported 379 deaths but unofficial estimates were much higher.  Below is the letter  Tagore wrote to the Viceroy asking that his knighthood be revoked: