What was the Amritsar Massacre? Why was it significant?
The massacre at Amitsrar, site of the Golden Temple sacred to the Sikhs, was an action by a squad of British soldiers under the command of a fanatic racist idiot. A crowd of Punjabis were listening to a speaker who was explaining Mohandas Ghandi’s call for peaceful noncooperation with the British authorities when the British troops opened fire, killing civilian women and children. This incident, accurately portrayed in the movie “Ghandi,” horrified the world. The British themselves were appalled, and court martialled the savage fool who thought murder an appropriate response to an illegal gathering. It is to both their credit and that of the Indian people that peace and independence were achieved despite the actions of a murderous fanatic whose name is best left unmentioned. The massacre galvanized the forces of independence. It also forced the British public to ask itself how far they were prepared to maintain their control of India. The British being the decent people they were, nonv
