On 13 April 1919, the day of Baisakhi, thousands gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar. It was a day of harvest and quiet celebration, yet beneath the surface lay a growing unease. Just days earlier, two respected local leaders—Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal—had been arrested without warning and taken away from the city. Their only offence was mobilising people peacefully against the Rowlatt Act, a law that permitted detention without trial. Their sudden removal had stirred anger and anxiety, and many who gathered that day came not in defiance, but in search of answers.

They were unarmed and unsuspecting. By evening, that enclosed ground—hemmed in by high walls and narrow exits—had turned into a site of unimaginable tragedy. Reginald Dyer entered the Bagh with armed troops and, without issuing any warning or asking the crowd to disperse, ordered them to open fire. The soldiers aimed directly at the densest sections of the gathering. Panic spread instantly, but there was nowhere to escape. The exits were too few and too narrow. People ran in desperation; some leapt into a well to escape the bullets, many were trampled, and countless fell where they stood. The firing continued for nearly ten minutes. Later, Dyer would claim that he intended to produce a “moral effect,” to teach a lesson and instil fear. It was not an act of confusion—it was deliberate and cold.

What unfolded at Jallianwala Bagh was not merely a massacre; it was an assertion of power........

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