On Imperial Peace PDF

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Summary of the module work on British Imperial peace...

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KEYWORDS The crawling order - where the Brits made Indians crawl on all fours to go from one end of the street to the other in Amritsar. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre - incident on April 13, 1919, in which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in an open space known as the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in the Punjab region of India, killing several hundred people and wounding many hundreds more. This massacre was what set Gandhi on his full commitment to Indian nationalism and to get India's independence from Britain. Sinn Fein - an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Anglo-Irish War (1919-1921) - was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland between the Irish Republican Army and British forces. Irish Free State - was a state established in 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. KEY THINKERS General Reginald Dyer - was an officer of the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted Indian Army. His military career began serving briefly in the regular British Army before transferring to serve with the Presidency armies of India. Dyer was the one that gave the orders to shoot at the mass of people in Amritsar. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi - was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and in turn, inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. ---------------------------------READING NOTES WagnerK Amritsar 1919 Ch.9 -

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General Dyer believed that he had stumbled upon the epicentre of a rebellion. The crowd was not showing any aggression or violence yet Dyer claimed the mob that was there were the same people which had murdered, looted and burnt three days previously. He acknowledged later that he could have dispersed the crowd without firing yet that they would have just laughed at him and he would be seen as a fool. He said those same people had been taunting him earlier on that day, saying he was giving empty threats and claiming he would never shoot. There was a fear that if the natives no longer feared the British government then this man along with Dyer himself would perish.

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Dyer saw himself as the one white man, the defender of the Raj. The men firing were armed with guns designed for the battlefields of the Empire. ‘Dyer supervised the shooting as a military operation as if he had been facing enemy troops rather than a large crowd of civilians. After the firing, the troops along with Dyer simply left. The casualties were not counted, no medical assistance offered to the wounded. Local residents were also wounded as they watched from their balconies, a stray shot killing at least one woman outside the gate and a nearby villager outside the city. The Gurkhas were shown to have little sympathy for the shooting, saying it ‘was splendid while it lasted’. The dead and the dying in the open space were left abandoned due to the 8pm curfew, the shooting showing them that the ‘British were prepared to enforce their orders’. Dyer expected further unrest and did not want to leave small groups of Europeans isolated, those groups were asked to relocate to join a general camp.

Vol. II. Ch. IV. The Firing at the Jallianwala Bagh (186-196) -

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The massacre has been observed as done ‘in the aid of the civil authority’, even though it can be argued that General Dyer was not acting merely in aid of the civil powers or on his own initiative. No attempt was made to put printed copies of the proclamation at the entrances of the Jallianwala Bagh. Initially, Dyer wanted to use machine guns but was unable to take them in. He opened fire without warning and without asking to disperse, continued firing till ammunition ran short. This was not a heat of the moment decision, he received the information about the contemplated meeting four hours earlier and had time to think. His mind was already made up. He fired to produce a great moral effect, not a question of merely dispersing the crowd. Wanted to ‘reduce the morale of rebels’. His action was approved by other generals. They said what he did was correct. Dyer wanted his action to ‘create a wide impression’. There were no steps taken for a long time to ascertain the casualties.

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Part 1 -

The highpoint of Britain's territorial reach occurred when the League of Nations passed some of Germany’s colonial possessions to Britain as so-called mandated territories. This included much of German East Africa.

The ‘Irish question’ revisited - 1914 = Government of Ireland Act (postponed because of the war, aimed to provide a solution to the home rule problem, threatening the overthrow of British rule and Britain's nearest and oldest colony). - 1916 = ‘Easter Rising’ with the execution of 15 leaders - 1918 = Sinn Fein wins a decisive victory at the general election (47% of the national vote). - 1919 = Sinn Fein MPs declare Irish Free State - 1919-21 = Anglo-Irish War (aka the War of Independence). - 1920 = Government of Ireland Act inaugurates Ulster parliament, paving way for partition. - 1921 = Anglo-Irish Treaty concluded war - 1922 = Irish Free State established as Dominion (within the Commonwealth). Nationalism in India - Most historians of 1857 would reject the idea that the rebellion was a national war of independence. The way the organised nationalist movement in India had long historical roots and wanted to throw off British rule can still be a sign of early nationalism to some. -

1885 = Established of the Indian National Congress 1906 = All India Muslim League established 1906 = Congress declares its aim is self-government on the same principles as the Dominions 1909 = India Councils Act provided for ‘very’ limited Indian participation in legislative bodies. 1915 = Gandhi returned to India. 1919 = Government of India Act introduces limited ‘diarchy’ (or dual control) at the provincial level. 1919 = Rowlatt Act extends repressive wartime legislation, prompting widespread opposition. 1919 = Protests against Rowlatt across Indian cities, the violence in Amritsar prompts deployment of the army and imposition of martial law. This sees the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre which left 379 dead and more than 1200 injured.

Part 2 -

Jallianwalla Bagh, Amritsar, 13 April 1919. In the aftermath of WW1, there had been a series of protests in Punjab as well as there had been in other parts of the British Empire and British cities at home. One of these protests on the 13th of April 1919 coincided with the Sikh Festival which meant that the city of Amritsar was busier than it would have otherwise been. In the Jallianwala Bagh which was a green space, a large crowd gathered in defiance of instructions from the British. At this point, the city was in a way under martial law (doesn’t formally get declared till after the massacre), military control. General Reginald Dyer marched a group of Indian and Nepalese soldiers into the park, ordering them to fire on the crowd.

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He argued that the crowd had gathered in contravention of his instructions. No warning was given to the crowd, they fired steadily for 10 minutes, firing over 16,00 individual rounds. By the time the fire was ordered to cease there were 379 killed and a further 1200 injured

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He sought to not only disperse the crowd but also to send a message across Punjab and India that the British colonial power would not be cowed by Indian political activism. His supporters hailed him a hero, suggesting that he had prevented another mutiny. He was removed from duty and widely condemned both in Britain and in India.

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The crawling order = Anyone wishing to proceed in the street between 6am and 8pm was made to crawl the 200 yards (180 m) on all fours, lying flat on their bellies. The order was not required at night due to a curfew....