The firing on unarmed peaceful gathering of about 20,000 people, who had collected at a public meeting, in Jallianwala Bagh on 13 April 1919, in Amritsar, by Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, is known as the Jallianwala massacre.
The massacre evoked sharp criticism both in England and India. Mahatma Gandhi was deeply hurt by the killings of innocent people.
However, his reaction was controlled and he wrote: “We do not want to punish Dyer. We have no desire for revenge. We want to change the system that produced Dyer.”
After this massacre and the other instances of violence that had taken place, Gandhi did some introspection about his decision of launching the Satyagraha Movement and came to the conclusion that it was a 'mistake which seemed to be of Himalayan magnitude'.
He gave a speech advising temporary suspension of the Satyagraha Movement at Bombay on the 18th April 1919.
Gandhi, despite his strong sympathies with the people of Punjab as victims of excesses inflicted upon them by the British, was also critical of the incidents of violence in which Indians took part as it was against his Satyagaha philosophy.
He expressed his desire to support the colonial state in restoring peace and order in the province.
This was motivated by his desire to prevent further escalation of violence, which would have given a free hand to the British government to use all resources at hand to brutally suppress the Indians.
Gandhi later visited Amritsar and talked to a cross section of people to get a first-hand knowledge of events. In a speech at Women’s Meeting in Amritsar on 4 November 1919, Gandhi said: “No penance will suffice for the evil that has been wrought by our hand in Amritsar…..But we ought to have maintained peace even if everyone present had been killed. It is not right, in my opinion, to take blood for blood.”
A year later Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement when he saw that the Hunter Committee that had been appointed by the government to inquire into the Punjab disturbances was an eye-wash, the House of Lords had voted in favour for General Dyer’s actions and the British people had collected 30,000 pounds to help him.
