Avenging Amritsar

A dish served very cold

On March 13, 1940, a meeting of the East India Association took place in Caxton Hall in the city of Westminster in London. In attendance, secreted at the back of the room, was a man carrying a large book. The book had the interior cut out to conceal a powerful revolver. Udham Singh had been under government surveillance the last four years, but on this cold winter’s day he eluded his British spies.

An aged Sir Michael O’Dwyer took the stage to give an impromptu speech. The 75-year-old colonial officer was a sarcastic storyteller, and he turned his Irish ire toward the subject of Indian nationalism. Two hundred people were in attendance, most of them of equally advancing age, retired colonial civil servants and their spouses. The conservative audience laughed at O’Dwyer’s bigoted aspersions, but Singh remained silent, awaiting his moment.

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As the meeting broke, Singh rushed forward with his weapon, purchased from a soldier in a pub, and shot O’Dwyer twice in the chest. One bullet pierced the heart, killing the colonizer instantly. Singh fired the remaining four rounds at a group of men gathered next to the speaker’s platform, injuring three.

Don’t shed too many tears for them. One of the injured was the secretary of state for India, and the other two also were part of the colonial administration of the “Jewel in the British Crown.”

Singh was subdued, and on July 31, 1940, as the Royal Air Force was battling the Luftwaffe for control of the British skies, was executed by hanging. He remained unrepentant to the last. This was an act of revenge twenty-one years in the making.

For centuries, India suffered under British rule, and they were getting mighty fucking sick of it.

On April 13, 1919, a peaceful crowd of over 20,000 people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, a recreation area near the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab. They were there to protest, among other things, the Rowlatt Act, which transformed India into a permanent police state where anyone could be indefinitely imprisoned without trial.

The area was enclosed by three buildings, with only one exit. Under the command of Colonel Reginald Dyer, several dozen soldiers of the British Indian Army blocked the exit and opened fire on the unarmed protesters. They kept up the murderous assault until they ran out of bullets. The official death toll was 379, but it was likely four times that, with another 1,200 wounded.

Michael O’Dwyer was then lieutenant governor of Punjab. A proponent of the Rowlatt Act, O’Dwyer praised the massacre. “Oh yeah blowing holes in all those peaceful people was totes justified,” he said. Paraphrased. Not one to miss out on being an absolute hypocrite, O’Dwyer was a staunch Irish nationalist. Yet he was adamant that India not become an independent nation, because racism.

The leader of the massacre, Reginald Dyer, died in 1927, but Udham Singh would not rest until he brought justice to Michael O’Dwyer. Singh was present at the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, had witnessed the atrocity personally. Afterward, he became involved in the quest for Indian independence and served five years in prison for his trouble. In 1934 Singh made his way to London and began his plans to assassinate O’Dwyer, achieving his long sought-after goal six years later.

Britain never formally apologized for the massacre, but in 2019, a full century after the massacre, they expressed “deep regret.” Assholes.

Udham Singh was celebrated as a hero by many both in India and internationally. His remains were repatriated to India in 1977. Jallianwala Bagh is now a memorial garden, complete with a statue of the man who avenged the deaths of those who died there.

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