13 April, 1919
A public meeting had been organized in Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the order passed by General Dyer banning such public gatherings. The day being a Sunday, many people from neighbouring places had come to the place in connection with the Baisakhi festival.The Jallianwala Bagh, or garden, was bounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few narrow entrances, most of which were kept permanently locked. Since there was only one open exit except for the one already blocked by the troops, people desperately tried to climb the walls of the park. Many jumped into a well inside the compound to escape from the bullets. A plaque in the monument says that 120 bodies were plucked out of the well. General Dyer reached there with his troops and ordered the closure of the only exit to this place. He also ordered his troops to open fire with no prior intimation to the large gathering of people. In a span of about 10 minutes some 1600 or more rounds were fired. The gruesome incident left 379 dead and more than a 1000 wounded. This was however only an official figure. The actual extent of casuality is not captured anywhere.
Images showing the tragedy site a few months after the event and a photo showing the bullet marks on the wall
Martial law was imposed on Punjab and its people were subjected to many humiliating atrocities. Citizens of Lahore were ordered to crawl across a street, which was nicknamed the 'Crawling Street'. The wholesale slaughter at Jallianwala Bagh horrified the whole country. The brutality of the so-called civilized foreign rulers and the need to fight for freedom were reiterated by this incident. A trust was formed in 1920 to build a memorial at the site following a resolution passed by the Indian National Congress. In 1923 the trust purchased land for the project. A memorial, designed by American architect Benjamin Polk, was built on the site and inaugurated by the then-President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad on 13 April 1961 in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders. A flame was later added to the site.
