Travel » Jallianwala Bagh

The other icon of Amritsar, its historic Jallianwala Bagh, is as moving an experience, albeit in a very different way. Birds nest now in the large shady trees, and squirrels scamper across the lovely green lawns that make this a small oasis of tranquillity in the bustling heart of the old city. Yet tragic history walked every step of the neatly paved pathways with us, past the red memorial and the grim pointers marking the sites of that ruthless massacre, way back in 1919.

It was, ironically, the festive day of Baisakhi that brought two thousand unarmed and defenceless men, women and children here for a peaceful meeting, protesting the Rowlatt Act. And when Brigadier General Dyer ordered his troops to fire, blocking the sole narrow entry to the park, the panic-stricken people were mowed down by the rain of bullets.

Bullet scars still mark the old red brick walls, searing evidence of their helpless fear. Even worse, many hapless souls fleeing the bullets jumped into a well (now covered), and drowned. The paintings, photographs and memorabilia in the martyrs’ gallery at the site are a mute record of one of the ugliest blots on India’s colonial past.

But nature’s marvelous restorative powers have stilled those long ago cries of anguish. Today, the park is green and serene, and old men doze beneath the trees. But memories of that other summer’s day shadowed the bright morning for us, and even the children stilled their chatter, to walk in subdued silence.