Amritsar Massacre

<p>Since the end of the Cold War the British Army has been involved in crowd control operations outside the national boundaries of the United Kingdom. The recent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan have caused the traditional British approach of minimal force in crowd control operations to be pressurized by a desire for a more rapid and direct solution to crowd control operations. This paper provides a study of how the British directed policy of minimal force in crowd control operations evolved from the incident at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in 1919. Here British Indian troops under the command of General Sir Reginald Dyer opened fire on a protesting Indian crowd killing hundreds. The incident has been attributed with providing the spark that led to Indian Independence and the fall of the British Liberal Party. The main lessons learned from the Amritsar massacre in 1919 use of minimal force good civil military relations and a requirement for clear legal guidance governing the employment of troops have shaped current British military crowd control doctrine. This paper demonstrates how the current British doctrine is directly linked to the events at the Jallianwalla Bagh and provides a case study proving the importance of minimal force good civil military relations and clear legal guidance that should not be forgotten in current operations. The findings of the paper have been justified by examining the highly emotive and biased writings on the subject drawing a logical sequence of events of the riot and then comparing the incidents after effects to the clear direction in current British Army doctrine. These findings demonstrate a direct linkage to the events in Jallianwalla Bagh in current British doctrine for the use of troops in crowd control operations.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>