Page 63 - 30APR2019E
P. 63
Book review
RemembeRing a daRk were fired for 10 minutes. He issued
no warning and continued firing
chapteR of bRitish Rule even as people ran towards the exits.
He directed fire where the crowd
was at its thickest and also towards
the exits. Of the estimated 15,000
The volume on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre brings back the people present in the Bagh, between
haunting memories of unarmed innocents killed in brutal way, five to six hundred died and approxi-
mately 1500 were wounded. Dyer
writes humra quraishi left as abruptly and swiftly as he had
arrived. No arrangements were made
his volume focuses on the the Deputy Superintendent in another, to rescue the wounded who lay soaked
Jallianwala Bagh mas- Dyer reached the Bagh by 5.30 pm. He in their blood all night since a curfew
sacre, through a selection was accompanied by fifty Gurkha and was in place from 8 pm to 6 am. Only
of hard hitting prose and Baluchi soldiers…Placing 25 soldiers a handful of people ventured into the
poetry, penned by our each on either side of a raised strip Bagh in search of their loved ones;
T literary giants — Saadat near the entrance, Dyer ordered his many of the wounded died during
Hasan Manto, Mulk Raj Anand, Krishan men to fire: 1650 rounds of 303 marks the night ... ”
Chander, Bhisham Sahni, Abdullah I could go on writing about this
Hussein, Sarojini Naidu, Mohammad massacre, as details stand out …leaving
Iqbal, Josh Malihabadi, Nanak Singh one numb with pain and sorrow. Per-
and several other stalwarts. Jallianwala bagh- haps, this verse of Sarojini Naidu titled
Each essay and verse tucked in this liteRaRy Responses — Panjab 1919 - tucked in the pages of
in pRose & poetRy
volume brings back those haunting EditEd by Rakhshanda Jalil this volume, relays much —
memories of unarmed innocents killed thoRnbiRd — an impRint of “How shall our love console thee, or
in that shockingly brutal way. Though niyogi books assuage/
a century has passed by but not those 227 pp; 495 Thy hapless woe; how shall our grief
imprints and memories. After all, the requite/
Jallianwala Bagh massacre The hearts that scourge
was so very lethal that it thee and the hands that
would always stand out. smite/
Who can forget the fact Thy beauty with their
that 1650 rounds were fired rods of bitter rage?/
on the unarmed, in a mat- Lo! Let our sorrows be
ter of ten minutes, blocking thy battle –gage/
all possible exits, prevent- To wreck the terror of
ing all possible interven- the tyrant’s might/
tions …as though killings Who mocks with ribald
of the hapless was the sole wrath thy tragic plight,/
agenda of the killer, Dyer. And stains with shame
To quote academic thy radiant heritage!/
Rakhshanda Jalil , from O beautiful! O broken
the introduction to this and betrayed!/
volume- “On 13 April, at O mournful queen! O
1.30 pm, Dyer learnt from martyred Draupadi!/
Mr Lewis, the manager of Endure thou still, uncon-
the Crown Cinema, that quered, undismayed! /
a meeting was going to The sacred rivers of thy
be held at the Jallianwala stricken blood/
Bagh despite prohibitory Shall prove the five -fold
orders. Accompanied by stream of Freedom’s flood,/
his Brigade Major, Captain To guard the watch
F.C. Briggs, in one car, and -towers of our Liberty.”
J. F. Rehill, Superintendent
of Police and R. Ploomer, letters@tehelka.com
