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Unlock This CourseRemember, the Defence of India Act gave the government emergency powers that were meant to end with the war. Indians expected their freedoms back, and a reward for their loyalty. Instead, the British chose to keep the emergency powers.
A committee led by a British judge, Sir Sidney Rowlatt, reported in 1918 that violent revolutionary groups were still a danger, above all in Bengal and the Punjab. It advised keeping the wartime powers in peacetime. The new law was passed in March 1919. It is known as the Rowlatt Acts.
The Acts mattered because of what they showed. India had given men and money to the war, and the reward seemed to be a law that treated Indians as suspects. Hindus and Muslims protested side by side. Gandhi wanted the protest to be peaceful, but in some cities it turned into riots. He called his campaign off on 18 April, admitting he had misjudged how ready people were for peaceful protest. The emergency powers were hardly ever used and the law was repealed in 1922, but the damage to trust had been done.
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Amritsar is a city in the Punjab and the holy city of the Sikhs. Several causes came together there in April 1919.
13 April was Baisakhi, a major Punjabi festival, and the city was full of visitors from the villages. That afternoon a crowd of many thousands gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh, an open space surrounded by high walls with only a few narrow exits. Some had come to a protest meeting. Others were simply resting at the festival. They were unarmed, and there were women and children among them.
Dyer marched 50 riflemen in through the main entrance. He gave no warning and no order to leave. He ordered his men to open fire, and to aim where the crowd was thickest. The firing went on for about ten minutes. The soldiers fired 1,650 rounds and stopped only when they were running short of ammunition.
Dyer never said it was a mistake. He explained that he had not fired just to clear the crowd. He wanted to produce what he called a 'moral effect' across the Punjab, meaning to frighten people into obeying.
News spread slowly because of censorship, then caused horror. The poet Rabindranath Tagore gave up his knighthood in protest. Congress held its own inquiry, which Gandhi helped to write. Gandhi had backed Britain in the war. Now he decided that British rule could not be reformed and had to end.
The Hunter Committee investigated and in 1920 criticised Dyer. He was made to leave the army but was never put on trial. In the House of Commons, Winston Churchill called the shooting 'a monstrous event'. Yet the House of Lords voted in support of Dyer, and readers of the Morning Post newspaper raised over £26,000 for him.
Explain two effects of the Amritsar Massacre (1919) on relations between Indians and the British. [8 marks]
One effect was that many Indians lost their trust in British rule. On 13 April 1919 General Dyer's troops fired 1,650 rounds into an unarmed crowd in the Jallianwala Bagh without warning, killing at least 379 people. The British had always claimed to rule India fairly and by law, so the shooting of peaceful people made this claim seem false. This led even moderate and loyal Indians to turn against the Raj. For example, Rabindranath Tagore gave up his knighthood, and Gandhi, who had supported Britain in the war, decided that British rule had to end.
A second effect was that the British reaction made Indians feel their lives were not valued, which deepened the bitterness. The Hunter Committee criticised Dyer and he had to leave the army, but he was never put on trial. The House of Lords voted to support him and readers of the Morning Post raised over £26,000 for him. This showed Indians that many British people approved of what he had done. As a result, more nationalists stopped asking for reform inside the Empire and demanded that the British leave India.
What lifts it to the top level: each paragraph names one effect, backs it with precise facts, and then explains step by step how the massacre led to that effect, using linking phrases such as 'this led' and 'as a result'.
This question asks for effects, so do not spend your time describing the shooting. Give one or two key facts about 13 April, then move straight to what changed afterwards. Write two separate paragraphs: one effect alone, however well explained, cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks.