GENERAL DYER

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09415777229, 094055338

E-mail- [e-mail];[e-mail]

 

 

 

GENERAL DYER

 

 

The Army Council has found General Dyer guilty of error of judgment and advised that he should not receive any office under the Crown. Mr. Montagu has been unsparing in his criticism of General Dyer’s conduct. And yet somehow or other I cannot help feeling that General Dyer is by no means the worst offender. His brutality is unmistakable. His abject and unsolder like cowardice is apparent in every line of his amazing defence before the Army Council. He has called an unarmed crowd of men and children mostly holidaymakers“a rebel army”. He believes himself to be the saviour of the Punjab in that he was able to shoot down like rabbits men who were penned in an enclosure. Such a man is unworthy of being considered a soldier. There was no bravery in his action. He ran no risk. He shot without the slightest opposition and without warning. This is not an “error of judgment”. It is paralysis of it in the face of fancied danger. It is proof of criminal incapacity and heartlessness.

But the fury that has been spent upon General Dyer is, I am sure, largely misdirected. No doubt the shooting was “frightful”, the loss of innocent life deplorable. But the slow tor true, degradation and emasculation that followed was much worse, more calculated, malicious and soul killing and the actors who performed the deeds deserve greater condemnation than General Dyer for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The latter merely destroyed a few bodies but the others tried to kill the soul of a nation. Whoever talks of Colonel Frank Johnson who was by far the worst offender? He terrorized guiltless Lahore, and by his merciless orders set the tone to the whole of the martial law officers. But what I am concerned with is not even Colonel Johnson. The first business of the people of the Punjab and of India is to rid the service of Colonel O’Brien, Mr. Bosworth Smith, Rai Shri Ram and Mr. Malik Khan. They are still retained in the service. Their guilt is as much proved as that of General Dyer. We shall have failed in our duty if the condemnation pronounced upon General Dyer produces a sense of satisfaction and the obvious duty of purging the administration in the Punjab is neglected. That task will not be performed by platform rhetoric or resolutions merely. Stern action is required on our part if we are to make any headway with ourselves and make any impression upon the officials that they are not to consider themselves as masters of the people but as their trustees and servants who cannot hold office if they misbehave themselves and prove unworthy of the trust reposed in them.