The gathering and the shooting

Jallianwala Bagh is a historic site in Amritsar, Punjab, where British troops fired on an unarmed gathering on 13 April 1919. The National Army Museum identifies General Reginald Dyer as the military commander who ordered the firing. The museum notes that the crowd included protesters and people attending a local festival. Dyer should not be confused with Michael O’Dwyer, the lieutenant-governor of Punjab at the time. The violence became a defining event in the history of British rule in India. The museum records Dyer’s forced retirement from the army in July 1920 after the public controversy.[1]

Evidence and disputed casualties

A parliamentary archive description identifies the Hunter Committee’s minutes of evidence as a record of the inquiry into the events. It gives the official estimate of 379 killed and says hundreds more were wounded. The number of deaths remains disputed: other estimates are higher, and no single figure should be presented without explaining its source. The inquiry record contains testimony taken in a particular political setting; it can be compared with Indian accounts, survivors’ recollections and later scholarship. A catalogue description is a guide to the evidence, not a replacement for reading the testimony itself.[2][4]

The memorial site

The Amritsar district administration describes Jallianwala Bagh as a memorial site with a gallery, preserved wall marks and a memorial well. These features give visitors places to encounter the event and its remembrance, although heritage descriptions and physical alterations to a site also reflect later choices about how to commemorate it. The district webpage mistakenly names O’Dwyer as the officer commanding the firing; contemporary and other historical sources identify Reginald Dyer. The distinction is important when using official webpages critically. Visitors can approach the Bagh as a place of mourning and historical inquiry, not merely a tourist attraction.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. National Army Museum, London. Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Henry Dyer, 1919 ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: National Army Museum accession NAM. 1990-12-55--14: catalogue context. Accessed 2026-11-04.Museum catalogue text checked for Reginald Dyer’s role and retirement. Its object record is not the Hunter Commission report; its martial-law chronology is not adopted.Return to The gathering and the shooting, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. UK Parliament. Amritsar: Hunter Commission Report ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Parliamentary Archives DAV/123: 1920 Hunter Committee minutes and collection description. Accessed 2026-11-04.Parliamentary collection description checked for the inquiry and official estimate; the underlying testimony was not independently examined.Return to Evidence and disputed casualties, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. District Amritsar. Jallian Wala Bagh ↗Written source · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: District memorial description: gallery, wall marks and well. Accessed 2026-11-04.District page checked for memorial features; it incorrectly identifies Michael O’Dwyer as the firing commander, a mistake identified in the article. Current site conditions were not surveyed.Return to The memorial site, paragraph 1 ↑
  4. Timothy Robinson and Jon Lunn, House of Commons Library. Jallianwala Bagh massacre ↗Written source · Source date: 2019-04-08 · Locator: Briefing CDP-2019-0085: disputed casualties. Accessed 2026-11-04.Commons Library briefing summary checked for the range of reported estimates; individual casualty lists were not independently checked.Return to Evidence and disputed casualties, paragraph 1 ↑
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Record PH-PLA-0231 · English edition · human review not performed