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Amritsar Massacre

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bainbrig | 10:12 Tue 30th Apr 2019 | History
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Watching the C4 documentary on the 1919 massacre at Amritsar . Shocking, appalling - and the typical reactions from the descendants of the British officer who ordered his men to open fire on the unarmed crowd, and those of his defenders, was “It wasn’t a massacre, it was riot-containment.”

You can imagine similar comments from descendants of the Nazis - it wasn’t genocide, just over-zealous prison guards - sickening.

How little we British know of our own bloody history.

B
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PP
No carp sherlock. I knew that. I learnt that in partition history. The moslems hated the Sikhs. That is why I mentioned it. Duh
Question Author
What often seems to be forgotten/ignored/glossed-over is the fact that the British were an occupying power in India, no less than the Romans in their empire, or the Nazis strutting around occupied Europe.

The squaddies patrolling Amritsar (and the rest of India) were no doubt as disrespectful and disdainful as British (and other) squaddies always are. They would have marched around Indian streets, guffawing at the women, pushing men out of their path, disrespecting anything religious.

And remember one of the 'punishments' inflicted by Dyer on citizens of Amritsar after his massacre? He closed off a popular alleyway, and forced 'natives' to crawl the length of it on their bellies, at bayonet-point, while other good British soldiers photographed their humiliation.

Any echoes of the 1930s (just 15 years later, in another place?)

Let your opinions of India 100 years ago (and indeed more recently) be coloured by these facts.

B
Maharajas were warring internally & the Mughal Emperor 'invited' the British to restore peace in India. No army is free!

"...the British company negotiated trading rights with the Mughal emperor in 1612...."

http://education.asianart.org/explore-resources/background-information/maharajas-under-british-colonial-rule-and-maharajas-today
Question Author
Maybe so, but whether we started off as a police force or as invaders, we ended up as Occupiers, just as much as (say) the Germans in France, or the Americans in xxxxx (insert name of foreign country ‘liberated’ by the US).

B
// The moslems hated the Sikhs. That is why I mentioned it. Duh// carps retro

so um that is why you mentioned it in connection of a massacre by the Brits of Sikhs - which then became a lantern for the ending of the British Raj ....

yeah - righto! - ( and even durr) it makes sense to you, then it must be AB in full swing !
.And remember one of the 'punishments' inflicted by Dyer on citizens of Amritsar after his massacre? He forced Indians to crawl the length of 'it' [nearby street but o what the hell].

we most certainly do !
it came up here last week 26 Ap 19
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1655573.html

[Crawling order. Dyer designated the spot where Marcella Sherwood was assaulted sacred. Daytime pickets were placed at either end of the street. Anyone wishing to proceed in the street between 6am and 8pm was made to crawl the 200 yards (180 m) on all fours, lying flat on their bellies.]

Do standard ABers read? CAN standard ABers read?
all ask(*) - we should be told (**)

(*) Ernest Bramah Tales of Kai Lung
(**) Private Eye
// Maybe so, but whether we started off as a police force or as invaders, we ended up as Occupiers, as (say) the Germans in France,//

so la chute de France was a police action? erm if you say so!
there were differences mind - think Gestapo and pliers and finger nails. Also one resistant died for every airman sent home to dear old blighty - and somehow ( censorship I am sure) I havent READ that for airmen in England these days .....
Question Author
PP

My reference to 'police' was in answer to tambourine's of 11.31. Of course the Nazis were in no way a police force in France.

Sorry I missed the earlier reference to Dyer's perfidy; I (unlike some) don't spend all my time poring over Answerbank and its varied correspondence.

BB
Did other country 'occupiers' build railways, infrastructure as in India, Hong Kong, & most of far east, Oz , NZ, Africa (all old pink imperial) lol. English language has earned dividends for British occupied countries. Methinks gratitude aint enuf - we want dosh ;)
The Dutch called the german occupation - the german embrace ( a bit like The Rought Wooing of scotland 1530s)
but I dont think they built railways !

built a few concentration camps and this is AB so does that count? Drancy and Westerbork spring to mind - um my mind that is!

o god the german occupation of europe was as benign as say the occupation of the Bahamas ( governor was also part German innit? one ex King Edward VIII)
Jesus this HAS to be AB in full swing !
addendum, India could have been occupied by Russia if the Tsar hadnt been murdered. Queen Vic was related to the Romanovs.
// I don't spend all my time poring over AB// BB
BB stands for Busy bainbridge

and so do I - I only read AB as a light relief to many others hours pondering deep subjects like - - - why havent we Brexited yet?
[ and was it Dyer or O'Dwyer or O'shaughbessy who was the officer commanding, and ....]
// Queen Vic was related to the Romanovs.//
kinda the other way round, sort of
but accepted
and Russia fiddling with Northern India - they had only just annexed the Crimea ( which people will notice they have just re-annexed) so Russia was a real threat ....
dunno wot ur on abaht pp. If you visit India today you will see the neglect of Brit brick built homes empty while indiginous indians sleep on streets in squalor.
My ancestors were russian traders (jute & salt petra?) their son married my Scots gma (her father was a major brit army & vet to military horse artillery in India). Hence my indian interest.
//Own bloody history// cheeky bu&&rr! when indians were cast out by Idi Amin from Africa, India refused them refuge but Britain rescued them & THAT is how most UK indians come to live in this green & pleasant land!
Question Author
The old story, the old lie, about how benign was British Rule wherever we went.

Learn your history. The British (or more accurately The East India Company, for it was a purely economic enterprise) built up the Indian infrastructure in order to ship their goods (including drugs, by the *** ton) around the subcontinent before shipping it on to such poor benighted places as China and Europe.

My ancestry is partly (proudly) Indian, and I often recall how when my Indian ancestors were organised into a largely peaceful well-organised civilisation, my English ancestors were still living in mud huts. And now they have Answerbank.

Apologies Peter P, didn't mean to make trouble - sometimes your amusing criticisms are hard to fathom...

BB
trade is trade! India still grows opium; shows how much they value human life!
Opium for china tea, silk, rubber & rice; all brought to India by Brits to India.
how old r u bainbrig, if u dont mind me asking?

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