Marking the 106th anniversary of one of the darkest chapters in India’s struggle for freedom, the Jallianwala Bagh Chair at Guru Nanak Dev University convened scholars and historians yesterday to explore the enduring impact of the 1919 massacre through the prism of vernacular literature and folklore.
Opening the seminar’s first session, Prof. Amandeep Bal, Chairperson of the Jallianwala Bagh Chair, highlighted a critical yet underexplored facet of the tragedy: the body of creative writing it inspired in regional languages. “Amidst the public outcry following the massacre, writers across Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi and Urdu channels took up pen to demand accountability and give voice to collective anguish,” he noted. “Our objective today is not merely to catalog these powerful poems and stories, but to subject them to rigorous critical analysis, unveiling how they shaped—and were shaped by—the national movement.”
In a compelling second session, Prof. K.L. Tuteja, former head of the Department of History at Kurukshetra University, revisited Mahatma Gandhi’s decision to launch the Rowlatt Satyagraha. Drawing on contemporary newspapers and bulletins, he traced Gandhi’s evolving strategy: “The Rowlatt movement taught Gandhi that a successful campaign must embrace all communities—across gender and class lines. He emerged from the agitation committed to non-violence and Hindu-Muslim unity, paving the way for broader-based civil disobedience.”
Delivering the valedictory address, Prof. Sukhdev Singh Sirsa, former head of Panjab University’s Punjabi Department, underscored that the massacre was no aberration but a calculated instrument of British colonial policy. “The tragedy brutally dispelled any myth of British benevolence,” he argued. “It laid bare the bigotry and despotic powers of officers who arrested and detained innocents without due process.” He further observed that this atrocity galvanized the common populace, who, invigorated by dissent, became the backbone of India’s freedom movement.
Prof. Sirsa also paid tribute to the writers who condemned colonial oppression in their work, from Rabindranath Tagore and Saadat Hasan Manto to lesser-known Punjabi and Bengali poets. He even noted the international resonance of the massacre, citing Russian poet Nikolay Tikhonov’s 1920 poem “Indian Dream,” which lambasted the shooting of unarmed civilians.
Concluding the seminar, Prof. Palwinder Singh, Dean of Academic Affairs at GNDU, addressed common misconceptions surrounding Jallianwala Bagh. He lamented that public understanding often reduces the event to an isolated horror rather than recognizing its pivotal role in India’s national awakening. To further enrich scholarship, the Jallianwala Bagh Chair also released a new volume entitled Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and the Indian National Movement, offering fresh essays and critical perspectives on the massacre’s literary and historical legacy.
The day’s discussions affirmed that even after more than a century, the creative expressions borne of April 1919 continue to resonate—reminding us that literature and folklore are not mere bystanders, but vital instruments in the pursuit of justice and collective memory.
