Jallianvala Bagh

Brig. Gen. Reginald Edward Harry Dyer’s[1] 45th infantry Brigade marched

Sound of army boots bounced off Jallianvala’s walls than cracked and parched

Within the walls 20,000 Indians gathered for a non-violent pact

To implement ways to repeal an unjust Rowlatt Act[2]

British rifleman and two machine gun armored cars blocked the garden

1650 bullet rounds fired on the gathering without a warning or pardon

Ear shattering death cries and sight of the dying pleased Dyer

That April 13th 1919 these men, women and children had no savior

Hunter Committee discharged Dyer for ‘a mistaken notion of duty’

He left India without an equitable punishment or further scrutiny

Churchill and his British parliament rubber-stamped Hunter’s proclamation

The ‘Butcher of Amritsar’ returned home to England without incarceration

In the quiet of each night the dead gather here to congregate

Cries of the dying are still heard as you enter its gate

The Flame of Liberty reminds us of the ghastly atrocity

Now a Memorial of those felled in Amritsar city

Onaly A. Kapasi, M.D.; FAAOS

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