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Lecture commemorates centenary of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

09/05/2019
Lecture commemorates centenary of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

The Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies at the University of Wolverhampton held a lecture to commemorate the centenary of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre recently.

Dr Opinderjit Kaur Takhar MBE, Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton and Director of the Centre for Sikh and Panjabi Studies, who hosted the lecture, said: “April 2019 marked 100 years since the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, an event in Indian colonial history which saw more than 300 Panjabis, the majority of whom were Sikh, killed and over 1,000 wounded, when the British Army opened fire on a large group who had formed in the Jallianwala Bagh gardens in Amritsar.

“This merciless act of violence that was at first lauded in the British parliament would eventually lead to censure and the erosion of the idea that the British Empire was a protective and benevolent force in India.

“This public event commemorated the massacre and examined its significance in Sikh and Panjabi featuring a number of speakers including Dr Rami Ranger, Jas Wouhra, Sham Sharma, Rupinder Kaur and Councillor Kuldip Sahota, alongside two academics who have recently published books on the subject.”

Dr Kim Wagner, Senior Lecturer in British Imperial History at Queen Mary University of London, gave an insight into the socio-historical ramifications of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre from his new book Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre.

Saurav Dutt, author of novels including The Butterfly Room, discussed the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre from his research for his own commemorative book Garden of Bullets: Massacre in Jallianwala Bagh.

The lecture took place in the Chancellor's Hall at City Campus in the presence of Dr Aman Puri, Consul General of India and Dr Satya Sharma, the Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, representing the Lord Lieutenant.

Picture caption from left to right: Saurav Dutt, Dr Opinderjit Takhar Kaur MBE, Professor Geoff Layer, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Wolverhampton, Councillor Kuldip Singh Sahota and Kim Wagner.  

ENDS

 

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