Table of Contents: Why Did She Love to Visit India?
Introduction – The tragic Massacre – Queen Elizabeth’s Visit to India – 50th anniversary of Indian Independence & Her participation in the festival – Visit to Jallianwala Bagh Memorial & Queen and Prince Philip –
Introduction: Why did She love to visit India? – the massacre
Although it is a matter of shame for British rulers, despite the Queen Elizabeth 11 used to visit India for 4 times. Why did she love to visit India?
Massacre of Jallianwala Bagh
The Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath noticed British troops hearth on heaps of unarmed humans in Amritsar on the afternoon of thirteen April, 1919. The range of casualties from the event, which hardened opposition to colonial rule, is unclear, with colonial-era information displaying about four hundred deaths, whilst Indian figures put the variety of fatalities nearer to 1,000.
When Queen Elizabeth II stopped brief of apologising for Jallianwala massacre, husband Phillip wondered wide variety of dead
Queen Elizabeth’s Visit to India
In 1961, the Queen and her husband, the late Prince Phillip Duke of Edinburgh, toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, then Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, and additionally visited the Taj Mahal in Agra and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat in New Delhi.
They had been Guests of Honour at the Republic Day Parade on the invitation of the then President, Dr Rajendra Prasad, and an enduring photo from the tour indicates the Queen addressing a large crowd of countless thousand human beings packed into Ramlila Grounds in Delhi for her address, dressed in a fur coat and hat.
In 1983, her go to was once in time for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), and she famously introduced Mother Teresa with an honorary Order of the Merit.
The 59th anniversary of Indian Independence : Why did she loved to visit India?
Her remaining tour to India was once to mark the fiftieth anniversary celebrations of India’s Independence and for the first time, she expressed her grief using two words. That are “difficult episodes” of colonial history.
“It is no secret that there have been some tough episodes in our past. Jallianwala Bagh is a distressing example,” the monarch mentioned in her feast address.
While she recounted Jallianwala Bagh as a distressing example, Britain has nonetheless made no respectable apology.
She and her husband later paid a go to to the scene of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath in Amritsar to region a wreath at the memorial, amid great calls for an apology for the heaps killed at the orders of a British General at some point of the Raj era.
Prince Philip travelled to India 4 times, thrice as the consort of Queen Elizabeth II, however hit the headlines in the course of his ultimate go to in 1997 for his feedback on the range of casualties in the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
image: pixel/ Why did she love to visit India ?
India’s first top minister Jawaharlal Nehru acquired Prince Philip for the duration of his first tour in January 1959.
He as a result accompanied Queen Elizabeth to India in 1961, 1983 and 1997. They toured Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata in 1961, and lower back in 1983 for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
The 1997 go to took location amid a diplomatic row and lengthy remained in Indian public reminiscence for Prince Philip reportedly questioning the quantity of deaths in the Jallianwala Bagh bloodbath at some stage in a go to to the memorial in Amritsar. It is regarded one of his many gaffes.
There had been needs at some stage in the 1997 go to that the royal couple apologise for the 1919 massacre. Over the decades, there have been one of a kind estimates of the casualties of the firing ordered with the aid of Col Reginald Dyer.
British estimates put it at 379, whilst Indian estimates are in the thousands. A plaque at the memorial says: “This vicinity is saturated with the blood of about two thousand Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who have been martyred in a non-violent struggle.”
During the visit, the Queen bowed her head and positioned a wreath at the memorial. On the way out, Prince Philip stopped to question an authentic on the range of dead: “Two thousand? It wasn’t, was once it? That’s wrong. I used to be in the navy with Dyer’s son. That’s a bit exaggerated…it need to encompass the wounded.”
Visit by Queen Elizabeth II The End Of Longest- Reigning British Monarch
Even though Queen Elizabeth II had not offered any remarks on the episode during her state visits in 1961 and 1983, she talked about the occasions at a state dinner in India on 13 October 1997:[88]
Her Visit to Jallianwala Bagh
Its an obvious fact that there have been a few troublesome episodes from before – Jallianwala Bagh, which I will visit tomorrow, is an upsetting model.
Be that as it may, history can’t be reworked, whatever amount of we could at times wish in any case. It has its snapshots of trouble, as well as energy. We should gain from the trouble and expand on the gladness.[88]
On 14 October 1997, Queen Elizabeth II visited Jallianwala Bagh and offered her appreciation with a 30‑second snapshot of quiet.
During the visit, she wore a dress of a variety depicted as pink apricot or saffron, which was of strict importance to the Sikhs.[88] She took off her shoes while visiting the landmark and laid a wreath at the monument.[88]
While certain Indians invited the outflow of disappointment and bitterness in the Queen’s explanation, others condemned it for being under an apology.[88]
The then Prime Minister of India Inder Kumar Gujral safeguarded the Queen, saying that the Queen herself had not even been brought into the world at the hour of the occasions and ought not be expected to apologise.[88]
The Queen’s 1997 assertion was not without discussions. During her visit there were fights in the city of Amritsar, with individuals waving dark banners and reciting the affront “Sovereign, go back.”[89]
Queen Elizabeth and the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh only marked the guest’s book. The way that they left no remark, lamenting the occurrence was criticised.[90][91]
Eternal flame at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre memorial in Amritsar, Punjab state, India
During similar visit, minutes after Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip remained peacefully at the Flame of Liberty, the Prince and his aide, Partha Sarathi Mukherjee, reached[92] a plaque recording the occasions of the 1919 slaughter.
Among the numerous things found on the plaque was the statement that 2,000 individuals were killed in the slaughter.
The exact text is: “This spot is immersed with the blood of around 2,000 Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who were martyred in a peaceful battle.” It proceeds to depict the occasions of that day.[93]
“That is a piece misrepresented,” Philip told Mukherjee, “it should incorporate the injured.” Mukherjee asked Philip how he had reached this resolution.
“I was told about the killings by General Dyer’s child,” Mukherjee reviews the Duke as saying, “I’d met him while I was in the Navy.” These assertions by Philip attracted far and wide judgment India.[93][91][94][95]
Indian writer Praveen Swami wrote in the Frontline magazine:
“(The way that) … this was the lone remark Prince Philip brought to the table after his visit to Jallianwala Bagh … (furthermore, that) it was the main part of the slaughter that practiced his creative mind, caused offense.
It proposed that the demise of 379 individuals was somehow or another deficient to horrify the regal soul, in the manner in which the passing of 2,000 individuals would have.
Maybe more significant of all, the amazing pomposity that Prince Philip showed in refering to his wellspring of data on the misfortune clarified the absence of respectability in the wreath-laying.”[93]
Requests for expression of remorse: Why did she love to visit India?
There are well established requests in India that Britain ought to apologize for the massacre.[93][91][96][90] Winston Churchill, on 8 July 1920, encouraged the House of Commons to rebuff Colonel Dyer.[64]
Churchill, who depicted the slaughter as “monstrous”,[97] prevailed with regards to convincing the House to effectively resign Colonel Dyer, however would have liked to have seen the colonel disciplined.[65]
A conciliatory sentiment was made at the time in a proclamation made by Sir William Vincent, the home individual from the Viceroy’s Council in a discussion on the Punjab aggravations.
So this clarified the profound lament of the Government of India. The activities taken were off-base and renounced by the Government.
It was known as an important instance of inappropriate activity; “over drastic and extreme activity, unreasonable utilization of power and acts … sensibly deciphered as intended to embarrass Indian individuals … can’t however be viewed as unforgivable (and) ethically shaky.
- 1977: The massacre is portrayed in the Hindi movie Jallian Wala Bagh starring Vinod Khanna, Parikshat Sahni, Shabana Azmi, Sampooran Singh Gulzar, and Deepti Naval. The film was written, produced and directed by Balraj Tah with the screenplay by Gulzar. The film is a part-biopic of Udham Singh (played by Parikshit Sahni) who assassinated Michael O’Dwyer in 1940. Portions of the film were shot in the UK notably in Coventry and surrounding areas.[109]
- 1981: Salman Rushdie‘s novel Midnight’s Children portrays the massacre from the perspective of a doctor in the crowd, saved from the gunfire by a well-timed sneeze.
- 1982: The massacre is depicted in Richard Attenborough‘s film Gandhi with the role of General Dyer played by Edward Fox. The film depicts most of the details of the massacre as well as the subsequent inquiry by the Hunter commission.
- 1984: The story of the massacre also occurs in the seventh episode of Granada TV’s 1984 series The Jewel in the Crown, recounted by the fictional widow of a British officer who is haunted by the inhumanity of it and who tells how she came to be reviled because she ignored the honours to Dyer and instead donated money to the Indian victims.
- 2000: Shaheed Udham Singh, a Hindi language film is based on the JallianWala Bagh Massacre and the assassination of Michael O’Dwyer by Udham Singh.
- 2002: In the Hindi film The Legend of Bhagat Singh directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, the massacre is reconstructed with the child Bhagat Singh as a witness, eventually inspiring him to become a revolutionary in the Indian independence movement.
- 2006: Portions of the Hindi film Rang De Basanti nonlinearly depict the massacre and the influence it had on the freedom fighters.
- 2009: Bali Rai‘s novel, City of Ghosts, is partly set around the massacre, blending fact with fiction and magical realism. Dyer, Udham Singh and other real historical figures feature in the story.
- 2012: A few shots of the massacre are captured in the movie Midnight’s Children, a Canadian-British film adaptation of Salman Rushdie‘s 1981 novel of the same name directed by Deepa Mehta.
