Reginald Dyer
Reginald Dyer was a British colonial officer born in India and raised by colonial parents in Simla. He served in various military capacities, including riot control in Belfast and combat in the Third Burma War, before rising to the rank of brigadier general during World War I. Dyer is most notably remembered for his role in the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, where he ordered British troops to fire into a large, unarmed crowd protesting against repressive laws in India. This event resulted in significant casualties, with estimates of deaths ranging from 379 to 1,000, and it ignited widespread outrage and riots across Punjab.
Following the massacre, Dyer faced an official inquiry, where he remained defiant about his actions. While he garnered support from conservative circles in Britain and was viewed as a hero by some, the incident ultimately sparked a national debate that challenged Britain's moral standing in India and fueled the growth of the Indian nationalist movement. After being relieved of his command and retiring in 1920, Dyer lived the remainder of his life in relative seclusion until his death in 1927. His legacy is deeply controversial, particularly in the context of colonialism and its impact on India. In 1961, a martyrs' monument was erected at the site of the massacre to honor the victims.
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Reginald Dyer
British general in the colonial Indian Army
- Born: October 9, 1864
- Birthplace: Murree, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan)
- Died: July 23, 1927
- Place of death: Long Ashton, England
Cause of notoriety: Dyer was the commander of British colonial troops who fired upon a crowd of nonviolent Indian political protesters in an enclosed quadrangle, killing more than 379 and wounding hundreds.
Active: April 13, 1919
Locale: Amritsar, Punjab, India (now in Pakistan)
Early Life
Born in India, Reginald Dyer (DI-uhr) was raised in Simla by second-generation colonial parents. He attended the local Bishop Cotton School and in 1885, he was commissioned into the Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. As an officer, he served in riot-control duties in Belfast and saw combat in the Third Burma War in 1886-1887. He also fought in several engagements in the Northwest Frontier around the beginning of the twentieth century. During World War I, he commanded the Eastern Persian cordon, a mountainous region of northwest Pakistan.
Military Career
Stern in manner and with a condescending opinion of the Indians in his jurisdiction, Dyer was the quintessential imperial British officer. In 1919, Indian nationalists protested the enactment of repressive legislation to curb sedition. Demonstrations and strikes were held throughout India. In the Punjab, where Dyer was a brigadier general in command of an infantry brigade, the arrest of two Indian politicians sparked a riot. Martial law was declared, and a ban on all public meetings was imposed. In Amritsar, an estimated twenty thousand people gathered in defiance of the ban at an enclosed lot called Jallianwala Bagh. Under Dyer’s command, 150 colonial troops appeared at the entrance and ordered the crowd to disperse. However, with the military blocking the only entrance, the protesters could not leave. Dyer gave the order to fire point-blank into the unarmed crowd. For ten minutes, the troops fired their rifles until their ammunition was exhausted. Unofficial sources estimated that 1,000 were killed; the government declared 379 dead and 1,200 wounded. The exact figure was never known.
Dyer intended the massacre to teach “the natives” a lesson, perhaps in retaliation for the murder of Europeans and the beating of a woman missionary during earlier rioting. A few days later, Dyer issued an order that Indians using a street where the missionary had been assaulted would have to crawl down it. Local newspapers interpreted the order as a racial insult.
Impact
The massacre triggered mass riots in the Punjab, and the government placed much of the area under martial law. In October, 1919, an official inquiry committee investigated the massacre. Reginald Dyer obstinately refused to explain his actions and was severely censured for a mistaken notion of duty. In Britain, the bitter debate that followed the massacre almost caused the fall of the Liberal government. Majority opinion was probably against Dyer, but he became a hero among the British in India and in conservative circles at home. His defenders in the House of Lords and the Tory press took the line that a brave army officer was being condemned for doing his duty. A London newspaper, The Morning Post, set up a fund to save Dyer from poverty, and many people, especially Britons living in India, made contributions.
In March, 1920, the House of Commons relieved Dyer of his command and forced his retirement. The Amritsar Massacre, the worst atrocity perpetrated by the British in the twentieth century, did more than anything else to undermine Britain’s moral legitimacy in India and provoked the rapid rise of the Indian nationalist movement.
Dyer returned to Britain, where he lived as a recluse until his death from a severe stroke in 1927. He was given a full although unofficial military funeral in London. In 1961, the Republic of India built a martyrs’ monument at the site of the Amritsar Massacre.
Bibliography
Collett, Nigel. The Butcher of Amritsar: General Reginald Dyer. London: Hambledon & London, 2005. A detailed critical biography by a former lieutenant colonel of the British Army who commanded a Gurkha regiment.
Colvin, Ian Duncan. The Life of General Dyer. Edinburgh, Scotland: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1929. The book that established the Dyer legend was sponsored by Dyer’s wife and written by a right-wing reporter for The Morning Post. Colvin’s facts are biased, but the book represents the attitudes of many Britons during a time when the British Empire was in decline.
Fein, Helen. Imperial Crime and Punishment: The Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh and British Judgment, 1919-1920. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1977. A sociologist expounds on “the universe of obligation”—the tendency for members of a dominant class to disregard members of lower classes who commit crimes, as exemplified by Dyer at Amritsar.