Introduction
On 13th April 1919, thousands of Sikhs crowded into the Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar in the Punjab for a religious festival. Led by intelligence reports to believe that Bolshevik (communist) agitators were among them, General Reginald Dyer quietly shut the gates and gave the order to fire on the crowd. A year later, Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill rose in the Commons to deliver his verdict.
HOWEVER we may dwell upon the difficulties of General Dyer during the Amritsar riots, upon the anxious and critical situation in the Punjab, upon the danger to Europeans throughout that province, upon the long delays which have taken place in reaching a decision about this officer, upon the procedure that was at this point or at that point adopted, however we may dwell upon all this, one tremendous fact stands out — I mean the slaughter of nearly 400 persons and the wounding of probably three or four times as many, at the Jallian Wallah Bagh on 13th April.* That is an episode which appears to me to be without precedent or parallel in the modern history of the British Empire. It is an event of an entirely different order from any of those tragical occurrences which take place when troops are brought into collision with the civil population. It is an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation.
The death-toll is disputed. The British set it at 379, the Indian National Congress at about 1,000. It might have been much worse. Providentially, narrow streets had kept out Dyer’s armoured vehicles and machine-guns.
Précis
In 1920, a year after General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd in the Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar in the Punjab, Secretary for War Winston Churchill rose in the Commons to denounce the entire episode. He labelled it monstrous, and dismissed out of hand all attempts to excuse or diminish the horror of it. (60 / 60 words)
In 1920, a year after General Reginald Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd in the Jallianwala Bagh at Amritsar in the Punjab, Secretary for War Winston Churchill rose in the Commons to denounce the entire episode. He labelled it monstrous, and dismissed out of hand all attempts to excuse or diminish the horror of it.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, besides, just, not, since, unless, until, whereas.
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