ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how perhaps the most infamous use of fatal force by the British on an unarmed crowd namely, on the peaceful mob in Jallianwala Bagh in 1920 has its reverberations in contemporary India. It focuses on the use of fatal force by the state in three historical periods namely the colonial era, the post-independence era leading up to the Emergency and the post-Emergency era leading up to the present. The use of fatal force by the Indian state against its own people in the postcolonial era originates in British colonial administrative practices. The post-independence period in India continued to witness a series of protests and demonstrations over a wide range of issues. The Indian state, in response to human rights activism, has attempted to check the use of fatal force by the police by focusing on law-reform efforts so as to introduce procedural safeguards on the use of fatal force by the state.
