ABSTRACT
‘The tragedy of the Jallianwala Bagh was staggering for its dramatic effect’, states the Report of the Indian Congress Sub-Committee. Did Dyer’s act quell a riot or crush a rebellion? As well as being a pointer to the question whether the Punjab disorders were a ‘riot’ or a ‘rebellion’, which may influence our assessment of Dyer’s action in the Jallianwala Bagh, the Afghan War, the third of that series, has another interest for us, for Dyer took part in it and, by his relief of Thai, earned ‘great credit’, in the words of the dispatch of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Charles Monro. In Dalhousie, Dyer worked on his report, handicapped, his biographer says, by the absence of Captain Briggs, his Brigade-Major. Dyer’s dispatch, addressed to the ‘General Staff, 16th (Indian) Division’ and dated August 25th, represents his first attempt to justify his action in the Jallianwala Bagh.
