Revisiting the tales of trauma

Out of the many massacres in history, the painful memories of some linger a little longer and such is the case with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that took place on April 13, 1919. The brutal massacre that was ordered by Colonel Reginald Dyer on the occasion of Baisakhi – Punjabi New Year led to the death of over 1000 people by the soldiers of the British Army.  And even now, after 100 years, a mere mention of that day is enough to make one unsettled or even rage with anger. As the writers and the poets are the first to record the tremors felt by such events that change the path of history, one such storyteller Jameel Gulrays from the organisation Katha Kathan is going to revisit the day through the words of two eminent writers.

Remembered as the deadliest attack on the unarmed and peaceful celebrators, Jallianwala Bagh massacre forced many writers to respond to the deplorable and brutal act against humanity. Shaken by the event, writers and poets have penned down the details of the massacre that continues to echo in literature. It is perhaps why Jameel has chosen to read Manto’s Deevana Shayar and Krishan Chandar’s 1919 Ka Ek Din “Both the stories are set on the background of Jallianwala Bagh. It has been 100 years of the deadliest event and this is my way to pay tribute to all the innocent people who lost their lives,” says the storyteller who intends to bring the literature of the massacre in light through these stories.

These writings not only record the chronicles of the fateful day that force one to look back at the trauma of the event, but also are illustrative of its evergreen expression found in literature and poetry. In a long list of literature by writers and poets, the stories by Sadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander and poems by Sohan Singh and the other parallel poets are the most remembered ones.

While Amritsar Azadi Se Pahele, Amritsar Azadi Ke Baad talks about the unheard heroes of Jallianwala Bagh – the valiant women like Begum, Zainab, Paro, and Sham Kaur who challenged General Dyers’s illegal ‘crawling order,’ the poem The Bullet Marks by Sohan Singh Misha, translated by Jasdeep Singh and Amarjit Chandan also gives a rich description of the massacre. Later as contemporary writers delved into the literature of the past, playwrights like Bhisham Sahni through his play, Rang De Basanti Chola brought several facts about Amritsar of 1919 that was filled with joy and innocence. A short story Jallianwala Bagh is Alive by a Punjabi writer Navtej Singh informs that the past never dies or goes away. In the most recent times, noted writer and activist Rakshanda Jalil has also put together a volume highlighting India’s cultural responses to the massacre.

According to Jameel, the cold-blooded massacre left many minds unsettled and it still has the power to disturb any sensitive human being, hence it is important to revisit these painful memories. Complaining about the ignorance, he rues “People or the political parties have long forgotten the brutal event and they don’t talk about it because they won’t get votes for it.”