The painful story of Jallianwala Bagh massacre was retold through a ballet performance on Monday. Few college and school students performed the incident live on stage in a programme ‘Swaraj Ke Swar’ held at Shaheed Bhavan Auditorium.
Notably, to observe the 96th anniversary of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, the programme was organised. Through the poetic language and with the use of Parsi and Urdu theatre form, the students wondrously performed the act on stage. The programme began with ‘Ishwar Vandana’ and later, the poetic narration of the act was described on stage. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre or the Amritsar Massacre is one of the horrific instances of brutality by the British Raj.
On the day of Baisakhi, various Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims were gathered at Jallianwala Bagh near Golden Temple of Amritsar on April 13, 1919. They gathered for a meeting in protest against the arrest of two leaders. The gates of the Jallianwala Bagh were narrow and most of them were kept permanently locked. The place was surrounded by buildings and houses and there was only one exit that was the entrance.
As the meeting was on, General Dyer of British Indian Army entered the premises of the bagh with Balochi and and Gurkha soldiers. He then orders the soldiers to fire the unarmed people, which lasted for 10 minutes.
There were thousands of women, children and men killed and wounded. Some of them to escapes bullets jumped into a well, now known as martyr’s well. This massacre is one of the most brutal of all the acts by British Raj.
The use of powerful poetry and slogans of those times added much zest in the performance. It was the first endeavour by the students to perform on stage with live music. The performance was much appreciated by the audience.