SARE ARYA PARIWARS KO

VAISAKHI KI SHUB KAMNAYE.

Baisakhi marks the beginning of New Year, particularly in the northern part of India. It is among the few Indian festivals that have a fixed date. Baisakhi is always on April 13th. It is on this day that Sun enters Aries, the first sign of Zodiac. This signifies ushering of the New Year in Hindu calender.

In Northern India, sepecially in Punjab farmers perform their own prayers and give ‘thanks’ to the Lord Almighty for their fortune and pray for a better crop the next year. On this day, they commence reaping their harvest. The fields can be seen full of nature’s bounty.

For the Sikhs the day is a collective celebration of New Year along with the commemoration of the founding of the Khalsa Panth (Sikh brotherhood) by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.  Dressed in their typical folk attire, both men and women, celebrate the day with Bhangra and Gidda.

The above two are the main reasons for celebrating Baisakhi.

But let us no forget a historic event which took place on Vaisakhi day of April 13 1919,

The Amritsar massacre, also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre,

when British Army of (Pathan, Baluch and Gurkha)led by a Brig-Gen. Reginald Dyer

without warning opened fire on an unarmed innocent gathering, killing men, women and children.

JALIANWALA BAHG MASSECAR MEMORIAL

The words Jallianwala Bagh, has a hypnotic effect on the Indian mind. It brings forth unadulterated feelings of patriotism on the one hand and utter contempt of the British Raj on the other hand. We have to remind over selves and others especially the younger generation of today of those hard days when British imperialists would go to any extent to strengthen their hold on India.

The bloody and the most ghastly event of Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar took place on the Vaisakhi day on April 13^th 1919, when thousands of people from all over India, gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh near Golden Temple in Amritsar to celebrate a more than two hundred years old annual festival, for the new harvest and Sikh religious new year. Jallianwala Bagh, as such, is an immortal milestone in India’s struggle for freedom.

It stands as a beacon of light of inspiration to all of us and which laid the foundation of freedom of India, with their blood and let us pay our humble homage to the people who embraced death so that the nation may live.

Just remember

Jallianwala Bagh yeh dekho, Yahan chali thhi goliyan, Yeh mat puchho kisne kheli yahan khoon ki holian.

Ek taraf thee bandook dandan ek taraf thi tolian. Marne waale bol rahe thhe, Inquilab ki boliyan.’

Yahaan lagaa dii bahano ne bhii baaji apani jaan kii. Is mittie se tilak karo ye dharti ha balidhan ki.

The Disorder Inquiry Committee known as Hunter Committee after its chairman, Lord Hunter, held Brigadier-General R.E.H. Dyer guilty of a mistaken notion of duty, and he was relieved of his command and prematurely retired from the army. The Indian National Congress at its annual session in December 1919 at Amritsar called upon the British Government to "take early steps to establish a fully responsible government in India in accordance with the principle of self determination.

On 13 March 1940 after 21 years an Indian revolutionary named Udham Singh, who had witnessed the events in Amritsar and was himself wounded, shot dead Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the tehn Governor of Punjab, believed to be the chief planner of the massacre at the Caxton Hall in London. (Gen.Dyer having died years earlier in 1927)

Udham Singh had told the court at his trial: "I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?"

Udham Singh was hanged for the murder on July 31, 1940. Jawaharlal Nehru applauded Udham Singh in 1952 with the following statement which had appeared in the daily Partap: "I salute Shaheed-i-Azam Udham Singh with reverence who had kissed the noose so that we may be free.

But earlier in March 1940, many, including Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi, had condemned the action of Udham as senseless.

The Arya Samaj and such other organizations should always remind people to celebrate the anniversaries of such incidents lest we should forget our national heroes and martyrs.

The massacre was the worst atrocity by a British officer ever recorded.

By Kewal Ahluwalia.