द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

THE CLOUDS GATHER 51
Two committees were appointed to inquire into these
incidents and submit a report—a non-official committee .
appointed by the Indian National Congress and an official
committee appointed by the Government of India, called
the Hunter Committee. The Congress Enquiry Committee
published unimpeachable evidence of the most brutal atro-
cities committed by the forces of the Crown, including
outrages on helpless women. The findings of the Hunter
Committee did not go as far as those of the Congress Enquiry
Committee, nevertheless, they were sufficiently damaging
for any government. After the publication of these two
reports the public naturally expected that in view of the
new era to be ushered in by the Constitutional Reforms, the
Government of India would take courage in both hands
and punish the wrong-doers, while granting adequate com-
pensation for all those who had been killed or injured or had
been otherwise made to suffer.
By the middle of 1920 it was clear, however, that the
Government of India did not propose to take any such
action.¹ The attitude and conduct of the Government appeared
to the public eye as tantamount to condoning all the inhuman
atrocities that had been perpetrated. This created a revulsion
of feeling all over the country, even in circles favourably
disposed towards the Government and the New Constitution.
There can be little doubt that if the Government of Lord
Chelmsford, the then Viceroy and Governor-General of
India, had in 1920, taken drastic action against the authors
of the Punjab atrocities, the confirmed 'Co-operator,'
Mr. Gandhi, would not have been forced to the path of
non-co-operation, nor would the Indian National Congress
have set aside the resolution adopted at the Amritsar Session
in December, 1919. Thus, on the rock of Jallianwalla Bagh
¹ In the Imperial Legislative Council an Indemnity Act was passed in
order to protect all the officers who had taken part in the Punjab atrocities.
Besides the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Sir Michael O'Dwyer,
was untouched, and General Dyer, who was responsible for the Jallianwalla
Bagh massacre and for the administration of Martial Law, was merely
declared unfit for future service in India. Even the meagre action taken
by the Government was disapproved by the House of Lords and unpre-
cedented public subscriptions were raised in England for the authors of the
Punjab tragedy.