The Massacre That Shook the Empire 2019

I found this to be an informal and interesting documentary, as much about the presenter as about the historical incident he describes.

I stumbled across this documentary while looking for something to watch recently. It was much better than I expected it to be, considering it concerns a very grim and violent incident in British history, one that many at the time, and perhaps even now, would rather not talk about. The incident in question is the massacre at Amritsar in 1919.

But the program was not boring or tedious thanks to the inherent charm of the presenter, journalist Sathnam Sanghera. Right from the beginning Sanghera established an informal style to his documentary by admitting that he had fibbed to his mother, telling her he was going to Las Vegas rather than India so as not to worry her. His family had emigrated to Britain when he was young, so he felt more British than Indian, a personal complication for his research into the matter.

At the time of the shootings, the general in charge, Reginald Dyer, had told multiple versions of what had occurred under his command. But after he was initially cleared of wrongdoing, he admitted he could have dispersed the crowd at the public park without ordering gunfire, but he figured they would only gather again the next day and he wanted to teach them a lesson. The location became a shrine after the British rule ended years later.

Sanghera spoke to descendants of the British involved in the massacre. General Dyer's great granddaughter refuted all the major details of the incident and said she was proud of her ancestor. Another descendant of an administrator took it further, suggesting that even Sanghera would have cheered the general on had he been present. Of course I wasn't there either, but the strong denials had the ring of latent inherited racism to me.

But of course everyone can either form their own opinion, or hold onto what they already feel is the truth without seriously considering alternative viewpoints, but to me what is almost more important is the way Sanghera deals with his own ambiguous feelings about the massacre, and his place in British life. In a way, this documentary about the shootings is just as much about him, about his journey. Well worth watching.

— Peter McGinn