Our spirit did not break, their empire did

P Sainath

Jallianwala Bagh was a turning point in the conscience of a nation in the making. Many of us grew up learning that the legend of Bhagat Singh began there – when, at the age of 12, he visited the place and filled  a small bottle with blood-stained soil that he took back to his village. There, along with his sister, he poured it out at a spot in the garden in his grandfather’s home. They then grew flowers on that spot each year.

The massacre doesn’t seem to have touched the conscience of the perpetrators or their successor governments. Nearly 35 years ago, when I visited, I was unable to resist scribbling:

They charged us unarmed people
The crowds broke
They used their lathis and batons
Our bones broke
They opened fire
Many lives broke
Our spirit did not break
Their empire did