The case that shook the empire

Six months after the Jallianwala Bagh firing, in October 1919, a body known as the Hunter Commission was established to investigate the massacre. Its findings were divided into Majority and Minority Reports of the British and Indian members. Both Reports condemned the massacre, the lack of instruction to disperse, opening fire with no warning, as well as excesses committed in the Punjab under martial law declared on Vaisaki. The Minority Report advised that limitations on public assembly were not widely known; that those assembled were acting peacefully; and that care should have been given to the wounded. The massacre was also condemned by Edwin Montagu, Secretary of State for India; Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for War; and later by Lord Chelmsford, Viceroy and Governor General of India. The authors point out a statement by Dyer that the massacre was intentionally planned in advance.

In 1923, O’Dwyer filed a defamation suit against Nair. At the hearings, the judge advised the jury to determine if Dyer had committed an atrocity, although the authors pointed out that Dyer’s behaviour was not the subject of the proceeding, and it asked if O’Dwyer was responsible for such atrocity. As the proceedings evolved, there were various procedural actions of the trial that could be deemed to be biased, unfitting, and unfair to the defendant. In the account of the authors, it was obvious that the judge was predisposed that Nair be found guilty of suggesting that a British colonial officer had approved a massacre while trying to protect the Raj from what could have been another rebellion as witnessed in 1857. Further, O’Dwyer as the chief colonial officer of the Punjab, was said by Chelmsford to have ordered martial law.

The titled witnesses brought forth by O’Dwyer, the plaintiff, were from the Indian aristocracy and fundamentally aligned in partnership with the Raj. The witnesses for the defence were from the professions, could not travel to London, and their evidence was taken on commission. Moreover, the judge is described as interrupting the proceedings, asking questions on behalf of O’Dwyer’s lawyer, and implying that O’Dwyer was attempting to save the Empire. The book also indicates that the judge also did not have access to the report of the Hunter Commission. The case ran on for over five weeks, and eventually it was a hung jury. By then, Nair was tired of the proceedings and was opposed to another trial. Ultimately, he agreed to abide with the majority vote (which was against him) as long as his fine was limited to pound sterling 500 – in those days a large sum. Further, Nair was relieved that an apology from him to O’Dwyer was not required. This book has been made into a Hindi film, Kesari Chapter 2, released in April. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was a horrific stain on Great Britain, arousing passions there and in India, and the film should stimulate more painful introspection about what the Raj did and did not do for India. While Nair lost in court, his was seen as a moral victory. His passion for justice and feeling of being wronged brought the massacre to the public eye, and gave impetus to Gandhi’s satyagraha movement, already accelerating because of India’s losses in World War I. O’Dwyer was assassinated in 1940 by Udham Singh, a young witness to the massacre.

Having surpassed Great Britain and major European countries economically, India is now an influential member of the Global South, with the world’s fifth largest GDP, and set to overtake Japan this year, according to the IMF.^[3] The adoption of free markets in the early 1990s is the major driver, and in global trade and investment it is noteworthy that India has embraced the English language and common law. In their mission, the authors have brought forth a dark period in the history of the Raj, and have written a reverent and affectionate tribute to Palat’s great-grandfather. So much has been chronicled about the British Raj over the decades that it is difficult to add value and originality – but the authors have done just that.

Frank Schell is a business strategy consultant and former senior vice president of the First National Bank of Chicago. He was a Lecturer on South Asia affairs at the Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, and served in the U.S. Peace Corps in India. He has been involved with India in development, banking, academia and consulting.

This article was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

Support our work here.

For permission to republish, please contact outreach@gatewayhouse.in.

©Copyright 2025 Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. All rights reserved. Any unauthorised copying or reproduction is strictly prohibited.