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SUMMARY:The Massacre at Jallianwala Bagh\, Amritsar\, 13th April 1919: Som
 e Thoughts on the Casualty Figures - Huw Clayton &amp\; Simon Dunbar (Univ
 ersity of Aberystwyth)
DTSTART:20090310T173000Z
DTEND:20090310T190000Z
UID:TALK18207@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ilya Berkovich
DESCRIPTION:The massacre launched by General Reginald Dyer in the city of 
 Amritsar in 1919 was probably the worst atrocity in the history of the Bri
 tish Raj. It is credited with being the decisive influence in the tactical
  change of the Indian National Congress to push for full Indian independen
 ce\, abandoning their previous policy of demanding Home Rule. Yet even aft
 er eighty years\, the number of dead and injured remains open to very cons
 iderable doubt\, and heated debate often blurred by national identities an
 d pride\, made still more complicated by Amritsar's continuing status as a
  key city on the tense India/Pakistan border.\n\nThe authors of this paper
  - one a legal\, and one a military historian - make their own attempt to 
 come up with a probable figure of the dead\, based upon both the weapons u
 sed by the troops and the stampede engendered by the attempts of the crowd
  to escape from the walled garden in which the attack took place. To do th
 is they use eyewitness accounts\, reports of official tribunals and a clos
 e analysis of the likely death and injury rate of the weapons used. They a
 lso explain why both the official British figure of 379 dead and c. 1000 i
 njured\, and the Indian estimates (which reach in some cases 2\,000 dead a
 nd 6-7\,000 injured) are unsatisfactory and should be treated with caution
 .\n\nThis paper is on a controversial and sensitive topic\, and the author
 s are aware of the ethical and political issues it raises. However\, they 
 also intend to explain why it is essential that a casualty figure is reach
 ed which\, if not absolutely accurate\, is at least tenable\, and how a fa
 ilure to do so could have serious repercussions in the modern world.
LOCATION:Seminar Room F4\, Staircase F\, Old Court\, Peterhouse
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