Amritsar: The cost of no apology

Earlier this month India paused from its election campaign to mark the centenary of one of the darkest deeds in the history of the British Empire — the massacre at Amritsar.

On April 13, 1919 British-led troops fired on hundreds of unarmed people in a walled garden in the Punjab city of Amritsar. They were ordered to fire until their ammunition ran out.

No attempt was made to allow the crowd to disperse. The troops were firing from the only exit. There was no means of escape.

Officially the death toll was 379; Indians put it at closer to 1000. 

Historians believe that incident and the fact the perpetrators were never properly punished, provided the impetus that eventually forced the British from India 28 years later.

Before the massacre Indian independence had largely been the subject of debate among a small group of intellectuals.

Even activist Mahatma Gandhi, who later led the campaign for independence, had believed the British could still be absorbed into a free India in much the same way as past conquerors, such as the Mughals, had been.

All that changed after 1919.

Fast forward 100 years and the United Kingdom, long stripped of its overseas possessions and preparing to leave the European Union, is desperately casting about for partners to fulfil its hopes of becoming a ‘global’ trading nation.

One would assume that India, now a rising superpower with a population of more than 1.3 billion, would figure large in this new global strategy. Time to mend fences, with the Amritsar anniversary providing the ideal opportunity.

A heartfelt and sincere apology for the atrocity, delivered on site by a royal personage was in order. Instead the UK was left asleep at the wheel.

It was represented at the anniversary ceremony by its High Commissioner, Dominic Asquith who laid a wreath and mouthed a few words about being unable to rewrite history, but the need to learn its lessons.

What the UK has not learnt is the depth of feeling and resentment that continues in India about the massacre. It has not been forgotten and for many Indians, Britain can never be a true friend.   

In London, Prime Minister Theresa May did pause from the Brexit crisis to tell Parliament that the massacre was “a shameful scar on British Indian history.”

“We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused,” she said.

However, in diplomatic speak “regret” falls short of an apology, as was noted by the Chief Minister of Punjab State, Amarinder Singh.

“An unequivocal official apology is needed for this monumental barbarity,” Singh said.  

  

Sadly May is not the first UK leader in modern times to stumble over this highly sensitive and emotional issue.

When David Cameron became the first serving British Prime Minister to visit the site in 2013 he defended his decision not to say sorry.

“It happened 40 years before I was born…I don’t think the right thing is to reach back into history and to seek out things you can apologise for,” Cameron said.

History may well come back to bite the UK as it seeks to replace the trading relationships it has lost with Europe.