A leisurely morning was followed this afternoon by two of Amritsar's most cherished locations, the Jallianwala Bagh and the Sri Durgiana Temple. The Jallianwala Bagh is an enclosed green space in the middle of a crowded downtown, with the trees and flowers an almost shocking sight from the hustle and bustle of typical Indian byways. The entrance is easy to miss, but if you spot the right alley, you're treated to a delightful and well maintained albeit small park. The point of this area is as a memorial to an atrocity committed by the English, where a peaceful protest by a few thousand Indians (mainly students and young people) turned into a shooting gallery. Since there's only one entrance/exit, more than two thousand of the unsuspecting protesters were killed, and several thousand more wounded. This fateful day was used by Mohandas Ghandi in the launching of his non-violent protest campaign, which some say led to the eventual independence of India.
Two side notes: first, the demonstration was to disagree with a new law allowing the detainment of "seditious" Indians by the English government for as long as they wanted, without evidence or need for trial. Pretty horrific law. Second, the
Major that ordered the attack on peaceful civilians received no reprimand or trial, and was only brought to justice by an Indian vigilante (actually an intellectual, he killed the Major at a talk in England 25 years after the massacre, immediately surrendered himself, and put up no defense at his trial. He was hanged by the English). A horrible incident all around, and it took place in 1915, not the dark ages. So much for the mythical English civility and morality.
The second place we saw was the Hindu version of the Golden Temple, a temple in the middle of a man made lake. It was a very nice counterpoint to the crass temples we'd seen in Haridwar (the Neelkanth in Rishikesh was quite beautiful, although it too had a bit of carnival feel), although I worry that it only seemed less base because the entire idea for the temple is based on one done a few decades before it, the Sikh Golden Temple. I've really not gotten a great picture of Hinduism, although I suppose it's a bit like judging Christianity by looking at medieval Madonnas. Really not a good way at all to paint an entire religion,
and I'm going to stop doing it immediately.
Tomorrow - Golden Temple at sunrise and cave temples after lunch
India's Flag
Map of India