Jallianwala Bagh has resonated in the memory of Indians for over a half a century By official estimate 379 Indians attending an unlawfully convened but peaceful political rally were killed by the orders of Brig Gen Reginald E Dyer Indian contemporaries alleged that there were 1 000 to 1 500 deaths and a census counted over 500 victims A J P Taylor calls the massacre the worst bloodshed since the Mutiny and the decisive moment when Indians were alienated from British rule No event in modern British history occurring in the United Kingdom or its white colonies has compared to it in loss of lives as a consequence of firing against civilians This work places the massacre in the context of imperial history and examines it as a paradigm of confrontation between two classes divided in this case by race nation and religion as well as by power The analysis of this crime is uniquely accessible because of the accounts produced by the Government of India s Hunter Committee and the Indian National Congress subcommittee established to investigate the Punjab disorders