Queen Elizabeth arrives in India; apology not on agenda

October 12, 1997
Web posted at: 3:27 p.m. EDT (1927 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) -- Queen Elizabeth II on Sunday began her first visit to India in nearly 15 years, with protesters calling on her to apologize for the 1919 massacre of hundreds of Indians by British troops.

The queen plans to visit a monument in the city of Amritsar where British forces killed 379 Indian civilians who had gathered in a courtyard for a political rally.

Relatives of the victims and others have held numerous protests throughout the country -- the latest on Sunday outside the British High Commission office in New Delhi -- demanding an official apology from the queen.

Britain's high commissioner to India, David Gore-Booth, said last week the queen plans to lay a wreath at the site but would not offer an apology.

"It's not enough to lay a wreath. A few words from the queen would help heal old wounds," said Bhushan Behl, who heads a committee formed by relatives of those killed in the massacre.

In 1919, Gen. Reginald Dyer ordered soldiers to fire on unarmed civilians listening to Indian leaders campaigning for independence in a courtyard with only one gate. More than 1,000 people also were injured in the assault, which Dyer said he ordered to prevent an uprising. He was later exonerated by his British superiors.

The queen's weeklong visit marks the third time she has visited India since 1947 when the nation gained independence from Britain.

During her visit to Amritsar about 280 miles (450 km) northwest of New Delhi, the queen plans to visit the 400-year-old Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. The queen also will visit the southern cities of Madras and Cochin.

Security during the queen's visit will be tight in view of the protests and fears of bomb threats. Police are still investigating the explosions caused by three bombs that went off in New Delhi over the weekend, killing one person and injuring 16 others.

In India, Queen Bows Her Head Over a Massacre in 1919

By JOHN F. BURNS
Published: October 15, 1997

In an act of contrition for Britain's colonial past, Queen Elizabeth came to this Punjab city today and paid 30 seconds of silent homage at the site of the Amritsar massacre of April 13, 1919, one of the British Empire's darkest days.

The Queen removed her shoes and laid a wreath of white and gold marigolds at a pink granite memorial at Jallianwala Bagh, the walled garden where Brig. Reginald Dyer, a British officer administering martial law in Amritsar, ordered 50 soldiers to open fire on a crowd of about 10,000 unarmed Indians protesting an extension of World War I detention laws.

A British commission concluded at the time that the fusillade killed 379 people and wounded more than 1,100, while an independent Indian inquiry empaneled by Mohandas K. Gandhi, the independence leader, estimated that 1,000 had died. Reports at the time said Brigadier Dyer, after the massacre, had made Indians crawl along a street where two Englishwomen had been attacked, and ordered others to be whipped.

The incident galvanized the Indian freedom movement. After it, Gandhi's formula of nonviolent resistance caught fire, sidelining conservatives who had argued for pragmatic cooperation with the British. In later years, Indian historians came to see the Amritsar massacre as a crucial juncture in the struggle for independence from Britain, which came at midnight on Aug. 14, 1947.

At a state banquet on Monday night, the Queen, 71, said: ''It is no secret that there have been some difficult episodes in our past -- Jallianwala Bagh, which I shall visit tomorrow, is a distressing example. But history cannot be rewritten, however much we might sometimes wish otherwise. It has its moments of sadness, as well as gladness. We must learn from the sadness and build on the gladness.''

Stepping back at the ceremony today, the Queen stood stock still, then briefly bowed her head, as she did last month when the cortege carrying the body of Diana, Princess of Wales, passed before members of the royal family outside Buckingham Palace on its way to Diana's funeral. This tour of India and Pakistan, planned months ago to mark the 50th anniversary of the two nations' independence, is the Queen's first public engagement since the funeral.

Like everything touching on Britain's imperial past here, the ceremony today touched off a babel of opinions. Most of these were tinged by the larger judgments many Indians have made -- some resentful, some nostalgic, many somewhere in between -- about the 200 years in which Britain's presence expanded from a trading toehold on the coast north of Bombay to a vast domain whose riches helped Britain become the world's dominant power for the century before World War I.

Some Indians delighted in the fact that the granddaughter of King George V, Emperor of India at the time of the massacre, had acknowledged the wrong done at Jallianwala Bagh. But others were angry that the Queen, during her 15-minute tour of the site, had stopped short of the more explicit apologies that Japanese and German leaders have offered for atrocities in World War II.

Otherwise, the most telling gesture was the color of the Queen's dress. Described by British officials as pale apricot, it was, in fact, what Indians call saffron -- a color regarded as sacred by the Hindus and Sikhs who died, along with Muslims, in the Amritsar massacre, and one of three colors that make up India's flag.

The Queen's only public reference to the massacre was at the state banquet at the presidential palace in New Delhi, once the home of Britain's viceroys, to an audience that included Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral. British officials had tussled over the exact wording for months, but the version they settled on fell well short of an apology, disappointing many Indians.

On two previous state visits here, in 1961 and 1983, the Queen made no reference to the massacre. British officials said the idea of some form of atonement on this visit arose after Britain's general election in May was won by the Labor Party, which supported the Indian freedom movement in the 1930's, and moved toward giving India independence when it came to power after World War II.

British officials said the idea of a frank acknowledgment of guilt for the Amritsar massacre was abandoned when policy makers in London began to take account of the ''Pandora's box'' that could be opened, with the possibility that dozens of countries that were once British colonies could come forward with demands for similar apologies.

The issue was effectively closed when Prime Minister Gujral gave an interview in midsummer dismissing the idea of an apology by the Queen, as, Mr. Gujral said, she had played no part in the Amritsar killings.

Still, British officials said that the Queen, who began her reign in 1952, had never gone further toward acknowledging that British colonialism, which placed about a third of the world's people under British rule at its height, was not always, or even mainly, the ''civilizing mission'' that generations of British schoolchildren learned about before the empire began to collapse after World War II.

The visit appeared to have placated the most influential of the groups that have nurtured memories of the 1919 massacre. Shortly before the Queen's aircraft landed, a committee representing relatives of those killed called off a demonstration, saying they felt vindicated by the speech in New Delhi.

Otherwise, the people of Amritsar turned out in force to welcome the royal visitor. The 10-mile route from the airport was lined with cheering, flag-waving schoolchildren, interspersed with the turbaned Sikhs for whom Amritsar, with its Golden Temple, also visited by the Queen, is a holy city.

Bending an otherwise rigid rule requiring visitors to enter the Golden Temple barefoot, Sikh leaders allowed the Queen, after removing her shoes, to enter the temple complex wearing white socks.

Photo: Queen Elizabeth, shoeless in deference to Sikh tradition, at Amritsar, where she paid homage to victims of a 1919 massacre by British troops. (Reuters)

Diplomatic Gaffes Mar Queen's Visit to India

'Goodwill visit' last week ends up souring ties between Britain and its former colony.

By Alexander MacLeod, Special to The Christian Science Monitor OCTOBER 20, 1997

LONDON — Britain and India - the former colony once regarded as "the jewel in the crown" - have fallen out, and Queen Elizabeth II has found herself in the middle of the quarrel.

She returned yesterday to London after seeing Indian police and British diplomats exchange blows at Madras airport in southern India, minutes before her plane took off for home.

It was one of several incidents that marred a royal visit intended to cement the friendship between Britain and India.

Tensions began to develop even before the queen arrived for a tour planned as a celebration of India and Pakistan's independence from British rule 50 years ago.

While the royal party was in Pakistan, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that London could help to find a "just solution" to the problem of Kashmir.

Twice, disputes over control of the majority-Muslim state have led to war between the two countries. When he heard about Mr. Cook's private comments, Indian Prime Minister Inder Gujral reportedly exploded.

On the eve of the queen's arrival in Delhi, he told Indian journalists that Britain was "a third-rate power" and insisted that any attempt to internationalize the Kashmir issue amounted to outside interference.

Mark Tully, a veteran BBC reporter of Indian affairs, blames Foreign Secretary Cook for "stoking the fires of Indian rage." He also thinks British officials generally made a fundamental blunder in assuming that the best way to celebrate India's independence was to send the head of the former British Empire to join the festivities.

"They were seduced by the sentimental, sloppy, and historically forgetful nostalgia ... in which Britain is swamped," he told London's Sunday Times.

During her trip, Queen Elizabeth visited Amritsar, where, in 1919, British troops gunned down 379 unarmed protesters. Despite Indian requests, she had signaled that she did not plan to apologize for one of the worst outrages committed by Britain on Indian soil.

Instead, she laid a wreath at the site of the massacre. But her gesture was soured when her husband, Prince Phillip, said he thought the number of those killed had been "exaggerated."

"The colonial attitude lingers on," the mass-circulation Indian Express thundered on its front page next day.

By the time Queen Elizabeth was ready to board the royal jet, there were hopes her departure at least would be smooth and uneventful.

But it was not to be.

According to reports, Indian police allowed a small group of local journalists to approach the plane, but barred the British press. When Geoffrey Crawford, the queen's press secretary, protested, a scuffle broke out, and he was seized by police.

Asked whether the visit had been a success, the queen's private secretary, said it had been, but added: "The sun simply does not shine every day."

Politics aside, Britain and India appear destined to maintain a close relationship.

Trade between the two nations has more than doubled since 1993, and now stands at around 3.5 billion a year ($5.6 billion), with a target of 5 billion by 2000.

Holy Trinity Church, Bolaram
Personally funded Queen Victoria in 1847 on land donated by Nizam of Hyderabad. In 1983 Queen Elizabeth II visited the church and celebrated her 36th wedding anniversary here. Most of the tablets on the walls commemorate the deaths of British Army officers. The pews and materials used to construct the church give it the feel and appearance of a typical CofE church.

Queen Elizabeth II visited India

17–26 November 198 India New Delhi, Hyderabad, Secunderabad, Poona, Devar Yamjal

Devar Yamjal

Devar Yamjal, along with its sister panchyats Hakimpet and Eligela-Gudem, is a village in Ranga Reddy District, Andhra Pradesh, India. It falls under Shamirpet mandal.^[1] The village is one of the biggest villages in the mandal.

Devara Yamjal is a village in the tehsil/mandal of Shamirpet in the Rangareddy district of Andhra Pradesh.

Devar mean temple and we don't know what Yamjal means.

Nearest city from Devera Yamjal is Secunderabad. Devera Yamjal is situated right next to Air force Station Hakimpet, distance is approximately 16 km from Secunderabad station and 8 km from Bolaram, which is the nearest railway station. The following bus numbers are very frequent from Secunderabad: 211DY, 211DMC, 211P and 211R. Other means of transport like taxis and autos are also available. Nearest airport is Begumpet - 18 km.

This is a beautiful village (it is still a village) closest to the Secunderabad city. The biggest village in the mandal and is completely surrounded by greenery. This place was once visited by Queen Elizabeth in early 1980s and is a favorite destination for many directors who frequently visit for film shootings. Numerous hit films with top tollywood actors are shot here.

Khan Yazdani Library

Saturday 3 January 2015