At an emotionally charged moment event on Saturdayevening as Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh inaugurated theJallianwala Bagh Centenary Memorial Park on the eve of India’s 75thIndependence Day, in the memory of all those known and unknown people martyredin the massacre of 13th April 1919.
With families of many of the martyrs looking on, theChief Minister dedicated the memorial to the memory of the people of Punjab,saying this second memorial at the site of the gory massacre was a tribute toall those unknown martyrs who laid down their lives during the Jallianwala Baghmassacre, while the original memorial had been built to remember those whowere known to have been killed at the site in this tragedy.
Nobody knows the exact number of lives lost, although theDC office has the names of only 448 who fell to the bullets of the British, ledby General Dyer, who fired on the orders of the then Governor of Punjab,Michael O’ Dwyer, said Captain Amarinder, adding that with 1250 bullets firedon that day, the number would actually have run in thousands.
The memorial has been built over 1.5 acres at a cost ofRs.3.5 crore at Amrit Anand Park, Ranjit Avenue. Soil from villages around thestate was brought to the site for the construction of the memorial to fill upthe space below the sacred platform as a befitting tribute to them.
The Chief Minister disclosed that a Special Research Teamof historians and research scholars has been constituted by GNDU for carryingout research on martyrs of Jallianwala Bagh and freedom fighters who wereimprisoned at Cellular Jail, Port Blair.
Once the research is completed, the names of more martyrsmight be discovered, he said, adding that sufficient space has been kept on thecolumns of the memorial to incorporate more names in the future. Currently, thenames of the officially known 488 martyrs have been inscribed on the black andgrey granite stone walls of the memorial.
Recalling that he had laid the Foundation Stone of theMemorial on 25th January, 2021 and had promised to complete it by 15th August2021, the Chief Minister congratulated the Departments of Cultural Affairs,Architecture and PWD for designing the park and completing the construction inthe promised timeline.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister paid floral tributesto the unsung heroes and honoured 29family members of the martyrs who died in the massacre. He also posed for agroup photo with them. He appreciated the mural designed by Bengali artistMoloy Ghosh to portray the historic massacre.
The newly inaugurated memorial consists of five whitestone pillars rising upwards. The pillars symbolize the spirit of the martyrsrising towards the sky. The different heights of the five pillars correspond tovarious age groups of martyrs - children, teenagers, youth, middle aged and theelderly. They also signify the five fingers of the hand and the cohesive powerof the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the nation. The white colour ofthe stone is a symbol of the purity of their sacrifice. The central black stoneon a circular platform from where these pillars arise symbolize the empty space and the void created by thesacrifice of these martyrs.