The Legacy of Jallianwala Bagh
Bhavana Issar
Founder CEO, Caregiver Saathi: Ecosystem for well-being of family caregivers | Founder CEO, Sambhaavana: OD & Business Impact | Independent Director | Speaker | Gender Equity advocate | Motorcyclist | Limca record holder
Today commemorates 100yrs since the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar. It was a day of Baisakhi and a day when innocent lives were taken for gathering and revolting against oppressive governance by the British.
I remember visiting Jallianwala Bagh as a child, influenced by my mother, a strong advocate of India's struggle for independence. Last year I took my daughter to the memorial, and it was a poignant, heart rending and significant visit. The memorial is now also a museum and has captured the horrific incident, the history and the circumstances of the times... Despite knowing history the pictures and the museum left me shocked, horrified and informed. As my young 12yr old grappled with the information, she found it hard to relate to the atrocities, the violence and the circumstances that gave birth to the pain and passion of the likes of Bhagat Singh.... And eventually the partition. In what seemed like a moment-of-truth, she had asked me, "if the British left after drawing the line, why did we comply with it, still? Why didn't we simply say that we will do what we feel is right for us, not what you say?"
Needless to say, I was not just at a loss of words in that moment, I have been grappling with the questions ever since....
Many of us did not think of these questions perhaps because of the trauma, the pain and the victimhood of the experience.
While this, is perhaps, the thinking of a child who grows in an independent country, who has perspective and Self-belief and who knows that she has a voice and she can question. It has taken us as a nation, a very long time to come to this place where our generations can be such. We stand on tall shoulders of the men and women who fought violence and oppression so that we could be independent, independent in thought, expression and self-belief. Though, of course there are many who still continue to struggle for their voice and self-belief.
It was hard for me that she wasn't moved by the tragedy as much I was, did I inherit the trauma more than she did? perhaps... But she grows up in a different world, where memorials like this serve to remind us of where we come from, and help us build our self-belief and perspective. The legacy of the Jallianwala Bagh is the strength and conviction with which you stand up for what you believe is right, the ability to question the oppression of authority and speak truth to power. As we mark the 100yrs since the day of our history, I hope that this is the spirit with which we remember the day and its significance.
We will forever be grateful to Dr Sashti Charan Mukherji and his family for leaving us this legacy. A fact I realized only today on reading this article.
And other survivors like Amrita Pritam, Nanak Singh who wrote poems and stories of their experiences, pain, lost dreams, the love and bonhomie that transcended religion....
Taking our experience beyond the trauma and personal story.
What are your thoughts about the question that this generation may ask of us - why do we continue to deepen the divide? What is our choice? What is our self-belief in? What kind of a future do we want to create for ourselves and our coming generations? Do we wish to heal ourselves or do we wish to perpetrate hate?
#letstalkaboutit #letsUnderstandThis #buildingPerspective#learningFromHistory #inspiration #Independence #memorials#bethechange #beingyou #SpeakUp #storytelling #mystory
#India #learning #leadership #Listen #Question #SpeakTruthToPower
#JallianwalaBaghCentenary: India Today's Geeta Mohan talks to Indian envoy to UAE Navdeep Suri. He is the grandson of the famous writer and poet Nanak Singh who was a survivor of the #JallianwalaBaghMassacre. Listen in-
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3 年Excellent Bhavana Issar
HR Solutions | EdTech | Social Impact | ESG | CSR | Media |
3 年Wonderfully penned down Bhavana. Freedom does come with some cost attached to it... The generation today is blessed today to be in a position to ask direct questions on anything they don't agree upon. Jallianwala Bagh was one such example, there were many unfortunate ones who paid a heavy price for the same. It becomes our moral responsibility to pass on these lessons from history to future generations. At the expense of sounding pessimistic, just want to make a point that in our today's world where Animal abuse is not accepted, there was also a time that our brothers and sisters were massacred at the drop of a hat!
Talent Development @ Aristocrat | Leadership Scholar ?? (opinions are personal)
5 年Thanks for this reminder. It is much needed. For me, as a kid, most impressionable was the fact that it were the Indian soldiers who did the firing albeit at the command of a British officer. Today I understand that systems have a very powerful effect on people. Organisations season and almost brainwash people. Personal morals take a backseat.
Leadership Coach & Creative Entrepreneur driving sustainable living.
5 年Thanks for sharing Bhavna.. Worth pondering. Am going to revisit