“Massacre of Amritsar: (1919) Incident in which British troops fired on a crowd of Indian protesters. In 1919 the British government of India enacted the Rowlatt act, extending its World War I emergency powers to combat subversive activities. On April 13th a large crowd gathered to protest the measures and troops opened fire, killing about 379 and wounding about 1,200. The massacre was the prelude to Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation movement of 1920-1922.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Mark's Text Terminal 