Victoria Memorial to hold exhibition on Rabindranath Tagore’s protest against Jalianwala Bagh massacre

Come March 2 visitors to the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata will have a glimpse of the letters and acts of protests by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore against the Jalianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar.

The brutal act of repression by the colonial British regime took place on April 13, 1919, when the troops opened fire on a peaceful gathering killing about 400 people.

The exhibition titled "Ways of remembering Jallianwala Bagh and Tagor’s response to the massacre" will be held on the occasion of completion of 100 years of the massacre which was conducted under the orders of General Reginald Dyer.

Apart from Tagore’s letters, the exhibition will also have audio-visual elements depicting how protests erupted in Bengal against the massacre.

It will also have comments of family members of the victims. The photos of atrocities by the British police in Amritsar will also be on display at the exhibition.

"Apart from returning his knighthood in protest against the massacre, Tagore wrote to several important personalities in the then British administration demanding action against those who were behind the incident. The poems and articles he wrote in protest against the incident will also be on display,” said Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, the curator of the exhibition.

She also said that the rare letters of Tagore have been collected by the British Library and the National Archives.

The interviews of the victim’s relatives describing how they identified their bodies and how were they informed about the incident will also be on display. The media clippings of the incident will also be among the exhibits.

"The information displayed in the exhibition has been provided by eminent experts on Tagore," said Gupta.

Gupta also said that if in future anyone else wants to organise such an exhibition, full cooperation will be extended to them.