WINNER OF THE PEN HESSELL-TILTMAN PRIZE 2020 'Reads like a
thriller...colourful, detailed and meticulously researched' Sunday
Times 'Gripping from start to finish' Peter Frankopan, bestselling
author of The Silk Roads 'Remarkable and brilliantly researched
non-fiction thriller...focussing on one extraordinary story that
had never been properly told before' William Dalrymple, Spectator
Anita Anand tells the remarkable story of one Indian's twenty-year
quest for revenge, taking him around the world in search of those
he held responsible for the Amritsar massacre of 1919, which cost
the lives of hundreds. When Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant
Governor of Punjab, ordered Brigadier General Reginald Dyer to
Amritsar, he wanted him to bring the troublesome city to heel. Sir
Michael had become increasingly alarmed at the effect Gandhi was
having on his province, as well as recent demonstrations, strikes
and shows of Hindu-Muslim unity. All these things, in Sir Michael's
mind at least, were a precursor to a second Indian Mutiny. What
happened next shocked the world. An unauthorised political
gathering in the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in April 1919 became
the focal point for Sir Michael's law enforcers. Dyer marched his
soldiers into the walled garden, filled with thousands of unarmed
men, women and children, blocking the only exit. Then, without
issuing any order to disperse, he instructed his men to open fire,
turning their guns on the thickest parts of the crowd. For ten
minutes, they continued firing, stopping only when 1650 bullets had
been fired. Not a single shot was fired in retaliation. According
to legend, a young, low-caste orphan, Udham Singh, was injured in
the attack, and remained in the Bagh, surrounded by the dead and
dying until he was able to move the next morning. Then, he
supposedly picked up a handful of blood-soaked earth, smeared it
across his forehead and vowed to kill the men responsible, no
matter how long it took. The truth, as the author has discovered,
is more complex but no less dramatic. She traced Singh's journey
through Africa, the United States and across Europe before, in
March 1940, he finally arrived in front of O'Dwyer in a London hall
ready to shoot him down. The Patient Assassin shines a devastating
light on one of the Raj's most horrific events, but reads like a
taut thriller, and reveals some astonishing new insights into what
really happened.
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