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Founding of Amritsar city[edit]
Overhead panoramic view artwork of Amritsar, c. 1850s–1890s
In the Sikh tradition, Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh guru, is credited with founding the holy city of Amritsar in 1574. Two versions of stories exist regarding the land where Guru Ram Das settled. In one, based on a Gazetteer record, the land was purchased, with Sikh donations, for 700 rupees from the owners of the village of Tung.
According to historical Sikh records, the site was chosen by Guru Amar Das and called Guru Da Chakk. The latter guru had asked Ram Das to find land to start a new town, and to create a man-made pool as its central point. After his coronation, Guru Ram Das in 1574, who faced hostile opposition from the sons of Guru Amar Das, founded the town; it was named after him as "Ramdaspur". He first completed the pool, and built his new official Guru centre and home next to it. He invited merchants and artisans from other parts of India to settle into the new town with him. The town expanded during the time of Guru Arjan Dev, financed by donations and constructed by volunteers. The town grew to become the city of Amritsar. After the son of Guru Ram Das built the gurdwara Harmandir Sahib, the pool area developed further as a temple complex. In 1604 Guru Ram Das's son installed the scripture of Sikhism inside the new temple.
The period and achievements of construction between 1574 and 1604 are described in Mahima Prakash Vartak, a semi-historical Sikh hagiographic text likely composed in 1741. It is the earliest known document dealing with the lives of all the ten Gurus.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh listening to Guru Granth Sahib being recited near the Akal Takht and Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India. Painting by August Schoefft, 1850
In 1762 and 1766–1767, Ahmad Shah of the Durrani Empire invaded the Sikh Confederacy. He besieged Amritsar, massacred the populace, and destroyed the city.
Old walled city[edit]
Photo of an Amritsar street scene, by Felice Beato, c. 1858–59
During the reign of the Sikh Empire, in 1822 Maharaja Ranjit Singh fortified the city, starting from a wall at Katra Maha Singh area.
Among the Katras (fortified residential societies) constructed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh within the city were the following:
Katra Moti Ram
Katra Kanwar Kharak Singh (also known as 'Katra Nikkai')
Katra Fateh Singh Kallianwala
Katra Ahluwalia
Map of Amritsar, with the city perimeter captioned in Perso-Arabic script marking the twelve historical gates of the old city-wall, ca.1831–35
Later, Sher Singh continued with construction of the city wall, adding twelve gates. He also had built a fort named Dhoor Kot; its fortification were yards broad and 7 yards high. The circumference of the walled city was around five miles. The twelve gates constructed during this era were known as (including later renamings):
Lahori Darwaza (Lahori Gate)
Khazana Darwaja (Khazana Gate)
Deori Hakiman (Gate Hakeema/Darwaza Hakeema Wala)
Gilwali Darwaza – no longer extant
Darwaza Rangar Nanglian (Gate Bhagatawala) – no longer extant
Darwaza Ramgarhian (Chattiwind Gate) – later restored
Darwaza Ahluwalia (Darwaza Gheo Mandi) – was no longer extant but has since been restored
Doburji Darwaza (Sultanwind Gate or Delhi Darwaza)
Deorhi Kalan
Darwaza Rambagh
Deorhi Shazada (Hathi Darwaza/Darwaza Sehzada)
Darwaza Lohgarh – no longer extant
When the British annexed Punjab in 1849, Amritsar was a walled city. The British built a thirteenth gate in 1866 known as Hall Gate, Neighborhood in Amritsar, Punjab.
Map of Amritsar with the locations of Sikh sites labelled, as published in the Mahan Kosh (1930)
The British rulers would later demolish some of the walls and gates or reconstruct some. An entire new wall of the city was completed in 1885. Many surviving gates have since been renamed and no longer bear their mid-19th century names, while others have since been demolished.
Jallianwala Bagh massacre[edit]
The Jallianwala Bagh in 1919, months after the massacre
Bullet marks on the walls of the park premises
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, involving the killings of hundreds of Indian civilians on the orders of British Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, took place on 13 April 1919 in the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs, on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary of the Khalsa (Vaisakhi day).
In Punjab, during World War I (1914–18), there was considerable social unrest, particularly among the Sikhs. First, they opposed the demolition of a boundary wall of Gurdwara Rakab Ganj, a historic gurdwara near Parliament House in New Delhi. Later, they were disturbed about the activities and trials of the Ghadarites, almost all of whom were Sikhs. In India as a whole, political activity had arisen during the strains of war. Two leaders had emerged: Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), who after a period of struggle as a young man against the British in South Africa had returned to India in January 1915 to work there for change and Annie Besant (1847–1933), head of the Theosophical Society of India. On 11 April 1916 she established the Home Rule League with the goal of autonomy for India. In December 1916, the Indian National Congress, at its annual session held at Lucknow, passed a resolution asking the king to issue a proclamation announcing that it is the "aim and intention of British policy to confer self-government on India at an early date".
On 10 April 1919, Satya Pal and Saifuddin Kitchlew, two popular proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi, were called to the deputy commissioner's residence. There they were arrested and transported by car to Dharamsetla, a hill town, now in Himachal Pradesh. A general strike arose in response in Amritsar. Excited groups of citizens soon merged into a crowd of about 50,000 marching to protest these arrests to the deputy commissioner. The crowd, however, was stopped by British colonial forces and fired upon near the railway foot-bridge. The official version reported that the number of casualties were 12 dead and between 20 and 30 wounded. Based on evidence presented to an inquiry of the Indian National Congress, fatalities were reported as between 20 and 30.[citation needed]
Three days later, on 13 April, the traditional festival of Baisakhi, thousands of unarmed Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 16:30, Dyer arrived with a group of sixty-five Gurkha soldiers (from the 9th Gorkha Rifles) and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers (from the 59th Scinde Rifles). Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer blocked the main exits from the Bagh and ordered his troops to begin shooting toward the densest sections of the crowd; the firing continued for approximately ten minutes. A British government inquiry into the massacre placed the death toll at 379. The Indian National Congress, on the other hand, estimated that approximately 1,000 people were killed.
Operation Blue Star[edit]
Statue of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in Amritsar
Amritsar was a center of unrest in the late 20th century. In the 1980s, Sikh militants occupied the Golden Temple there. Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, ordered Operation Blue Star (1 – 6 June 1984), an Indian military operation to remove the militants from the temple. The operation was carried out by Indian army troops equipped with tanks and armoured vehicles. While militarily successful, the operation aroused immense controversy. The government's justification for the timing and style of the attack are hotly debated. India Today magazine has ranked Operation Blue Star as among the Top 10 Political Disgraces in India.
Official reports put the number of deaths among the Indian army at 83, with 493 civilians killed, including Sikh militants, while independent estimates place the numbers upwards of 5,000 people, a majority of them pilgrims, including women and children. In addition, the CBI is considered responsible for seizing historical artefacts and manuscripts in the Sikh Reference Library before burning it down. Four months after the operation, on 31 October 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 17,000 Sikhs were killed in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
