Crimson Spring: a Novel

On 13 April 1919, about 25,000 unarmed Indians had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, an open area enclosed by the high walls of flatroofed houses in a densely populated part of the city. Many of those in the crowd were listening to speakers denouncing the iniquities of the Rowlatt Act which had been imposed by the British, while others, including several children, were simply there to relax and catch up with friends. A little after five in the evening, a detachment of soldiers led by Brigadier General R. E. H. Dyer entered the Bagh, and without any warning, opened fire on the crowd. At least 1,650 rounds were fired. Several hundred died and several hundred more were injured. This massacre was condemned as one of the worst outrages in all of British history. In this masterpiece, Navtej Sarna brings the horror of the atrocity to life through the eyes of nine characters—Indians and Britons, ordinary people and powerful officials, the innocent and the guilty—whose lives are changed forever by the events of that fateful day. Set against the epic backdrop of India’s freedom struggle, World War I, and the Ghadar movement, Crimson Spring is a powerful, unsettling look at a barbarous act, and a wider meditation on the costs of colonialism as well as the sacrifices and heroism of ordinary men and women at a time of great cruelty and injustice.