13th April is Baisakhi also Jallian wala bagh holocaust.

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An year short of a century, Jallian wala bagh massacre is a writing on the wall.


The Date: 13th April 1919.
The event: Gandhi's first civil disobedience campaign in North India.
Which culminated in the holocaust of Jallianwala bagh at Amritsar.

The action: A detachment of Gurkhas & Baluchs arrived in two armoured cars under the command of Genral Dyer. They fired a total 1,605 rounds into a densely packed crowd of men, women and children assembled for a political meeting.

Official estimates placed the number of killed at 379 & the number of wounded around 1,200.
It was later learnt that Dyer's troops, according to his own account fired the rounds until the ammunition was exhausted.



Emotionally Jallianwala Bagh marks a more durable watershed in the relationship between Britain and India than any of Gandhi's non-cooperation campaigns. The bubble of imperialism was pricked.
By the way imperialism is, when it cannot rule by a system of shifts and compromises, can only impose its authority by force.

Learnings: Gandhi's latter campaigns of civil disobedience the raj did not use measure of force it is not because it developed soft corners for Indian nationalism but because the backlash of Jallianwala bagh deterred it. Another massacre  would have meant a countrywide conflagration and the use of perpetual force to hold India down.

Context in modern settings: Gandhi's civil disobedience later on worked just because the very first one led to blood shed. 
It is said a typical neuron makes about 10,000 connections to like-minded neurons. 
Similarly Gandhi got connected with similar people believing him and the rest is history. 

Now the Indian government is implementing a policy called Aadhar card a biometric identity for all Indians. Now this Aadhar card has to be connected with the people's  earning's card called Pan card.

The digital sphere is an amazing thing. Digital connections make the big world feel like a little village. But Data fraud does happen, data breaches exposes everything from customer login credentials to credit card information; even personal health records. 

A complete behaviour mapping of individuals can be tracked and traced. How full-proof is the security of such a connection? Just because the government can track the records does it mean that it will never be breached by any outside force?

Implementation of this policy is to be a parachute jump. You've got to get it right the first time.

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