Amritsar Massacre: Centenary

Lord Collins of Highbury Excerpts

Tuesday 19th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Collins of Highbury (Lab)]

My Lords, I apologise to the noble Lord for speaking in the gap—a failure on my part in not adding my name to the list in time.

In 1919, Josiah Wedgwood said in the Commons that,

“you can imagine the feelings of these Indians for generations over this terrible business … You will have a shrine erected there and every year there will be processions of Indians visiting the tombs of the martyrs and Englishmen will go there and stand bareheaded before it”.—[Official Report, Commons, 22/12/1919; cols. 1231-32.]

Successive British Governments of all colours have been united in their condemnation of the massacre. Churchill called the incident “monstrous”, Blair said that it represented the “worst aspects of colonialism”, and Cameron referred to it as,

“a deeply shameful event in British history”.

Visiting the memorial on 6 December 2017, Sadiq Khan said that as we reach the centenary of the massacre, the United Kingdom needed to properly acknowledge what happened by,

“giving the people of Amritsar and India the closure they need through a formal apology”.

I hope the Minister will conclude tonight by making that commitment.