Reginald Dyer - Return To Britain

Return To Britain

On his return to Britain, Brigadier Dyer was presented with a purse of 26,000 pounds sterling, a huge sum in those days, which emerged from a collection on his behalf by the Morning Post, a conservative, pro-Imperialistic newspaper, which later merged with the Daily Telegraph. A Thirteen Women Committee was constituted to present "the Saviour of the Punjab with sword of honour and a purse." This single incident angered the Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore so much that he renounced his knighthood in protest. The Morning Post had supported Dyer’s action on grounds stating that the massacre was necessary to "Protect the honour of European Women." The Morning Post blamed Mr Montagu, Secretary of State (India), and not General Dyer for the massacre and asked for his court trial. Mr Montagu, on the other hand, in a long letter to the Viceroy, passed the blame to Michael O'Dwyer and admitted "I feel that O’Dwyer represents a regime that is doomed."

General Dyer was oblivious of the events that he was responsible for. He wrote an article in the Globe of 21 January 1921, titled, "The Peril to the Empire." It commenced with "India does not want self-government. She does not understand it." He wrote later

• It is only to an enlightened people that free speech and a free press can be extended. The Indian people want no such enlightenment.
• There should be an eleventh commandment in India, "Thou shalt not agitate."
• The time will come to India when a strong hand will be exerted against malice and 'perversion' of good order.
• Gandhi will not lead India to capable self-government. The British Raj must continue, firm and unshaken in its administration of justice to all men.

In the British Army Museum in London, a testimonial to Dyer by the British Monarch is the first exhibit along the wall of the staircase as one ascends to the first floor devoted to the Indian Army.

He died of cerebral hemorrhage and arteriosclerosis in 1927.

The Morning Post remembered him in an article titled "The Man Who Saved India" and "He Did His Duty" but the Westminster Gazette wrote a contrary opinion, "No British action, during the whole course of our history in India, has struck a severer blow to Indian faith in British justice than the massacre at Amritsar."