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Michael O'Dwyer

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For the academic, seeMichael O'Dwyer (academic).For the hurler, seeMichael O'Dwyer (hurler).

Sir
Michael O'Dwyer
GCIEKCSI
Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab
In office
26 May 1913 – 26 May 1919
Personal details
Born28 April 1864
Barronstown,Limerick Junction, County Tipperary,Ireland
Died13 March 1940(1940-03-13)(aged 75)
Caxton Hall, Westminster,London, England
Manner of deathAssassination by gunshot
Resting placeBrookwood Cemetery
SpouseUna Eunice Bord
Children2
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
OccupationColonial Administrator
Known for

Sir Michael Francis O'DwyerGCIEKCSI(28 April 1864 – 13 March 1940) was anIrishcolonial officer in theIndian Civil Service(ICS) and later theLieutenant Governor of Punjab,British India,between 1913 and 1919.

During O'Dwyer's tenure as Punjab's Lieutenant Governor, theJallianwala Bagh massacreoccurred inAmritsar,on 13 April 1919. As a result, his actions are considered among the most significant factors in the rise of theIndian independence movement.O'Dwyer endorsedReginald Dyer's action atJallianwala Baghand made it clear that he considered Dyer's orders to shoot at the crowds was correct.

He subsequently administeredmartial lawinPunjab,on 15 April and backdated it to 30 March 1919. In 1925, he publishedIndia as I Knew Itin which he wrote that his time as administrator in Punjab was preoccupied by the threat of terrorism and the spread of political agitation. In 1940, in retaliation for the massacre, O'Dwyer was assassinated by the Indian revolutionary and freedom fighter SardarUdham Singh.

Early life and education[edit]

Michael Francis O'Dwyer was born on 28 April 1864 inBarronstown,Limerick Junction,County Tipperary,to John, a landowner of Barronstown, Solohead, and Margaret (née Quirke) O'Dwyer, of Toem, both in County Tipperary, Ireland.[1]He was the sixth son in a family of fourteen children,[1][2]At the age of seven, he was sent to be schooled atSt Stanislaus College,Rahan, County Offaly.[1]

Later, he attended Mr Wren'seducational crammer schoolinPowis Square, London,and subsequently passed the open entrance competition for theIndian Civil Servicein 1882.[3]After completing two years of probation atBalliol College, Oxford,he passed the final examination in 1884 in fourth place overall. At the time, the ICS examination was highly competitive, with no more than 1200 ICS officers in office at one time, and he was likely influenced by the reputations of the likes ofLord Lawrence,one of the first British civil administrators in India.[1][4]In his third year he obtained a first class injurisprudence.[1]Philip Woodruffwrote of O'Dwyer's upbringing:

Michael O'Dwyer was one of the fourteen children of an unknown Irish land-owner of no great wealth, as much farmer as landlord. He was brought up in a world of hunting and snipe-shooting, of threatening letters and houghed cattle, where you were for the Government or against it, where you passed every day the results of lawlessness in the blackened walls of empty houses. It was a world very different from the mild and ordered life of southern England... One gets the impression [of O'Dwyer when at Balliol] of a man who seldom opened a book without a purpose, whose keen hard brain acquired quickly and did not forget but had little time for subtleties.[5]

The O'Dwyer family wereAnglophilesandUnionists.In 1882, his family home in Ireland was fired upon byIrish nationalists,and the following year, his father died after a second stroke.[4]Of his siblings, two brothers served in India, and two others became Jesuit priests.[6]

Early career[edit]

In 1885, he travelled to India[6]as an ICS officer and was first posted toShahpurinPunjab.[7]He distinguished himself in land revenue settlement work and in 1896 was made director of land records and agriculture in Punjab. Subsequently, he was placed in charge of the settlements ofAlwarandBharatpurstates.[1]

After a year and a half of travels around Europe and Russia,[4]he was selected byLord Curzonfor a significant role in the organisation of the newNorth-West Frontier Provinceand its separation from Punjab. From 1901 to 1908, he was revenue commissioner; from 1908 to 1909, he was acting resident inHyderabad;and from 1910 to 1912, he was agent to the governor-general inCentral India.[1]

In December 1912, duringLord Hardinge of Penshurst's tenure asViceroy,O'Dwyer was appointedLieutenant Governorof Punjab.[1]When he assumed charge in May 1913, he was appointed aKnight Commander of the Order of the Star of India[8]and was cautioned by the Viceroy Hardinge that "the Punjab was the Province about which the Government were then the most concerned; that there was much inflammable material lying about; which required very careful handling if an explosion was to be avoided".[1][7]

First World War recruitment[edit]

O'Dwyer worked closely with the military authorities and sought the aid of local rural Punjabi leaders to organise a centralised system for the recruitment of soldiers for theFirst World Wareffort in exchange for compensation, including major land grants and formal titles.[9][10]As a result, most of the recruits were drawn from rural areas of the Punjab, which ultimately left a number of families without their breadwinners. Those who returned from the war aspired to a reward and a better life.[2]The co-operation between the civil and military leaders and the leading rural Punjabis, as later described by the historianTan Tai Yong,laid "the foundations of a militarized bureaucracy in colonial Punjab".[9][10]

Of the Indian recruits for the War from the whole of India, the 360,000 from the Punjab formed more than half. In 1917, O'Dwyer's efforts in recruiting Punjabi men for the war effort earned him appointment as aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Indian Empire,[1][8]when India's Viceroy wasLord Chelmsford.[11]However, during the war, there was also a growinghome rule movement.[1]

Defence of India Act 1915[edit]

He played a significant role in persuading the British government in India to pass the1915 Defence of India Act,[1]which gave him considerable powers. Passed on 18 March 1915, the Act allowed special tribunals for revolutionary crimes to take place without possibilities for appeal.[12]He opposed theMontagu–Chelmsford Reformsfor fear that his efforts in recruitment through the rural leaders would be destroyed by increasing powers to “urban elites”.[13]

Surveillance in 1919[edit]

From mid-March 1919, under O’Dwyer's orders, the CID in Amritsar kept a close surveillance of two Gandhian non-violentIndian nationalists;the Muslim barristerSaifuddin Kitchlewand the Hindu physician Dr.Satyapal.O'Dwyer subsequently summoned both to Deputy CommissionerMiles Irving's house in theCivil Lineson 10 April 1919 from where they were arrested and secretly escorted toDharamasala,at the foot of theHimalayas,to be kept under house arrest.[14][15][16]As the news of the arrest became widespread, supporters began to gather near Irving's home, and what initially began as a peaceful attempt to make enquiries ended up in a violent clash.[17][18]On 13 April 1919, a meeting was called to take place at Jallianwala Bagh to protest the arrest.[16]

Amritsar massacre[edit]

Main article:Jallianwala Bagh massacre

It was during O'Dwyer's tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Punjab that the Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred inAmritsaron 13 April 1919, three days after the onset of the riots.[15][19]A detachment of 50British Indian Armysoldiers under the command of Brigadier-GeneralReginald Dyerfired on a crowd in Amritsar, killing more than 1,500 people.[20]According to thencivil surgeonDr Smit 1,526 people[21]had been killed. O'Dwyer was informed of the event at 3 am the following day.[22]When he received Dyer's initial report, O'Dwyer gave permission to GeneralWilliam Beynonto send a telegram to Dyer that stated "your action correct and the lieutenant-governor approves".[6][23]

O'Dwyer and several other senior colonial officials supported Dyer's actions both initially, when only limited information had been received, and later, when more detailed information of the scale of the killings became available.[1]Subsequently,martial lawwas imposed on 15 April and backdated to 30 March.[24]As a result, his actions are considered one of the most significant factors in the rise of theIndian independence movement,led byMahatma Gandhi.[1]On 21 April 1919 in Dyer's defence, O'Dwyer stated to Viceroy Chelmsford that "the Amritsar business cleared the air, and if there was to be holocaust anywhere, and one regrets that there should be, it was best at Amritsar".[25]

One theory surrounding the massacre, as described by Pearay Mohan[26]and historian Raja Ram, is one of a "premeditated plan" conspired by O'Dwyer and others, including a young Punjabi youthHans Raj.[27][28][29]Other historians including Nick Lloyd,[28]K. L. Tuteja,[30]Anita Anand[31]andKim A. Wagnerhave found that theory to lack evidence and that there was no conspiracy that Hans Raj was an "agent provocateur".[32]

O'Dwyer had contended without evidence that Dyer's violent suppression of the civilian demonstration was justified because the illegal gathering was part of a premeditated conspiracy to rebellion, which was timed supposedly to coincide with a rumoured Afghan invasion.[33][34]

Although O'Dwyer had implemented martial law in the Punjab, he denied responsibility for the consequences on the grounds that the government had relieved him of its general implementation. However, he could not disclaim responsibility for the decision, after severe rioting inGujranwala,to send an aeroplane to bomb and strafe the area. During the course of the operation, at least a dozen people, including children, were killed.[1]

The next year, on 24 June 1920, the opposition Labour Party Conference atScarboroughunanimously passed a resolution, which denounced the "cruel and barbarous actions" of British colonial officials in Punjab and demanded they be put on trial, the dismissal of O'Dwyer and Chelmsford and the repeal of theRowlatt Act.The delegates rose in their places as a tribute to those killed at Jallianwala Bagh.[24]After the Punjab disturbances, O'Dwyer was relieved of his office. O'Dwyer's response to the Amritsar troubles was that that was "what comes of having that Jew in Whitehall" in reference to Montagu.[35]

O'Dwyer was an Irish nationalist. The reason for his differing views on India was racism. Shortly before the Amritsar Massacre, he declared thathome rulewas "a lofty and generous ideal" which Ireland deserved, but one that India was not yet "fit". The difference, he said, was that self-government was a status "which in one form or another Ireland had for centuries enjoyed," whereas Indians were intellectually incapable of handling home rule. He claimed that most of them had been "groping blindly through all stages of civilisation from the fifth to the twentieth century."[36]

O'Dwyer v. Nair[edit]

In 1922, SirSankaran Nairreferred to O'Dwyer in his bookGandhi and Anarchyand stated that "before the reforms it was in the power of the Lieutenant-Governor, a single individual, to commit the atrocities in the Punjab which we know only too well".[37][38]O'Dwyer subsequently successfully sued Nair forlibeland was awarded £500 damages.[24][34][39]Heard beforeMr Justice McCardiein the Court of King's Bench inLondonover five weeks from 30 April 1924, it was one of the longestcivil lawhearings in legal history. O'Dwyer saw the trial as a way of providing justifications for Dyer's actions at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.[37]

Assassination[edit]

The grave of Michael O'Dwyer inBrookwood Cemetery

O'Dwyer, aged 75, was shot dead at a joint meeting of the East India Association and the Central Asian Society (nowRoyal Society for Asian Affairs) inCaxton HallinWestminster,London, on 13 March 1940, by Indian revolutionary,Udham Singh,in retaliation for themassacre in Amritsar.[1][40]

O'Dwyer was hit by two bullets and died instantly.Lord Zetland,theSecretary of State for India,was presiding over the meeting and was wounded. Zetland, recovering from his injuries, later opted for early retirement from his position of Secretary of State for India and was succeeded byLeo AmeryasSecretary of State for India.[41]Udham Singh made no attempt to escape and was arrested at the scene.[40]O'Dwyer was later buried inBrookwood Cemetery,nearWoking.

At his trial, Singh told the court:

I did it because I had a grudge against him. He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to wreak vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job. I am not scared of death. I am dying for my country. I have seen my people starving in India under the British rule. I have protested against this, it was my duty. What a greater honour could be bestowed on me than death for the sake of my motherland?

Personal life and family[edit]

He married Una Eunice, daughter of Antoine Bord ofCastres,France, on 21 November 1896. The couple had two children.[1]She established 'Lady O'Dwyer's Punjab Comforts Fund',[42]one of several charitable organisations created in India during the First World War to raise money and other gifts to provide comforts for troops serving with the Indian Army. She was created aDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire[43]in her own right in the1919 Birthday Honours,in which their daughter, Una Mary O'Dwyer, was created aMember of the Order of the British Empire.[44]In the late 1930s, O'Dwyer became a member of the Liberty Restoration League, a front organisation for the pro-NaziNordic League.[45]

Writing[edit]

In his bookIndia as I knew it(1925), O'Dwyer disclosed that his time as administrator in Punjab was preoccupied by the threat of terrorism and the spread of political agitation.[1]

In 1933, he publishedThe O'Dwyers of Kilnamanagh: The History of an Irish Sept,[46]a historical andgenealogicaltreatise detailing the O'Dwyer (Ó Duibhir) noble family that had commanded the area aroundThurlesfrom the pre-Normanera until it lost its castles and land during theCromwellian confiscationsof the 17th century.

In later life, he wrote frequently toThe Timesto condemn the Gandhian non-cooperation movement and to endorse British rule in India.[1]

Selected publications[edit]

Articles[edit]

  • "Border Countries of the Punjab Himalaya: Discussion".The Geographical Journal.Vol. 60, No. 4 (1922), pp. 264–68.doi:10.2307/1781310.Co-authored with Louis Dane and W. Coldstream.
  • "Races and Religions in the Punjab".Journal of the Royal Society of Arts,London. Vol. 74, Issue 3827 (26 March 1926), pp. 420–449.

Books[edit]

Book chapters[edit]

In popular culture[edit]

He was portrayed byDave Andersonin the 2000 Bollywood movieShaheed Udham Singh[47]and byShaun Scottin the 2021 Bollywood movieSardar Udham.[48]

References[edit]

  1. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrsWoods, Philip (2004)."O'Dwyer, Sir Michael Francis (1864–1940)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 538–539.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35292.ISBN0-19-861391-1.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  2. ^abSingh, Sikander (2016).A Great Patriot and Martyr Udham Singh.Unistar Books.pp. 71–74.ISBN978-8189899592.
  3. ^Sykes, P. M. (1 April 1940). "Obituary".Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society.27(2): 246–252.doi:10.1080/03068374008730964.ISSN0035-8789.(subscription required)
  4. ^abcAnand, Anita (2019).The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence.New York: Scribner. pp. 19–29.ISBN978-1-5011-9570-9.
  5. ^Philip Woodruff,The Men Who Ruled India. Volume II: The Guardians(London: Jonathan Cape, 1954), p. 236.
  6. ^abc"The DIB and Century Ireland".Royal Irish Academy.13 April 2019. Archived fromthe originalon 7 August 2022.Retrieved8 December2019.
  7. ^abMittal, Satish Chandra(1977).Freedom Movement in Punjab (1905-29).Delhi:Concept Publishing Company.pp. 71-78.OCLC3801970
  8. ^abJackson, Alvin (2004)."5. Ireland, the Union, and the Empire, 1800-1960".In Kenny, Kevin (ed.).Ireland and the British Empire.Oxford University Press. p. 140.ISBN978-0-19-925183-4.
  9. ^abMarston, Daniel (2014).The Indian Army and the End of the Raj.Cambridge University Press.p. 15.ISBN978-0-521-89975-8.
  10. ^abYong, Tan Tai(2005).The Garrison State: Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947.New Delhi:SAGE Publications.p. 15.ISBN978-0-7619-3336-6
  11. ^Tan, 2005, pp. 111-112
  12. ^Mittal, 1977, pp. 96-98
  13. ^Tan, 2005, pp. 21
  14. ^Mittal, 1977, pp. 120
  15. ^abWagner, Kim A.(2019)Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre.New Haven:Yale University Press.pp.74-76.ISBN9780300200355
  16. ^abAnand, Anita (2015).Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary.Bloomsbury Publishing.pp. 331–332.ISBN9781408835463.
  17. ^Anand,The Patient Assassin(2019). pp.81-83
  18. ^Wagner, 2019, pp. 126-127.
  19. ^Lloyd, Nick (1 December 2010). "Sir Michael O'Dwyer and 'Imperial Terrorism' in the Punjab, 1919".South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies.33(3): 363–380.doi:10.1080/00856401.2010.520648.ISSN0085-6401.S2CID143000538.
  20. ^V. N. Datta,Jallianwala Bagh(Ludhiana, 1969), pp. 104–105.
  21. ^"101 years on, no one knows how many died in Jallianwala Bagh | Amritsar News - Times of India".The Times of India.20 January 2021.
  22. ^Sahni, Binda (1 May 2012)."Effects of Emergency Law in India 1915-1931"(PDF).Studies on Asia.IV.2.Rochester, New York: 146–179.SSRN2174900.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 1 August 2019.
  23. ^O'Dwyer, Michael (1925).India as I knew it.Constable and Company. p. 286.
  24. ^abcSayer, Derek (May 1991)."British Reaction to the Amritsar Massacre 1919-1920".Past and Present(131): 130–164.doi:10.1093/past/131.1.130.
  25. ^Wagner, 2019, p. 256
  26. ^Mohan, Pearay. (1920)An Imaginary Rebellion.Lahore: Khosla Bros. pp. 118-120.
  27. ^Ram, Raja (1969).Jallianwala Bagh Massacre – A Pre-Mediated Plan.Chandigarh: Punjab University.
  28. ^abLloyd, Nick (2011).The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day.London: I. B. Taris. p. 44.ISBN978-1-84885-723-0.
  29. ^Draper, Alfred (1981).Amritsar, the massacre that ended the Raj.Cassell.ISBN0304304816.OCLC17439957.
  30. ^K. L. Tuteja,"Jallianwala Bagh: A Critical Juncture in the Indian National Movement".Social Scientist.Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (January 1997 – February 1997), pp. 25-61.(subscription required)
  31. ^Anand, 2019, p. 327
  32. ^Wagner, 2019, pp. 200–208.
  33. ^Ian Colvin,The Life of General Dyer(London, 1931).
  34. ^abMcGreevy, Ronan (13 April 2019)."India's Amritsar massacre bore the 'made in Ireland' mark".The Irish Times.Retrieved6 December2019.
  35. ^Bose, Purnima (2003)."Notes".Organizing Empire: Individualism, Collective Agency, and India.Durham & London:Duke University Press.p. 229.ISBN978-0-8223-8488-5.
  36. ^"Sir Michael O'Dwyer, apologist for the Amritsar massacre, was also an Irish nationalist".The Irish Times.Retrieved7 January2024.
  37. ^abCollett, Lieutenant Colonel Nigel A (July 2006)."The Jallianwala Bagh Revisited – II".The United Service Institution of India.
  38. ^Collett, Nigel A. (2011). "The O'Dwyer v. Nair Libel Case of 1924: New Evidence Concerning Indian Attitudes and British Intelligence During the 1919 Punjab Disturbances".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.21(4): 469–483.doi:10.1017/S1356186311000435.ISSN1356-1863.JSTOR41490046.S2CID163111029.(subscription required)
  39. ^Palat, Raghu; Palat, Pushpa (2019).The Case That Shook the Empire: One Man's Fight for the Truth about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre.Bloomsbury Publishing.ISBN978-93-89000-29-0.
  40. ^abKaur, Kanwalpreet (2008).Independence.New Delhi: Sanbun Publishers. p. 19.ISBN978-81-89540-80-7.
  41. ^Wolpert, Stanley(2013).Jinnah of Pakistan(15 ed.). Karachi, Pakistan: Oxford University Press. p. 186.ISBN978-0-19-577389-7.
  42. ^Wilson, A.T. 1931. Mesopotamia, 1917-1920: A Clash of Loyalties; A Personal and Historical Record. London, UK: Oxford University Press.
  43. ^London Gazette, 3 June 1919, p.7051
  44. ^London Gazette, 3 June 1919, p.7055
  45. ^Dorril, Stephen (2007).Blackshirt: Sir Oswald Mosley and British Fascism.Penguin Books. p. 426.ISBN978-0-14-025821-9.
  46. ^O'Laughlin, Michael C. (1997).The Book of Irish Families, Great & Small.Vol. 1 (3rd ed.). Kansas City: Irish Roots Cafe. p. 90.ISBN0-940134-09-8.
  47. ^"Cast of Shaheed Udham Singh".IMDB.Retrieved21 October2021.
  48. ^"Cast of Sardar Udham".IMDB.Retrieved21 October2021.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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