Question

Rabindranath Tagore sent a strong letter of protest to the then Viceroy. “The accounts of the insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab,” wrote Tagore, “have trickled through the gagged silence, reaching every corner of India, and the universal agony of indignation roused in the hearts of our people has been ignored by our rulers possibly congratulating themselves for what they imagine as salutary lessons.” In the same letter, Tagore returned the knighthood he had received from the British. 

What does Tagore mean when he assumes that the colonial rulers ‘congratulated themselves’ after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre?

Answer 1

Tagore believed that the British rulers “congratulated themselves” because they thought the violence and repression at Jallianwala Bagh would frighten Indians and stop them from protesting. They believed that such cruelty would weaken the freedom movement and show their power. However, Tagore highlighted the arrogance and mistake in this thinking, as the massacre instead increased public anger, united Indians, and strengthened their determination to achieve freedom.