Amritsar Massacre a Fresh Memory for Last Witness

NPR | By Philip Reeves

Published December 27, 2006 at 4:00 PM EST

For 87 years, Bapu Shingara Singh has been carrying around a terrible piece of history in his head. Singh is thought to be the last surviving witness of an atrocity committed by an occupying army in Amritsar in north India, the holy city of the Sikhs.

Singh was in his early 20s when British forces, attempting to quell an uprising, opened fire on a large crowd of unarmed Indian protestors.

The 1919 event was critical to India's history and the eventual end of England's imperial authority. Most of the world has forgotten about it, but it has shaped Singh's worldview.

Philip Reeves

See stories by Philip Reeves

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