India massacre memorial’s lights-and-lasers ‘makeover’ attracts controversy

2 min readAug 31, 2021

The renovation of a historical monument in India’s Punjab state where British troops once killed hundreds of men, women and children has sparked furious debate and concerns over the “Disneyfication” of history.
On April 13, 1919, British troops fired without warning on a peaceful protest of thousands of unarmed people in Jallianwala Bagh, a public garden in the city of Amritsar.
The horrific event is now known as the Jallianwala Bagh or Amritsar Massacre.
On August 28, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the restored memorial and posted a dramatic video on Twitter of a new sound and light show featured as part of the revamp.
“It (sound and light show) would display the horrific massacre of April 1919 and instill a spirit of gratitude and reverence towards the martyrs,” Modi tweeted.
In an online address, he said the renovation “will remind the new generation about the history of this holy place and inspire them to learn about its past.”
Critics have slammed the renovation of the site, considered a somber reminder of India’s colonial past, as insensitive.
“Devastated to hear that Jallianwala Bagh, site of the Amritsar Massacre of 1919, has been revamped — which means that the last traces of the event have effectively been erased,” Kim A. Wagner, a professor of global and imperial history at Queen Mary, University of London and the author of “Amritsar 1919: An Empire or Fear and the Making of a Massacre,” tweeted.
Wagner went on to describe the addition of the light show as the “Disneyfication of the old city of Amritsar” and posted before-and-after photos of the narrow passage leading into Jallianwala Bagh.
As part of the makeover, the walls of the passage — through which soldiers led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer entered the area — have been decorated with embossed murals depicting those who were caught up in the violence.

India massacre memorial’s lights-and-lasers ‘makeover’ attracts controversy

Written by Bronx