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Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial

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{{for|the Indian independence revolutionary who became an approver at the Lahore Conspiracy Trial of 1930 (Bhagat Singh)|Hans Raj Vohra}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Hans Raj
| image = 
| alt = 
| caption =
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = 1896
| birth_place = [[Amritsar]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = Unknown
| death_place =
| nationality = Indian
| other_names =
| occupation = Unemployed/political activist
| years_active =
| known_for = Evidence given ([[approver]]) at the Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial of 1919
| notable_works =
}}
'''Hans Raj''' (born 1896) was an Indian youth, in [[Amritsar]], [[British India]], who in June 1919 became an [[approver]] for the [[British Raj|British government]] when he gave evidence for the Crown at the Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial in which he identified his fellow Indian [[revolutionaries]], buying his own freedom in return.

In early 1919, Hans Raj became active in the non-violent disobedience or [[Satyagraha]] movement and began to participate in protests against British rule in India. He was appointed the joint secretary of the Satyagraha organisation in Amritsar and worked to help local Indian leaders [[Saifuddin Kitchlew]] and [[Satyapal]], whose arrests and deportation on 10 April 1919 triggered riots. He subsequently arranged a meeting at [[Jallianwalla Bagh]] on 13 April 1919, and was present during the [[Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre]]. Having survived that day, he was soon arrested but became an [[approver]] for the [[British Raj|British]], providing evidence which led to the sentencing of Kitchlew and Satyapal to two years imprisonment.

Shortly after the trial, he was transferred by the British to [[Mandatory Iraq|Mesopotamia]]. Historians have debated whether he was an agent for the police all along or simply took the opportunity to save his own skin by testifying for the British.

==Early life==
Hans Raj was from the Katra Bagh Singh area of Amritsar. In 1911, he passed the [[matriculation|university entrance exam]]. His first job was with the [[North Western State Railway]] as a ticket inspector, after which he unsuccessfully tried to join the police force and the [[Indian Defence Force]]. He subsequently took a job as a correspondence clerk for a [[Municipal Commissioner (India)|Municipal Commissioner]] at Amritsar, became a banker and then a medical and stationary agent, but was frequently found to be unable to hold down employment due to his dishonesty.<ref name=Wagnerp.50-51>[[Kim A. Wagner|Wagner, Kim A.]] (2019) [https://www.worldcat.org/title/amritsar-1919-an-empire-of-fear-the-making-of-a-massacre/oclc/1046462732&referer=brief_results ''Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre'']. New Haven: [[Yale University Press]]. p. 50-51. {{ISBN|9780300200355}}</ref><ref name=Mohanp.118-120>Mohan, Pearay. (1920) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.15881/page/n3 ''An Imaginary Rebellion'']. Lahore: Khosla Bros. pp. 118-120.</ref>

Both his mother and his wife were rumoured to be prostitutes, and were said to provide for him. It was also rumoured that he had close associations with the police.<ref name=Wagnerp.50-51 />

==Political activities==
In 1917, Hans Raj joined the [[Indian Home Rule movement|Home Rule League]] and was relatively quiet and unknown until early 1919, at the age of 23, when he began to participate in the protests against the [[Rowlatt Acts]],<ref name=Wagnerp.50-51/> British repressive legislation set to continue specific wartime powers for use against conspiracies and terrorist activities by revolutionaries.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100431140|title=Rowlatt Act - Oxford Reference|last=|first=|date=|website=www.oxfordreference.com|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=22 December 2019}}</ref> He became the joint secretary of the non-violent disobedience or [[Satygraha]] organisation, frequently attended their events and was aware of who had signed its pledge.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208>[https://books.google.com/books?id=bziIDwAAQBAJ Wagner, 2019, pp. 200–208.]</ref>

On 10 April 1919, the Indian political leaders [[Saifuddin Kitchlew]] and [[Satyapal]] were summoned to deputy commissioner [[Miles Irving]]'s home on the orders of [[Michael O’Dwyer]], the [[List of governors of Punjab (British India)|Lieutenant Governor of Punjab]]. They were accompanied by Hans Raj, who waited outside with his colleague Jai Ram Singh. Satypal and Kitchlew were secretly arrested under the [[Defence of India Act 1915]] and deported to [[Dharamasala]], at the foot of the [[Himalayas]], where they were kept under [[house arrest]]. The incident triggered a petition for their release and subsequent local riots, where a number of both Europeans, including the school teacher Marcella Sherwood, and Indians were injured and killed, and official buildings defaced.<ref name=Wagnerp.74-76>[https://books.google.com/books?id=bziIDwAAQBAJ Wagner, 2019, pp. 74–76.]</ref><ref name=Wagnerp.186-198>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bziIDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=satya+pal+1919&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS3Jj3xbHkAhVMSsAKHUBWAGoQ6AEIKDAA#v=snippet&q=sherwood&f=false Wagner, 2019, pp.186-198.]</ref>

==Jallianwala Bagh==
[[File:Jallianwallah.jpg|thumb|right|The Jallianwala Bagh in 1919]]
On the evening of 12 April 1919, as a result of the deportations of Kitchlew and Satypal, in addition to the protests over the [[Rowlatt Act]]s and the exclusion of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] from entering Punjab, Hans Raj arranged a meeting to be held the next day on 13 April at [[Jallianwala Bagh]] grounds.<ref name=Anand2019pp.99-105>[[Anita Anand|Anand, Anita]]. (2019) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Mk7ptwEACAAJ ''The Patient Assassin: A true tale of massacre, revenge, and India's quest for independence'']. New York: Scribner. pp. 99–105. {{ISBN|978-1-5011-9570-9}}</ref> Seth Gul Mohammed, the son of a glassware merchant, helped Hans Raj organise the meeting.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/>

On 13 April, upon arrival of [[Reginald Dyer|General Dyer]] and his troops, Hans Raj pleaded to those gathered to sit down. He attempted to assure the crowds that the troops would not shoot.<ref name=Anand2019pp.99-105/> Subsequently, 1650 rounds of ammunition were fired over ten minutes, in what came to be known as the [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]]. Dyer had ordered the troops to fire at the unarmed crowds, resulting in many wounded and "most were shot in the back as they tried to run away. Many were trampled in the panic".<ref name=Anand2019pp.99-105/> An eye-witness statement by a Mr Girdhari Lal, who watched the event from his window which overlooked the Bagh described "there was not a corner left of the garden facing the firing line where people did not die in large numbers…blood was pouring in profusion”.<ref name=Anand2019pp.99-105/> Having survived the massacre, the following day Hans Raj, now in hiding, warned Mohammed that they were both under the threat of arrest should they be found. Mohammed later recalled that a week later, while he had been arrested and tortured, Hans Raj was being treated favourably at the police station.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/><ref name=Anand2019pp.99-105/><ref name=Sharma2019/>

==Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial==
O'Dwyer declared [[martial law]] on 15 April 1919 and backdated it to 30 March 1919.<ref name=Wagnerp.186-198/> Subsequently, trials of Amritsar conspiracy cases began on 9 June 1919 with the aim of proving that the Amritsar troubles were a pre-meditated plan by local Satyagraha leaders, later found to be untrue. Hans Raj provided the fabricated evidence and "carefully coached"<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> statement as the prime witness, “Prosecution Witness No. 1”.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> As a result of his evidence, Satyapal and Kitchlew were found guilty of conspiracy and “waging of war against the King”.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> They were convicted with 13 others and sentenced to two years imprisonment. Hans Raj's final statement had included an amended version of the account of the summoning of Satyapal and Kitchlew to Irving's house on 10 April, claiming that the two had told him to seek revenge should the summoning lead to an arrest. Despite this sequence of events being not possible, his statement formed the basis of the sentence.<ref name=Mohanp.118-120/><ref name=Wagnerp200-208/>

According to historian [[Kim A. Wagner]], Hans Raj “became integral to the effort to implicate as many of the local nationalists and Satyagraha volunteers as possible, first identifying people and subsequently coaching their confessions”.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> A system long established in British India, an approver such as Hans Raj was a suspect who provided a testimony which identified their associates in return for his own freedom. Where there was insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction, the testimony of an approver could be considered satisfactory.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/>

Hans Raj's house in Punjab was burned down on 24 May 1919, before the start of the trial.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> Shortly after the trial, he was transferred by the British to [[Mandatory Iraq|Mesopotamia]].<ref name=Sharma2019>{{Cite web|url=https://caravanmagazine.in/perspectives/what-we-chose-not-remember-centenary-jallianwala-bagh|title=What we choose not to remember about Jallianwala Bagh|last=Sharma|first=Manik|date=1 June 2019|website=[[The Caravan]]|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref><ref name=Mohanp.118-120/>

==Controversy==
The circumstances surrounding Hans Raj's transformation into an approver are unclear. Historians have disputed whether he had been a police agent all along.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/><ref name="Sharma2019" /> He was questioned by Jowahar Lal of the [[Criminal Investigation Department (India)|Criminal Investigation Department]], whose reputation for torture and threats was well known.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> According to the lawyer Pearay Mohan, who wrote a book on the Punjab of 1919, titled ''An Imaginary Rebellion'' (1920), Hans Raj was a secret agent for the police all along and disclosed his testimonies without expectation of any reward. In addition, he noted that Hans Raj had attended every political meeting in the two months preceding the Amritsar troubles.<ref name=Mohanp.118-120/> Various extents of Hans Raj's involvement with police were also noted by [[Charles Freer Andrews]], [[M. R. Jayakar]], [[Madan Mohan Malaviya]],<ref name="Pathakp.58">Pathak, Rashmi (2007) [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yERpZ6s156cC&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=hans+raj+pearay+mohan&source=bl&ots=u1-BzhRAeM&sig=ACfU3U31ucmEMFzPh1cWSvD9xYC-YHHhXg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyq8u4wrrmAhVTlFwKHcAaB4MQ6AEwAnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=hans%20raj%20pearay%20mohan&f=false '' Punjab Through the Ages'']. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. p. 58. {{ISBN|81-7625-738-9}}
</ref> and historian [[Vishwa Nath Datta|V. N. Datta]]<ref name=Sharma2019/><ref name=Nonica2019>{{Cite web|url=https://thewire.in/history/interview-why-the-context-of-the-jallianwala-bagh-massacre-is-so-important|title=Interview {{!}} Why the Context of the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre Is So Important|last=Datta|first=Nonica|date=15 April 2019|website=[[The Wire]]|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=12 December 2019}}</ref> who wrote that Hans Raj assisted [[Reginald Dyer|General Dyer]] in planning the massacre<ref name="Tuteja1997">{{Cite journal|last=Tuteja|first=K. L.|date=1997|title=Jallianwala Bagh: A Critical Juncture in the Indian National Movement|journal=Social Scientist|volume=25|issue=1/2|pages=25–61|doi=10.2307/3517759|issn=0970-0293|jstor=3517759}}{{subscription required}}</ref> and expected the shootings on 13 April, going as far as to build a wooden platform designed to provide himself with a hiding place during the shooting.<ref name=Mohanp.118-120/><ref name=Lloyd2011p.243>[[Nick Lloyd (historian)|Lloyd, Nick]]. (2011) [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=AhCMDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA243&lpg=PA243&dq=mohan+pearay+dyer+hans+raj&source=bl&ots=0q0wfCnB8-&sig=ACfU3U2_GMPSoERKDXZDsF-7jOk0fKywKg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj3x6y_lbDmAhXyURUIHafTAPYQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%20hans%20raj&f=false ''The Amritsar Massacre: The Untold Story of One Fateful Day'']. London: [[I. B. Tauris]]. p. 243. {{ISBN|978-1-84885-723-0}}.</ref>

However, [[Anita Anand]]'s research, published in 2019, found no evidence that Hans Raj had any prior connections with the police.<ref name=Anand2019pp.327>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Mk7ptwEACAAJ Anand, 2019, pp. 327]</ref> Being in the crowd on 13 April and going into hiding afterwards, according to [[Kim A. Wagner]], suggests that there was no conspiracy and that Hans Raj was not an "[[agent provocateur]]" as some have concluded. Wagner states that Raj may not have testified for the British voluntarily.<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> [[Edmund Candler]] described Hans Raj as a "pariah of fortune". The secretary of the local Congress Committee described him as "a man of no character".<ref name=Wagnerp200-208/> Pearay called him a "rudderless youth of an extremely dubious character".<ref name=Mohanp.118-120/>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raj, Hans}}
[[Category:Punjabi people]]
[[Category:Year of death missing]]
[[Category:1919 in India]]
[[Category:People from Amritsar]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1890s births]]

Hans Raj (approver) - Revision history

imported>Whispyhistory: Reverted 3 edits by निखिल चौहान (talk): Unreferenced

171.49.140.96: /* Amritsar Conspiracy Case Trial */