The Barrister Between the Bullets: Gurdial Singh Salariya and the Forgotten Courage of Amritsar David Salariya History, Book publishing from idea to book, Publishing Book-Makers

Bridging Empires: The Forgotten Lawyer of Amritsar

In the tense days before the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919, a Sikh barrister galloped into a furious crowd on horseback, risking his life to stop the violence. Educated in Dublin, shaped by Irish resistance, and driven by conscience, Gurdial Singh Salariya made a last, desperate attempt to prevent one of the British Empire’s darkest atrocities.

Today 13th April 2025 is the 106th Anniversary of the Massacre in Amritsar. It remains one of the most notorious events of British colonial rule in India, where troops under General Reginald Dyer fired on a peaceful crowd gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, killing at least 1000 and wounding many more. The brutality of the act caused widespread outrage and became a turning point in the Indian independence movement.

This is the remarkable story of Gurdial Singh Salariya, my great uncle (1897–1947): a peace-seeker, a legal professional, and a forgotten hero of Indian history.

From Amritsar to Dublin: A Legal Education with Revolutionary Echoes

Born into a Sikh family in Amritsar, Gurdial Singh Salariya was one of three brothers sent abroad to university by their father, Piara Singh Salariya. Gurdial studied law at Dublin University, his brother Attar Singh Salariya engineering at St Andrews (where he met his future wife, Beatrice Corbett, my grandmother), and Baksheesh Singh Salariya trained in naval architecture at Glasgow University.

Gurdial’s years in Dublin were formative. He studied law at King’s Inns and University College Dublin, during a time when Ireland was undergoing its own seismic political upheaval, he was in Dublin during the 1916 Easter Rising, when Irish republicans launched a rebellion against British rule.

Dublin: A Cradle of Radical Thought

Dublin, between 1913 and 1916, saw an influx of Indian students - many of them would recognise Ireland as a mirror to their own struggle. Among Gurdial’s contemporaries was Varahagiri Venkata Giri (V.V. Giri), who would go on to become President of India (1968–1974). Giri always claimed that Thomas MacDonagh, one of the Rising’s executed leaders, was his tutor at UCD. Giri’s experience of the Dublin Lockout, the Easter Rising, and the broader Irish independence movement left a lasting impression.

April 1919: The Tipping Point in Punjab

By 1919, back in Amritsar, Gurdial Singh Salariya was rising in the legal profession and working in the courts of Lahore and Amritsar as a barrister. The Rowlatt Act, officially the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919, was a law passed by the British government in India to extend wartime emergency measures in peacetime. This act granted the British government broad powers to detain anyone suspected of terrorist activities, search properties without warrants, and restrict freedom of the press.

This act had moved Indians into protest. On April 10, 1919, following the arrest of local leaders Dr. Satyapal and Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew, a mass of protestors surged toward British civil lines.

At Hall Bridge, in Amritsar tension peaked. British troops faced off with the demonstrators.

Enter Salariya and fellow lawyer Maulvi Maqbool Mahmood.

Between the Crowd and the Gunfire

With incredible courage, Salariya and Mahmood stood between the soldiers and the protestors, waving and shouting for both sides to back down. British official R.H. Plomer provided Salariya with a horse, which he rode into the crowd, urging people to disperse.

They were close to calming the situation. But then stones were thrown from the crowd. Without further warning, the British opened fire. Twenty civilians died. Bullets whistled past Salariya, who miraculously survived.

Later that day, the two lawyers helped tend to the wounded and escorted doctors to the scene. Their actions - courageous, compassionate, and utterly human - would later be buried beneath the horror of what was to come.

The Massacre and the Crackdown

Three days later came the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, when General Dyer ordered his troops to fire on a peaceful gathering, killing hundreds. The number of total casualties was disputed. The following morning's newspapers quoted a figure of 200 casualties.

Official figures were obviously flawed regarding the size of the crowd (6,000–20,000), the number of rounds fired and the period of shooting, the Indian National Congress instituted a separate inquiry of its own, with conclusions that differed considerably from the British Government's inquiry. The casualty number quoted by the Congress was more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 being killed.

‘I fired and continued to fire until the crowd dispersed, and I consider this is the least amount of firing which would produce the necessary moral and widespread effect it was my duty to produce if I was to justify my action. If more troops had been at hand the casualties would have been greater in proportion. It was no longer a question of merely dispersing the crowd, hut one of producing a sufficient moral effect from a military point of view not only on those who were present, hut more especially throughout the Punjab. There could be no question of undue severity.’

So said General Dyer on August 25, 1919, a statement to which he stuck for the rest of his life, words which branded him in the eyes of millions as an inhuman monster, a British soldier who had committed an appalling atrocity, one for which he found no adequate excuse necessary.

After the Massacre

What followed after the massacre was a campaign of humiliation and repression. Martial law was declared. Indian lawyers, including Salariya, were forced to serve as ‘special constables’, made to salute British officers, patrol streets, and witness public floggings.

Despite being a peacemaker, Salariya was arrested for sedition on May 23, 1919. He was taken to court in chains and then imprisoned without trial until July 5, enduring weeks of starvation alongside many other innocent civilians who had been arrested.

Testimony and Truth

Upon release, Salariya gave evidence to the Congress Punjab Inquiry Committee, describing how he and Mahmood had tried to prevent violence and how the troops had fired without warning. His statement remains a powerful document of ethical resistance.

Legacy: A Life Marked by Conscience

Gurdial Singh Salariya died in 1947, the year India gained independence. His role is not widely taught in history books, but his moral clarity and civil bravery stand as a testament to the power of individual action.

He didn’t fight with weapons - he fought with presence, reason, and the authority of a young man who had seen resistance in both Ireland and India.

Like his Irish contemporaries, Salariya stood up to empire not by storming buildings, but by standing firm between those about to collide. He belongs to both stories - the Indian and the Irish.

Why This Story Matters

History tends to remember the loudest actors - tyrants, martyrs, revolutionaries. But in between, there are the quiet heroes: people like Gurdial Singh Salariya, who stepped into the breach when others looked away. His legacy isn’t carved in marble. It rides quietly through the fog of history on a borrowed horse, trying to stop the inevitable. We remember him now not because he succeeded - but because he tried.

Let’s not forget the man who rode a horse into a riot - to stop the killing.

Gurdial Singh Salariya and family — Gurdial Singh Salariya 1947

DAVID SALARIYA Book Creator • Designer • Author • Illustrator • Publisher

The Barrister Between the Bullets: Gurdial Singh Salariya and the Forgotten Courage of Amritsar