Local progressive groups held a candle light vigil at Surrey’s Holland Park on Sunday to mark the 90th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that shaped the freedom movement in Punjab, India.
The Fraser Valley Peace Council and the Taraksheel Sabha jointly organized the vigil that was attended by people of both Indian and Pakistani origins.
The event marked the first time ever that South Asians have gathered for such a vigil as the Sikh temples that organize Vaisakhi parades in Metro Vancouver every year have never commemorated this bloody part of their history.

The notorious Jallianawala Bagh massacre was orchestrated by the British forces in Amritsar on the auspicious occasion of Vaisakhi on April 13, 1919 and left 379 people dead.
The killings took place in a public park named Jallianwala Bagh. A crowd of supporters of the passive resistance movement had gathered at the park, defying the ban on a public meeting to oppose the arrests of leaders who had challenged a draconian law enacted by their foreign rulers.
Senior British military officer Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer ordered his troops to fire on the civilians. The dead included people of all faiths - Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs - united in the common fight against their occupiers.

The episode turned even pro-British Punjabis, particularly Sikhs, against the foreign occupation. Horrific memories of the massacre continue to haunt both Indians and the Pakistanis whose forefathers stood side by side in the freedom struggle.

Interestingly, no elected politicians of Indian origin showed up at the vigil, though they participated in the Vaisakhi parades held the day before.

Fraser Valley Peace Council leader Ghulam Mujataba said that his grandfather was a witness to the massacre. A Pakistani himself, he said that the Jallianwala Bagh incident has a lesson for all those who continue to resist imperialist wars across the world.

Pakistani poet Capt. Suleman Mahtab recited a poem dedicated to the martyrs of the massacre. He recalled his emotional visit at the Jallianwala Bagh when he went to India.

Taraksheel Sabha leader, Avtar Gill observed that the Indian state continue to be repressive in its response to people’s movements.

"Freedom is confined to small elite as the poor and the minorities suffer in the independent India. We need to press the establishment to change the police act," he said.

Several media personalities, writers and activists also spoke at the vigil.