Editorial Note, May-Jun, 2019

Often in the course of a liberation movement an incident occurs, which expresses the irreconcilable antagonism between the rulers and the ruled; it negates any possibility of their future coexistence by revealing to all in one dazzling moment the true nature of the oppressive order. The Sharpeville massacre in apartheid South Africa was one such incident. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre whose centenary is being observed in the country this year was another such incident that marked a decisive turn for the Indian liberation movement. While the actual liberation of the country had to await almost three decades after the massacre, it became the only logical and inevitable outcome of the movement once the massacre had happened.