A century ago, soldiers shot 379 (officially, though likely to be many more) people, including children and babies, who were at the Jallianwala Bagh park in Amritsar. He speaks bad Punjabi to a group of men in the street, trying to find out where to buy a lathi – a long stick the British claimed was being used as a weapon by Indian protesters – and they think he’s after some lassi, “a kind of Indian yoghurt,” he deadpans.īut this is a serious documentary. The weird nuggets of personal information he offers up – that one of his uncles killed another uncle, that he got a brain parasite the last time he visited India – bring a quirky edge. In less than an hour, the programme succeeded in bringing together sensitive reporting of the massacre and the context in which it took place angrily examining our “wilful amnesia” about the brutality of the British empire and our idea of British exceptionalism and offering many insights into the second-generation experience.ĭespite the grave subject matter, there was a lightness of touch, thanks to Sanghera’s charm as presenter. This was one of many lovely personal touches in The Massacre that Shook the Empire (Saturday, Channel 4), about the slaying of hundreds of Indians by the British-Indian army in Amritsar in 1919.
S athnam Sanghera’s mum doesn’t know he’s going to India.
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