Historical person
Saifuddin Kitchlew
1888–1963
Saifuddin Kitchlew was a prominent Indian barrister, nationalist and political activist born in Amritsar in 1888. Educated in India and Europe, he returned to Punjab to practise law but increasingly devoted himself to anti-colonial politics. In 1919 he became one of the leading Amritsar organisers opposing the Rowlatt Acts, which extended wartime emergency powers and provoked widespread protest across India.
British authorities arrested Kitchlew and the physician Satyapal on 10 April 1919 and secretly removed them from Amritsar. Demonstrations over their detention formed part of the escalating crisis that culminated three days later in the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Kitchlew remained active in the Indian National Congress, the Khilafat and non-cooperation movements, and later international peace campaigns. He served as a Congress office-holder, helped found Jamia Millia Islamia and received the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952 before his death in 1963.
Kim A. Wagner’s Amritsar 1919 reconstructs the crisis in Amritsar in the spring of 1919, following the Rowlatt legislation, nationalist protest and the arrest of local leaders Saifuddin Kitchlew and Satyapal.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring Saifuddin Kitchlew (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.