Satyapal

Dr Satyapal was an Indian physician and nationalist politician who became one of the leading anti-colonial organisers in Amritsar during the agitation against the Rowlatt legislation of 1919. Born at Wazirabad in Punjab in 1885, he trained in medicine and served in the Indian Medical Service during the First World War. After returning to civilian life he became active in public politics and worked closely with Saifuddin Kitchlew in mobilising opposition to laws that extended emergency powers of detention and repression.

British officials regarded Satyapal and Kitchlew as dangerous local leaders and secretly arrested and removed them from Amritsar on 10 April 1919. News of their deportation helped provoke mass protest and violent clashes; three days later crowds gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, where Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire on the meeting. Satyapal later endured imprisonment and remained active in the Indian National Congress and Punjab politics. After independence he entered the Punjab legislature and became its Speaker in 1952, holding the office until his death in 1954.

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.