Which one of the following events, was characterised by Montague as ‘Preventive Murder’ ?

Edwin Montagu characterised the Jallianwala Bagh massacre as “preventive murder.” Contemporary summary question banks and quizzes recording this remark explicitly identify the Amritsar massacre (Jallianwalla Bagh, April 1919) as the event Montagu described in those terms . The massacre itself—where Brigadier-General Dyer’s troops fired on a large, largely nonviolent crowd gathered to protest the Rowlatt Act—led to the formation of the Hunter Committee to inquire into the Punjab disturbances, under orders from the Secretary of State for India (Montagu’s office) and shocked both Indians and many Britons [1]. Montagu’s characterization has since been cited in accounts linking the massacre to the wider political fallout that fuelled mass nationalist movements.

Sources

1. [1] Rajiv Ahir. A Brief History of Modern India (2019 ed.). SPECTRUM. > Chapter 15: Emergence of Gandhi > The Hunter Committee of Inquiry > p. 324