Michael Francis O'Dwyer (28 April 1864 – 13 March 1940) was an Irish Indian Civil Service (ICS) officer and later the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab,

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, between 1913 and 1919. During O'Dwyer's tenure as Punjab's Lieutenant Governor the Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in

Amritsar Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha r ...

, on 13 April 1919. As a result, his actions are considered among the most significant factors in the rise of the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

. O'Dwyer endorsed

Reginald Dyer Colonel Reginald Edward Harry Dyer, CB (9 October 1864 – 23 July 1927) was an officer of the Bengal Army and later the newly constituted British Indian Army. His military career began serving briefly in the regular British Army before tra ...

's action at Jallianwala Bagh and made it clear that he considered Dyer's orders to shoot at the crowds was correct. He subsequently administered

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

, on 15 April and backdated it to 30 March 1919. In 1925, he published '' India as I Knew It'' in which he wrote that his time as administrator in Punjab was preoccupied by the threat of terrorism and the spread of political agitation. In 1940, in retaliation for the massacre, O'Dwyer was assassinated by the Indian revolutionary Udham Singh.

Early life and education

Michael Francis O'Dwyer was born on 28 April 1864 in Barronstown, Limerick Junction,

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

, to John, a landowner of Barronstown, Solohead, and Margaret (née Quirke) O'Dwyer, of Toem, both in County Tipperary, Ireland. He was the sixth son in a family of fourteen children, At the age of seven, he was sent to be schooled at

St Stanislaus College St Stanislaus College (often called Tullabeg College) was a Jesuit boys boarding school, novitiate and philosophy school, in Tullabeg, Rahan, County Offaly. St Carthage founded a monastery of 800 monks there in 595 before founding his monaster ...

Rahan, County Offaly Rahan () is a parish and village in County Offaly, Ireland. It is associated with Mochuda (also known as St. Carthage). The village is located on the banks of the river Clodagh approximately 8 km from Tullamore. The parish of Rahan extends ...

. Later, he attended Mr Wren's educational crammer school in

Powis Square, London Powis Square is a garden square and locality in Notting Hill, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. The closest London Underground station to the square is Westbourne Park tube station. It was planned in the mid-19t ...

, and subsequently passed the open entrance competition for the Indian Civil Service in 1882. After completing two years of probation at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, he passed the final examination in 1884 in fourth place overall. At the time, the ICS examination was highly competitive, with no more than 1200 ICS officers in office at one time, and he was likely influenced by the reputations of the likes of Lord Lawrence, one of the first British civil administrators in India. In his third year he obtained a first class in

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. Philip Woodruff wrote of O'Dwyer's upbringing:

Michael O'Dwyer was one of the fourteen children of an unknown Irish land-owner of no great wealth, as much farmer as landlord. He was brought up in a world of hunting and snipe-shooting, of threatening letters and houghed cattle, where you were for the Government or against it, where you passed every day the results of lawlessness in the blackened walls of empty houses. It was a world very different from the mild and ordered life of southern England... One gets the impression f O'Dwyer when at Balliolof a man who seldom opened a book without a purpose, whose keen hard brain acquired quickly and did not forget but had little time for subtleties.

In 1882, his family home in Ireland was fired upon by

Irish nationalists Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of cu ...

, and the following year, his father died after a second stroke. Of his siblings, two brothers served in India, and two others became Jesuit priests.

Early career

In 1885, he travelled to India as an ICS officer and was first posted to Shahpur in

. Mittal, Satish Chandra (1977)
''Freedom Movement in Punjab (1905-29)''
Delhi:

Concept Publishing Company Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by sev ...

. pp. 71-78. He distinguished himself in land revenue settlement work and in 1896 was made director of land records and agriculture in Punjab. Subsequently, he was placed in charge of the settlements of

Alwar Alwar (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, �lʋəɾ is a city located in India's National Capital Region (India), National Capital Region and the administrative headquarters of Alwar district, Alwar District in the state of Rajasthan. ...

and Bharatpur states. After a year and a half of travels around Europe and Russia, he was selected by Lord Curzon for a significant role in the organisation of the new

North-West Frontier Province The North-West Frontier Province (NWFP; ps, شمال لویدیځ سرحدي ولایت, ) was a Chief Commissioner's Province of British India, established on 9 November 1901 from the north-western districts of the Punjab Province. Followin ...

and its separation from Punjab. From 1901 to 1908, he was revenue commissioner; from 1908 to 1909, he was acting resident in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

; and from 1910 to 1912, he was agent to the governor-general in

Central India Central India is a loosely defined geographical region of India. There is no clear official definition and various ones may be used. One common definition consists of the states of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, which are included in alm ...

. In December 1912, during Lord Hardinge of Penshurst's tenure as

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

, O'Dwyer was appointed

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

of Punjab. When he assumed charge in May 1913, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India and was cautioned by the Viceroy Hardinge that "the Punjab was the Province about which the Government were then the most concerned; that there was much inflammable material lying about; which required very careful handling if an explosion was to be avoided".

First World War recruitment

O'Dwyer worked closely with the military authorities and sought the aid of local rural Punjabi leaders to organise a centralised system for the recruitment of soldiers for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

effort in exchange for compensation, including major land grants and formal titles. Yong, Tan Tai (2005)
''The Garrison State: Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947''
New Delhi:

SAGE Publications SAGE Publishing, formerly SAGE Publications, is an American independent publishing company founded in 1965 in New York by Sara Miller McCune and now based in Newbury Park, California. It publishes more than 1,000 journals, more than 800 books ...

. p. 15. As a result, most of the recruits were drawn from rural areas of the Punjab, which ultimately left a number of families without their breadwinners. Those who returned from the war aspired to a reward and a better life. The co-operation between the civil and military leaders and the leading rural Punjabis, as later described by the historian Tan Tai Yong, laid "the foundations of a militarized bureaucracy in colonial Punjab". Of the Indian recruits for the War from the whole of India, the 360,000 from the Punjab formed more than half. In 1917, O'Dwyer's efforts in recruiting Punjabi men for the war effort earned him appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Indian Empire, when India's Viceroy was

Lord Chelmsford Viscount Chelmsford, of Chelmsford in the County of Essex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1921 for Frederic Thesiger, 3rd Baron Chelmsford, the former Viceroy of India. The title of Baron Chelmsford, of Chelm ...

.Tan, 2005, pp. 111-112
/ref> However, during the war, there was also a growing home rule movement.

Defence of India Act 1915

He played a significant role in persuading the British government in India to pass the 1915 Defence of India Act, which gave him considerable powers. Passed on 18 March 1915, the Act allowed special tribunals for revolutionary crimes to take place without possibilities for appeal.Mittal, 1977, pp. 96-98
/ref> He opposed the

Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms The Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms or more briefly known as the Mont–Ford Reforms, were introduced by the colonial government to introduce self-governing institutions gradually in British India. The reforms take their name from Edwin Montagu, th ...

for fear that his efforts in recruitment through the rural leaders would be destroyed by increasing powers to “urban elites”.Tan, 2005, pp. 21
/ref>

Surveillance in 1919

From mid-March 1919, under O’Dwyer's orders, the CID in Amritsar kept a close surveillance of two Gandhian non-violent Indian nationalists; the Muslim barrister Saifuddin Kitchlew and the Hindu physician Dr. Satyapal. O'Dwyer subsequently summoned both to Deputy Commissioner

Miles Irving Sir Miles Irving CIE, OBE (1 August 1876 - 24 June 1962) was an English Indian Civil Service officer. As Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, the senior government official in charge, he transferred the city's administration to Colonel (temp. Briga ...

's house in the Civil Lines on 10 April 1919 from where they were arrested and secretly escorted to

Dharamasala Dharamshala (; also spelled Dharamsala) is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh, India. It serves as administrative headquarters of the Kangra district after being relocated from Kangra, a city located away from Dharamshala, in 1855. The ...

, at the foot of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...

, to be kept under house arrest.Mittal, 1977, pp. 120
/ref> Wagner, Kim A. (2019
''Amritsar 1919: An Empire of Fear and the Making of a Massacre''
New Haven:

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

. pp.74-76. As the news of the arrest became widespread, supporters began to gather near Irving's home, and what initially began as a peaceful attempt to make enquiries ended up in a violent clash.Anand, ''The Patient Assassin'' (2019). pp.81-83
/ref>Wagner, 2019, pp. 126-127.
/ref> On 13 April 1919, a meeting was called to take place at Jallianwala Bagh to protest the arrest.

Amritsar massacre

It was during O'Dwyer's tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Punjab that the Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in

on 13 April 1919, three days after the onset of the riots. According to British estimates, 379 unarmed civilians were killed by Gurkha troops under the command of Brigadier General

. Some estimates are greater, with more than 1500 casualties. V. N. Datta, ''Jallianwala Bagh'' (Ludhiana, 1969), pp. 104–105. According to then civil surgeon Dr Smit 1,526 people had been killed. O'Dwyer was informed of the event at 3 am the following day. When he received Dyer's initial report, O'Dwyer gave permission to General

William Beynon William Beynon (1888–1958) was a Canadian hereditary chief of the Tsimshian Nation and an oral historian; he served as ethnographer, translator, and linguistic consultant to many anthropologists who studied his people. Early life and education ...

to send a telegram to Dyer that stated "your action correct and the lieutenant-governor approves".O'Dwyer, Michael (1925)
''India as I knew it''
Constable and Company. p. 286. O'Dwyer and several other senior officials and military officers supported Dyer's actions both initially, when only limited information had been received, and later, when more detailed information of the scale of the killings became available. Subsequently,

was imposed on 15 April and backdated to 30 March. As a result, his actions are considered one of the most significant factors in the rise of the

, led by

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

. On 21 April 1919 in Dyer's defence, O'Dwyer stated to Viceroy Chelmsford that "the Amritsar business cleared the air, and if there was to be holocaust anywhere, and one regrets that there should be, it was best at Amritsar".Wagner, 2019, p. 256
/ref> One theory surrounding the massacre, as described by Pearay MohanMohan, Pearay. (1920
''An Imaginary Rebellion''
Lahore: Khosla Bros. pp. 118-120. and historian Raja Ram, is one of a "premeditated plan" conspired by O'Dwyer and others, including a young Punjabi youth Hans Raj.Ram, Raja (1969)
''Jallianwala Bagh Massacre – A Pre-Mediated Plan''
Chandigarh: Punjab University. Other historians including Nick Lloyd, K. L. Tuteja,K. L. Tuteja
"Jallianwala Bagh: A Critical Juncture in the Indian National Movement"
'' Social Scientist''. Vol. 25, No. 1/2 (January 1997 – February 1997), pp. 25-61.

Anita Anand (journalist) Anita Anand ( ; born 1972) is a British radio and television presenter, journalist, and author. Early life and education Anand was born on 28 April 1972 in London, England, to Punjabi parents who migrated to India shortly after the partition o ...

Anand, 2019, p. 327
/ref> and

Kim A. Wagner Kim Ati Wagner is a Danish-British historian of colonial India and the British Empire at Queen Mary University of London. He has written a number of books on India, starting with ''Thuggee: Banditry and the British in early nineteenth-century Indi ...

have found that theory to lack evidence and that there was no conspiracy that Hans Raj was an " agent provocateur".Wagner, 2019, pp. 200–208.
/ref> O'Dwyer had contended without evidence that Dyer's violent suppression of the civilian demonstration was justified because the illegal gathering was part of a premeditated conspiracy to rebellion, which was timed supposedly to coincide with a rumoured Afghan invasion. Although O'Dwyer had implemented martial law in the Punjab, he denied responsibility for the consequences on the grounds that the government had relieved him of its general implementation. However, he could not disclaim responsibility for the decision, after severe rioting in

Gujranwala Gujranwala ( ur, , label=none; ) is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Pakistan. It is also known as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. It is the 5th most populous city proper after Karachi, Lahore, Faisala ...

, to send an aeroplane to bomb and strafe the area. During the course of the operation, at least a dozen people, including children, were killed. The next year, on 24 June 1920, the opposition Labour Party Conference at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

unanimously passed a resolution, which denounced the "cruel and barbarous actions" of British colonial officials in Punjab and demanded they be put on trial, the dismissal of O'Dwyer and Chelmsford and the repeal of the Rowlatt Act. The delegates rose in their places as a tribute to those killed at Jallianwala Bagh. After the Punjab disturbances, O'Dwyer was relieved of his office. O'Dwyer's response to the Amritsar troubles was that that was "what comes of having that Jew in Whitehall" in reference to Montagu.

O'Dwyer v. Nair

In 1922, Sir Sankaran Nair referred to O'Dwyer in his book, ''Gandhi and Anarchy'', and stated that "before the reforms it was in the power of the Lieutenant-Governor, a single individual, to commit the atrocities in the Punjab which we know only too well". O'Dwyer subsequently successfully sued Nair for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and was awarded £500 damages. Heard before Mr Justice McCardie in the Court of King's Bench in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

over five weeks from 30 April 1924, it was one of the longest civil law hearings in legal history. O'Dwyer saw the trial as a way of providing justifications for Dyer's actions at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Assassination

Michael O'Dwyer's Grave at Brookwood Cemetery

O'Dwyer, aged 75, was shot dead at a joint meeting of the East India Association and the Central Asian Society (now Royal Society for Asian Affairs) in

Caxton Hall Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily noted for its historical associations. It hosted many mainstream and fringe political and art ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London, on 13 March 1940, by an Indian freedom fighter, Udham Singh, in retaliation for the massacre in Amritsar. O'Dwyer was hit by two bullets and died instantly.

Lord Zetland Marquess of Zetland is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 22 August 1892 for the former Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lawrence Dundas, 3rd Earl of Zetland. Zetland is an archaic form of Shetland. The Dundas family ...

, the

Secretary of State for India His (or Her) Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for India, known for short as the India Secretary or the Indian Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister and the political head of the India Office responsible for the governance of th ...

, was presiding over the meeting and was wounded. Zetland, recovering from his injuries, later opted for early retirement from his position of Secretary of State for India and was succeeded by

Leo Amery Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, ...

. Udham Singh made no attempt to escape and was arrested at the scene. O'Dwyer was later buried in Brookwood Cemetery, near

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

. At his trial, Singh told the court:

Personal life and family

He married Una Eunice, daughter of Antoine Bord of Castres, France, on 21 November 1896. The couple had two children. She established 'Lady O'Dwyer's Punjab Comforts Fund', one of several charitable organisations created in India during the First World War to raise money and other gifts to provide comforts for troops serving with the Indian Army. She was created a

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in her own right in the

1919 Birthday Honours The 1919 Birthday Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of The King, and were ...

, in which their daughter, Una Mary O'Dwyer, was created a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

Writing

In his book '' India as I knew it'' (1925), O'Dwyer disclosed that his time as administrator in Punjab was preoccupied by the threat of terrorism and the spread of political agitation. In 1933, he published ''The O'Dwyers of Kilnamanagh: The History of an Irish Sept'', a historical and

genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinsh ...

treatise detailing the O'Dwyer (Ó Duibhir) noble family that had commanded the area around

Thurles Thurles (; ''Durlas Éile'') is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of the same name in the barony of Eliogarty and in the ecclesiastical parish of Thurles (Roman Catholic parish), Thurles. The cathedral ch ...

from the pre-

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

era until it lost its castles and land during the Cromwellian confiscations of the 17th century. In later life, he wrote frequently to ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' to condemn the Gandhian non-cooperation movement and to endorse British rule in India.

Selected publications

Articles

"Border Countries of the Punjab Himalaya: Discussion"
''

The Geographical Journal ''The Geographical Journal'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). It publishes papers covering research on all aspects of geography. It also publishes shorter C ...

''. Vol. 60, No. 4 (1922), pp. 264–68. . Co-authored with Louis Dane and W. Coldstream.
"Races and Religions in the Punjab"
Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, London. Vol. 74, Issue 3827 (26 March 1926), pp. 420–449.

Books

''India as I knew it''
London: Constable & Company (1925)
''The O'Dwyers of Kilnamanagh: The History of an Irish Sept''
London: J. Murray, (1933).
''Fusion of Anglo Norman and Gael''
London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, (1938?).

Book chapters

"Kipling — "Some Recollections""
In: Orel H. (eds) Kipling. London:

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, (1983).

In popular culture

He was portrayed by Dave Anderson in the 2000 Bollywood movie ''

Shaheed Udham Singh Udham Singh (born Sher Singh; 26 December 1899 — 31 July 1940) was an Indian revolutionary belonging to Ghadar Party and HSRA, best known for assassinating Michael O'Dwyer, the former lieutenant governor of the Punjab in India, on 13 Mar ...

'' and by Shaun Scott in the 2021 Bollywood movie '' Sardar Udham''.

References

External links

House of Commons
6 August 1919 Volume 119
Sir Michael O'Dwyer (assassination)
HC Deb 14 March 1940 vol 358 cc1372-3 * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Odwyer, Michael 1864 births 1940 deaths Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Assassinated British politicians Deaths by firearm in London Governors of Punjab (British India) Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire 1940 in London People from County Tipperary People murdered in Westminster Male murder victims Irish knights 1940 murders in the United Kingdom 1940s murders in London Burials at Brookwood Cemetery People educated at St Stanislaus College