(MintPress) – British Prime Minister David Cameron made an historic visit to India this week to acknowledge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, a mass killing of hundreds of Indian protesters by British troops during an anti-colonial protest. The visit was welcomed by Indian citizens, many with relatives killed in the massacre.
Cameron become the first British Prime Minister to visit the site of the massacre in Northern India but stopped short of issuing a full apology for the atrocity that happened there nearly 95 years ago.
“In my view,” he said, “we are dealing with something here that happened a good 40 years before I was even born, and which Winston Churchill described as ‘monstrous’ at the time and the British government rightly condemned at the time,” Cameron said. “So I don’t think the right thing is to reach back into history and to seek out things you can apologise for.”
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred in 1919 during a demonstration of 15,000 to 20,000 Indian citizens. Brigadier-General Reginald E.H. Dyer ordered 50 riflemen to shoot at the crowd of peaceful demonstrators during the incipient stages of what become a robust anti-colonial movement.
The number of fatalities remains contested. British sources have identified 379 fatalities and approximately 1,100 injuries. The Indian National Congress places the number killed at more than 1,500, with approximately 1,000 injuries.
The scene was famously depicted in the 1982 Oscar-winning film, “Gandhi,” profiling the life of the revolutionary leader and the Indian struggle to break the shackles of British colonial rule.
In the film, the British general is summoned by his superiors and questioned about the massacre. When asked if he would have given the order to kill more civilians if his troops had sufficient firepower, he responded that he would.
Some Indians were upset that the Cameron did not visit families with relatives who died during the slaughter. Sunil Kapoor, whose great-grandfather, Waso Mal Kapoor, died in the shootings, was upset with what he saw as a half-hearted attempt at reconciliation.
“I am not satisfied that he did not meet the families. We have waited 94 years for justice,” he said.
Many see the historic visit as a conciliatory gesture aimed at boosting a depressed British economy. By expanding trade ties with its former colony, Britain could attempt to counter the effects of an economic downturn projected to bring nearly a decade of government-led austerity.
Flat economic growth in the U.K. has driven legislators to make cuts to public subsidies. British Secretary of the Treasury George Osborne announced the decision to cut government spending by lowering expenditures on benefits and a three-pence increase in the fuel tax in a speech December 2012.
Conversely, India remains a high-growth economy where new markets continue to open as infrastructure improves access to rural communities. According to the International Monetary Fund, the Indian GDP grew 6.1 percent in 2012 and is expected to grow considerably in 2013 as well. Expanding trade ties with India could help to bolster the stagnant U.K. economy.
This follows a similar visit by French President Francois Hollande, who visited Algeria December 2012. The historic visit marked the first time a French President publicly visit Algeria to acknowledge the years of suffering under French colonial rule.
“I recognise the suffering that colonialism inflicted on the Algerian people,” said Hollande in statement. Algeria was ruled by France for more than 130 years, from 1830-1962. The seven-year war for independence from 1954-1962 left hundreds of thousands dead and countless wounded in one of the bloodiest battles for independence.
“I recognise the suffering that colonialism inflicted on the Algerian people,” Hollande said in a statement before both chambers of the Algerian Parliament.
Hollande also spoke of his desire to increase trade between France and Algeria, currently standing at about $13 billion per year.