This artwork depicts the site associated with the “crawling order” imposed by the British colonial administration in Amritsar in April 1919. The order was issued after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and during the period of martial law in Punjab. The street shown in the artwork represents Kucha Kaurianwala, the lane where Miss Marcella Sherwood, a British missionary, had earlier been attacked by local men. In response, Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered that any Indian using the street must crawl on hands and knees from one end to the other.
This directive became known as the “crawling order” and is extensively documented in official British inquiry records, including the Hunter Commission Report of 1920. Dyer testified that the punishment was intended to be a form of public humiliation, not a temporary security measure. The order remained in place for several days. Residents of the neighbourhood were unable to access their own homes unless they complied. Many were prevented from leaving the area entirely. Eyewitness accounts confirm that civilians attempting to traverse the street, including elderly men and children, were forced to crawl under armed supervision.
The “crawling order” formed part of a broader set of collective punishments imposed in Amritsar during martial law. These included public floggings, curfews, mass arrests, compulsory gatherings, forced labour and restrictions on movement. Multiple Indian testimonies submitted to the Hunter Commission described the psychological and physical impact of these measures on the local population. British officials themselves later acknowledged that the order was excessive and punitive. No comparable directives were issued in British India at the time, and it quickly became one of the most cited examples of the extremities of colonial disciplinary policy.
Historically, this episode occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre on 13 April 1919, when British troops under Dyer opened fire on unarmed civilians gathered for Vaisakhi, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The martial law measures that followed, including the crawling order, contributed significantly to the growth of anti colonial sentiment and to national movements calling for self governance. The incident is referenced in parliamentary debates, Indian nationalist writings and later historical analyses as one of the clearest examples of the imbalance of power under colonial rule.
The street depicted in this artwork thus reflects a documented location where a punitive order was enforced on civilians during the Amritsar disturbances. It represents a moment in which everyday life in a neighbourhood was reshaped by coercion, surveillance and humiliation. The event remains part of the recorded history of Punjab under British rule and is frequently cited in studies of colonial governance, policing and resistance.
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