Crimson Spring: A Novel

by Navtej Sarna

On 13 April 1919, about twenty-five thousand unarmed Indians had gathered in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, an open area enclosed by the high walls of flat-roofed houses in a densely populated part of the city. Many of those in the crowd were listening to speakers denouncing the iniquities of the Rowlatt Act, which had recently been imposed on the country by the British, while others, including several children, were simply there to rest, relax, and catch up with friends. A little after five in the evening, a detachment of soldiers, led by Brigadier General R. E. H. Dyer, entered the Bagh. Without warning the crowd to disperse, Dyer ordered his troops to open fire. At least 1,650 rounds were fired. Several hundred died and several hundred more were injured. The massacre was universally condemned by all Indians and even shocked many Britons, who thought it one of the worst outrages in all of British history.

In this masterpiece, Navtej Sarna brings the horror of the atrocity to life by viewing it through the eyes of nine characters—Indians and Britons, ordinary people and powerful officials, the innocent and the guilty, whose lives are changed forever by the events of that fateful day. Set against the epic backdrop of India’s freedom struggle, World War I, and the Ghadar movement, Crimson Spring is not just a powerful, unsettling look at a barbarous act, but also a wider meditation on the costs of colonialism and the sacrifices and heroism of ordinary men and women at a time of great cruelty and injustice. It is a book that will leave no reader unmoved or unchanged.

Genres: India, Indian Literature, Historical Fiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2022

About the author

Navtej Sarna is an Indian author-columnist, and diplomat, who is the present Indian Ambassador to Israel.
He was born in Jalandhar, India to noted writer in Punjabi, Mohinder Singh Sarna, and passed out of the 1980 Class of Indian Foreign Service. Before holding this post, he was Joint Secretary for external publicity at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) , since October 2002, and holds the distinction of being the longest-serving spokesperson of the ministry, and served two prime ministers, three foreign ministers and four foreign secretaries, till the end of his term in September, 2008.
Previously as a diplomat served in Moscow, Warsaw, Thimphu, Geneva, Teheran and Washington, DC .
He also writes short stories, and book reviews. His first novel published was 'We Weren't Lovers Like That' in 2003, followed by 'The Book of Nanak' in the same year, his latest,' The Exile', published in 2008, is based on the life of Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Lahore, and son Raja Ranjit Singh. Currently, 'Zafarnama', an epistle of victory written to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, by the Tenth Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, has been translated by him into English from Persian.

Reviews

[Divya Pal · Rating 3 out of 5]

An engrossing narrative, part fictional, but based on historical fact – the despicable episode of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and the subsequent brutalization of the populace of Punjab by the British.
The author succeeds in capturing the evocative beauty of rural Punjab, the ethos of Sikhism and valorous Sikhs and Punjabis, whilst describing the duplicity and tyranny of the colonial rule.

[Suyogaya Awasthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“If you don't know history, then you don't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn't know it is part of a tree”.

Awareness of our roots is the key aspect of our progression and always acts as a guiding light for posterity, however, history is sometimes marred with certain instances which take a cruel toll on us and compels us to cling to the horrors that history offered us once. The 311 pages long the book primarily revolves around a blackened historical instance that is Jallianwalla Bagh Massacre summed with conditions posed to us during World War 1. As we go further, the book has been divided into 30 Chapters and further into 5 Parts. The first chapter of the book has been titled “Nine Lives on a Strange Baisakhi Day” which sets the tone of the book in motion by bringing into cynosure the 9 most relevant characters of the book and remains to be very descriptive about all that could happen in Amritsar on 13th April 1919. As the chapters go further, the titles remain to be very invoking and easily reflect on what is to happen thereafter, but not to the extent of revealing every detail at the beginning itself.

The writing style has been kept very descriptive and at the same time has been kept very compelling which can be seen from the first chapter itself, where the author takes great interest in making the readers aware of the prevailing scenarios. The whole of the stated aspects makes this book a must-read for anyone willing to go for a thought-invoking read.

[anusha_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was longlisted for the JCB Prize 2022.
It’s a historical retelling of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It also portrays the difficult life of the commoners and how they were exploited and also showcases the atrocities committed by the British imperialists.
🔴🔴
There are fictional characters and real ones, yet the narrative is so fluid that one feels that all the characters are real, and everything is happening in front of your eye and I started believing that this story is real. Instead of just mentioning facts, dates, and rulers, when history is recounted as a story like this, it becomes very interesting.
🔴🔴
I’m not very fond of reading about wars or other brutal historical events. If anyone reads history, I know it's part of it. This story is narrated so splendidly, weaving a kaleidoscope of events around it, that one could feel all the pain and aches of those who lost their near and dear ones in the mass slaughter.
🔴🔴
A chapter in this book is titled GHALLUGHARA, a Punjabi word for mass murder.  There are many Punjabi words that I added to my vocabulary for instance Tehmat is the Punjabi dhoti, Safa is the cloth worn as a turban, and Loyi is the shawl.
🔴🔴
As always, I would love it if there were more female characters in it, nevertheless, the male characters did a good job of keeping the story interesting and giving the story a solid continuum.
🔴🔴
I liked the character Ralla. Describing his childhood, the author talks about how he is very much attached to his sister Jindi, how he misses her when she gets married, and his frustration at not being able to spin the top (lattu), I found it very sweet and could picturise it in my mind.
🔴🔴
It happened on Baisakhi (spring harvest festival), 13th April 1919. General Dyer entered Jallianwala Bagh with 25 Gorkha soldiers and 25 Baluchis. 1650 rounds of bullets were fired and instantly many died, and many got injured, not only by bullets but also by the stampede. Baisakhi would have been a constant reminder of this horrible event and would have been nightmarish for the people of that era. It makes me shudder to even read about it.
🔴🔴
Many movies have shown the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, like Sardar Udham, Gandhi, Phillauri, and many more.
🔴🔴
I read it with our #unofficialbookclub and had the opportunity to discuss the finer details of the book with the author himself, who spared some precious time to join our group and answer all our queries.
It's an evocative, must-read.
🔴🔴

[REHANA · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐⭐🌟 BOOK REVIEW 🌟⭐⭐


📚 Crimson Spring


13 April 1919 : Jallianwala Bagh Massacre

It was the harvest festival day of Baisakhi. Around twenty five thousand had gathered in Bagh. The Bagh was an open area enclosed with high walls on all sides which ended into a narrow passage. A speaker was opposing the Rowlatt Act, when General Dyer entered the bagh with this soliders and gave order to open fire at the crowd without a warning. Almost 1650 round were fired before they stopped. Hundreds died that moment and another hundreds were left to die.


💫 This book once again refreshes our memory with the worst massacre of the twentieth century which claimed more than 20,000 lives. This shooting revolutionized the Indian Freedom Movement

💫 This book is dedicated to all the freedom fighters of India. Everyone has their version about the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh, and this book is the author's version. The barbarous act which shook the lives of Indians.

💫 This is a well written and well researched book. It shows the tremendous effort of the author. The book brings out the real picture of incident. Important dates in the history of India is also memorized in the book. We find vivid description of the characters and places in the book. The language used is simple, easy and smooth.

💫 The author has perfectly created the world of colonial India around us before starting off. Clubbing together the nine protagonists was marvellous. Udham Singh, the man who carried fire in his bosom adorned the pages of the book too.

💫 We once again get to live those moments through this book and experience the immense pain of innocent men, women and children. The incident leaves an everlasting impression on us. It was the worst massacre in the world. Even after a century, the incident agonize me. My heart tears apart while recalling it.

[Debabrata Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

👉𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊:-
📚ⓉⒾⓉⓁⒺ:- Crimson Spring
🖋️ⒶⓊⓉⒽⓄⓇ:- Navtej Sarna
🗞️ⓅⓊⒷⓁⒾⓈⒽⒺⓇ:- Aleph Books Publication
🔤ⓁⒶⓃⒼⓊⒶⒼⒺ:- English
📖ⒻⓄⓇⓂⒶⓉ:- Hardcover
👉𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒:-
This is the auspicious day of Baisakhi when near about 25 thousand people were gathered at Jallianwala Bagh who were unarmed & completely unaware about the 144 imposed there.
.
They were gathered for the speech of their leader against the unethical Rowlatt law that was imposed on them forcefully. But they didn't imagine in their wildest dream about what's going to happen with them as Brigadier General R. E. H. Dyer came to know about the gathering & he along with his soldiers entered into the place & started firing blindly more about 1650 rounds that resulted a carnage in hundreds.
.
To know more about it grab the book & give it a try.
👉𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐒 :-
🙂 Cover of the book is simple with a beautiful theme.
🙂 Writing style of the book is nice. Author just make us relive that painful incident through his penwork.
🙂 Language used in the book is simple & easily understandable.
🙂 The way it is narrated that just snatched your heart to such cruelty. Just think when we are reading it we feel such pain but this is actually happened with people & their families. What will be their state of mind it is hard to elaborate.
🙂 The historic backdrop of many such incidents like along with World war 1 makes the book an indispensable.
🙂 The book is a well researched one as author focusing on the facts a lot. This is a factually correct & historically perfectly narrated book that gave you more information about these events.
🙂 Book is nicely paced keeping each n every aspect intact those r going to give you a complete reading experience.
𝐎𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑:-🌟🌟🌟🌟

[SUBRATA DATTA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not competent to make sweeping assertions. But I will not be surprised if someday learned people come to the conclusion that Navtej Sarna is one of the finest writers of English prose writing in India today.

A career diplomat, Navtej Sarna (Indian Foreign Service, 1980) worked as Ambassador/High Commissioner in USA, UK and Israel among other countries. I first came to know of him from an essay he wrote in a special issue of the Open magazine last year that the editors call Freedom Issue. And I knew that here was a man whose writings I should read, if for nothing else at least for the enchanting English prose.

And here I am, having just finished Shri Sarna’s latest novel, Crimson Spring (Aleph, 2022).

A historical fiction, Crimson Spring looks at the Jallianwala Massacre of 13 April 1919 through the eyes of nine protagonists. From Lieutenant Governor Michael O’Dwyer to the Lance Naik Kirpal Singh; from Sgt Nicholas Williams, ADC to “General” Dyer to Udham Singh.

And the novel does not just reconstruct that cruel Baisakhi day. It skillfully recreates the social and political ambience of the Punjab of a century ago. Not just Lahore and Amritsar, but also small towns and villages of one of the most prosperous provinces of the land – Gurdaspur and Rawalpindi, Tarn Taran and Gujranwala.

The dreaded Rowlatt Act, the brave but failed Ghadar movement, imposition of martial law and the repression that followed – all have been delineated with the deft touch of a master novelist. And the portrayal of political turmoil has been skillfully interwoven with the everyday lives of the ordinary Punjabi – their joys and sorrows, hopes and despairs and their longing for a better future. Under the boot of a cruel and unfeeling colonial regime, this longing makes extraordinary heroes out of ordinary men – and women.

As the brutality of the massacre hits you from the pages of the novel, you can almost touch the anguish of a poet, 1600 kilometers east, who relinquished his Knighthood. As Tagore wrote to the Viceroy: “The enormity of the measures taken by the Government in the Punjab for quelling some local disturbances has, with a rude shock, revealed to our minds the helplessness of our position as British subjects in India. The disproportionate severity of the punishments inflicted upon the unfortunate people and the methods of carrying them out, we are convinced, are without parallel in the history of civilized governments, barring some conspicuous exceptions, recent and remote. Considering that such treatment has been meted out to a population, disarmed and resourceless, by a power which has the most terribly efficient organization for destruction of human lives, we must strongly assert that it can claim no political expediency, far less moral justification.”

That more than a century after that bloody, gut-wrenching day, portrayal of the massacre can evoke so much pain and anger is a tribute to Navtej Sarna’s skill and finesse as a storyteller par excellence.

Thank you, Sir, for reminding a memory- and attention-deficient generation that it can take the hard-earned freedom for granted only at its own gravest peril.

[David - marigold_bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought Crimson Spring after it had been longlisted for the 2022 JCB Literature Prize and started reading it recently after seeing a number of favourable reviews from Bookstagram friends. It is an accurate dramatisation of the infamous and barbaric slaughter of innocent men, women and children carried out by the British at the Jallianwala Bagh public space in Amristar, on 13th April 1919. Of all the dreadful deeds carried out by the Raj, and there were many of them, this was surely the worst. It is a shameful story only too familiar to Indian people, which ought to be much wider known and acknowledged in Britain.

The events leading up to the massacre, the tragedy that unfolded, and some of the subsequent aftermaths are narrated through the eyes of nine witnesses, from local common people, Indian soldiers returned from fighting with the British in the Great War, through to high ranking officials of the Raj. Writer Navtej Sarna, former Indian Ambassador to the United States, has clearly researched the book carefully and recounts the events engagingly.

There were many characters and incidents in the story of which I had previously been unaware, including the details of the Rowlatt Act, the Ghadar movement, Udham Singh and others. I had been more conscious of the effect it had upon the fight for the liberation of India which, curiously, is hardly addressed here.

[Dhiraj Kumar dubey · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing
the way the author has depicted the story
Anyone can get lost in it
it will create a delusion or people even can get hallucinate also
very mesmerizing
I am in love with the character of Mehtab Singh
No hate for Britishers just want to spit on there face
after the Independence also no one I mean no PM of Britain or any Royal members has shown any regret or felt sorry in public after the so long Independence of India
Jai Hind
All Kudos to Navtej Sarna Sir
Regards