On April thousands of unarmed Indian men women and children gathered peacefully at Amritsar Without warning General Dyer ordered his soldiers to shoot them Hundreds died and more than a thousand were wounded Tagore called it an act Without parallel in the history of civilised governments nbsp He was shocked that such cruelty came from a government claiming to be just and moral He wrote that India had become helpless as a British subject This tragedy showed him that the British Empire had lost its humanity The British Government s Cruelty and Injustice Tagore condemned the cruel punishments and torture that followed in Punjab The innocent people were beaten jailed and humiliated He said the government s actions had nbsp No political expediency far less moral justification nbsp The British rulers used their power not for justice but for revenge Tagore believed that true strength lies in mercy and moral vision not violence The British Government became cruel and lost its sense of justice and kindness These words show Tagore s deep pain at the loss of compassion in British rule The Insult and Suffering of the Indian People Tagore felt heartbroken by the endless suffering of his brothers in Punjab He says nbsp Insults and sufferings by our brothers in Punjab have trickled through the gagged silence nbsp The phrase shows how British censorship tried to hide the truth yet people across India still learned about the horror The silence of the rulers and their pride in this cruelty made the situation worse He wrote that the rulers did not care about the people s pain and anger This means the British Government did not care about India s pain For Tagore such coldness was more shameful than the violence itself The Immorality of the Anglo-Indian Press Tagore also criticized the Anglo-Indian newspapers They mocked Indian pain instead of condemning British brutality He wrote that some papers Gone to the brutal length of making fun of our sufferings nbsp The British press praised cruelty as discipline Tagore was angry that those who were supposed to speak truth and justice became instruments of insult He saw this as a sign that both the rulers and their supporters had lost moral sense A Moral Protest through Renunciation In the end Tagore refused to be silent He says nbsp The very least that I can do for my country is to take all consequences upon myself in giving voice to the protest nbsp He could not wear a crown of honour when his countrymen were in chains By giving up the title of Knighthood he wanted to stand with the poor and helpless people who were treated worse than human beings His renunciation became a symbol of moral courage and true patriotism Tagore s Letter to Lord Chelmsford was more than a personal act It was a moral and national protest Through calm but powerful words he exposed the cruelty of British rule He exposes the pain of Punjab and the dishonour of false civilization By rejecting the Knighthood Tagore gave the world a lesson in justice humanity and self-respect