The tragedy at Amritsar was the result of a coordinated colonial policy of suppression. General Dyer entered the park with 50 soldiers and opened fire on an unarmed crowd celebrating Baisakhi. However, Michael O’Dwyer, as the head of the Punjab administration, had created the atmosphere of terror and martial law that allowed such an atrocity to happen. His endorsement of the massacre turned him into a symbol of British tyranny. The Hunter Commission later censured Dyer, but O’ Dwyer’s vocal support for the slaughter remained a deep scar on Indo-British relations for decades.