British PM faces calls to say sorry on India visit

NEW DELHI • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced calls to apologise for a colonial-era massacre as he visited the Indian state of Gujarat yesterday, 100 years after as many as 1,200 people were killed while protesting against imperial rule.

Last month saw the centenary of the Pal-Dadhvav massacre when, according to Indian historians, around 2,000 tribal people led by social reformer Motilal Tejawat gathered to protest against exploitation, forced labour and high taxes. The Gujarat state government said Britain's Major H. G. Sutton ordered his troops to open fire. "Like a battlefield, the entire area was filled with corpses," it said.

The state's official float at this year's annual Republic Day parade depicted the killings as the "untold story of bravery and sacrifice of the tribals", it said in a statement that put the death toll at 1,200.

"It was the British rule at the time when these killings happened. So, if the British PM is coming here, he must apologise," said Tejawat's grandson Mahendra.

"My grandfather was only running a campaign for the poor, harmless and illiterate tribals," added the 77-year-old. "He must express regret if he feels what happened to the defenceless tribals was wrong."

Portraits of Mr Johnson lined the streets of New Delhi ahead of his visit. But relations between Britain and India have long been coloured by the legacies of colonial rule - when London saw the world's second-most populous nation as the jewel in the crown of its empire but hundreds of millions of Indians chafed under imperialism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a former chief minister of Gujarat, under whose tenure a memorial was built to victims of the massacre.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE