Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood in protest against:

On 13 April 1919, the day of the Baisakhi festival, a large crowd of unarmed men, women and children gathered at Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden in Amritsar, Punjab. Many had come to protest peacefully against the arrest of two popular nationalist leaders, Dr Saifuddin Kitchlew and Dr Satyapal, and against the Rowlatt Act. Others had come for the festival and were unaware of the ban on public meetings.

Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer arrived with troops, blocked the narrow main exit and ordered his soldiers to fire on the crowd without any warning. The firing continued for about ten minutes, until the ammunition was nearly exhausted. According to official figures, 379 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded, though Indian estimates were much higher. Many people jumped into a well to escape the bullets.

The massacre shocked the whole nation. Rabindranath Tagore, who had been knighted by the British in 1915, wrote a letter to the Viceroy, Lord Chelmsford, on 30 May 1919, renouncing his knighthood. He wrote that "the time has come when badges of honour make our shame glaring". Mahatma Gandhi returned the Kaiser-i-Hind medal he had received for his work in South Africa.

The Indian National Congress set up its own inquiry, and the British government appointed the Hunter Committee (1919). Dyer was removed from command but was praised by many in Britain. In 1940, Udham Singh, who had witnessed the massacre, shot dead Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, in London. The massacre led directly to the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920). Jallianwala Bagh is now a national memorial.

Why not the other options?

• ✗The Partition of Bengal (1905) led to the Swadeshi Movement; Tagore wrote "Amar Shonar Bangla" at that time.
• ✗The Rowlatt Act (1919) led to the Rowlatt Satyagraha.
• ✗The Simon Commission (1928) was boycotted because it had no Indian member.