Dinshawai incident

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In the incident of Dinshawai , a village ( Arabic دنشواي Dinschawāy ) in the Egyptian Nile Delta, in 1906 there is a dispute between British forces and the local population. The incident itself and the reaction of the British colonial rulers to it became a symbol of arbitrary colonial justice.

On June 13, 1906, during the time of British rule over Egypt , British officers wounded a resident of this village while pigeon hunt near Dinshawai . An argument broke out between indignant residents and the officers, in which one officer was killed.

The British Consul General Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer convened a military tribunal. He intended to make an example and left no doubt that he was awaiting death sentences. 59 residents of Dinschawai were arrested, four were sentenced to death and eight people were flogged in public in front of their families. In addition, long prison terms were imposed in forced labor camps.

The event immediately sparked great outrage in Egypt, prompted the founding of Egypt's first nationalist party and also changed the attitude of the urban national movement towards the resistance of the fellahs . The peasants of Dinshawai were stylized as “martyrs” of the new national movement. The poet Ahmed Showki wrote verses about the event and the press made it known throughout Egypt.

The Earl of Cromer was meanwhile awarded an Order of Merit in Great Britain. When the British press began to take a critical look at the Dinshawai incident and George Bernard Shaw protested against the arbitrary judgments, the tide turned. In December 1907 the government ordered the release of all prisoners and Lord Cromer was forced to resign.

The events around Dinshawai brought about a significant upswing in the nationalist movement in Egypt and shook the self- image of the British Empire for a long time.

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