NEW DELHI — Winston Churchill called the 1919 massacre of Indian protesters “monstrous.” Queen Elizabeth said it was “distressing.” Prime Minister David Cameron went with “deeply shameful.”

But did they apologize? Not exactly.

British leaders have always stopped short of making an apology for the bloodshed at Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden in the northern Indian city of Amritsar where hundreds of people peacefully protesting colonial rule were shot dead on the orders of a British general.

And on Saturday, the 100th anniversary of the massacre, Britain did not succumb to mounting pressure to finally atone for one of the darkest days in centuries of colonial rule.

In Amritsar, Indian officials draped a stone memorial with flowers. Crowds lit candles. Britain’s high commissioner to India, Dominic Asquith, wrote in a guest book what has been said before: “We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused.”