Ghadar Movement in India

The Ghadar party was an Indian Revolutionary party founded by indians in U.S with a motive to free India from the Clutches of the British rule.

1. Ghadar Movement Dr.Monica Sharma

2. The Ghadar Party The Ghadar Party was an Indian revolutionary organization primarily founded by Indians. The party was multi-ethnic, although mostly Punjabi and Bengali, had Sikh and Hindu members, and even some Muslim members, but mostly Sikh leaders The party was headquartered in San Francisco, United States Key members included Bhai Parmanand, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee, Har Dayal, Tarak Nath Das, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah, Rashbehari Bose, and Gulab Kaur.

3. Flag of the Ghadar Party

4. Insights of the Ghadar Party After the outbreak of World War I, Ghadar party members returned to Punjab to agitate for rebellion for the freedom movement. In 1915 they conducted revolutionary activities in central Punjab and organized uprisings . Their presence challenged the hold of the British Empire; police surveillance in Punjabi villages increased in an attempt to crush the rebellion. The party is known for setting the foundation for future Indian revolutionary movements and served as a stepping stone for independence . Following the war's conclusion, the party in the United States fractured into a Communist and an Indian Socialist faction . The party was formally dissolved in 1948.

5. Initial stages of the Ghadar Movement During the twentieth century, both India and Canada were British dominions, so, Indians had easier access to emigrate to Canada. The new immigrants were hard working and accepted lower wages, so some Canadian companies made job opportunities available in Canada to seek more cheap labor from India. In the first few years, every year about 2000 immigrants, mostly Punjabi farmers and laborers were permitted to come. As the number of immigrants increased, it threatened the locals by labor competition from the hardy and adventurous Punjabis. Fear of labor competition led to racial antagonism and demands for exclusionary laws from cheap foreign Asian workers.

6. In 1909, severe immigration restrictions virtually ended legal Indian immigration to Canada. When Indian immigrants saw the doors closing on them in Canada, they started coming to the United States as it needed more people to do hard labor work to build new communities. In the U.S, they faced many difficulties, suffered numerous hardships and encountered rampant discrimination. Initially, they could find only menial jobs, but over a period of time and with their hard work and determination, many of them became successful farmers with their own land. Within a span of a few years, a number of immigrant workers had swelled, so they started facing widespread hostility which led to racial riots. Like Canada, the United States, which had initially welcomed the Asian labor to do menial jobs, enacted Asian exclusionary laws to bar Asians immigrating to the U.S.

7. The Continuous Passage Act The Canadian government established a “Continuous Passage Act” to stop the immigrants particularly from India. The “Continuous Passage Act” was a bizarre law, which required that the Indians will have to directly come from the country of their birth/citizenship via a continuous journey on tickets purchased before they left their home country . The Indians were also required to possess a sum of $200 which was an unthinkable sum for many Indians who only earned a few cents in a day.

8. Canada had its own legitimate reasons for not supporting the cause of Indian immigrants abroad. These included: Fear of familiarity with western cultures Intermingling of cultures will eventual damage British pride Spread of socialist ideas among immigrant Indians Knowledge of revolutions can lead to national agitation

9. For discriminatory treatment and damages in race riots, the Japanese and Chinese governments sympathized with their overseas nationals and negotiated with the American government for compensation for life and property losses. But for the Indians ,the British Indian Government would not make any representation to the U.S. Government for similar losses. Indians soon realized the difference between the citizens of a “slave” country and those ruled by their own people .

10. Role of Indian Students in the Movement The United States had also welcomed qualified Indian students seeking admissions in the American universities. However, upon graduation, they were not able to get jobs commensurate with their qualifications. The discriminatory practices were against the very ideals of liberty and freedom they had seen in their University environment. The Indian students attributed the racial prejudice and discrimination to their being nationals of a subjugated country. They were motivated to get rid of the foreign rule in India and they started fostering feelings of patriotism and nationalism among their fellow Indian Immigrants.

11. They formed organizations or groups for India’s freedom. Taraknath Das, a student, started publishing a magazine “ Free Hindustan ” in 1907 in Seattle, advocating armed rebellion against the British rule in India He also formed the “East India Association" in 1911; G. D. Kumar started a Punjabi paper Swadesh Sewak in Vancouver while Shymaji Krishna Varma founded Indian Home Rule Society in London. In the United States, Har Dyal who had come from England after relinquishing his scholarship and studies at Oxford University, He inspired many students studying at the University of California at Berkeley. Two of his many student followers, Katar Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Govind Pingle later on played a very prominent role in the Gadar movement.

12. India House and launch of Ghadar Party The India House was based in London and was established by Shyamji Krishna Verma to promote the nationalist views among the Indians of Britain. It published a newspaper “The Indian Sociologist” which used its subtitle -An Organ of Freedom, and Political, Social, and Religious Reform. Several revolutionaries got associated with the India house and most important ones are V D Savarkar and Madan Lal Dheengra . Others were V.N. Chatterjee , Lala Har Dayal , V. V. S. Aiyar , M.P.T. Acharya and P.M. Bapat . All of them later laid the foundation of militant nationalism in India. The newspaper was later banned for sedition

13. Pacific Coast Hindustan Association In 1913, Pacific Coast Hindustan Association was founded by Lala Hardayal with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president, which was called Ghadar Party. The members of this party were the immigrant Sikhs of US and Canada. The first issue of The Ghadar , was published from San Francisco on November 1, 1913. Later it got published in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and other languages also.

14. The Ghadar The masthead of the paper carried the inscription in bold letters,” Angrezi Raj ka Dushman ” and also had a feature article on the front page of each issue under the title, “Angrezi Raj ka Kacha Chittha“ . It went far beyond the American borders to reach Indians in Canada, Malay States, Hong Kong, Philippines, Honduras, Singapore, Trinidad and India. People were moved by the views expressed in it and were motivated to join hands with Ghadar leadership for the common cause.

15. Advertisement in Ghadar Wanted: Enthusiastic and heroic soldiers for organizing Ghadar in Hindustan: Remuneration: Death Reward : Martyrdom Pension : Freedom Field of work: Hindustan

16. Ghadar Movement Operations and Plans Even though the Ghadar movement originated in the US, its operational field and primary target was India The Ghadar movement was conceived and organized by the Sikhs in North America. Plan to Infiltrate and Attack Military Cantonments : The Ghadarites had infiltrated at least 20 military cantonments in Punjab, UP and other parts of India. The soldiers also had another reason to be piqued at the British government. They are being sent to other countries as fodder in WWI for the British. The expectation was that once the revolt is launched at these two military bases, it was going to spread in other military bases in India. The first target was the Ferozepur base. The date for the army revolt was set for the night of February 21, 1915. Contacts were made with the army men in these bases. Due to the treachery of one Kirpal Singh, the plans to revolt was leaked to the police. As a result, most of the Ghadar leaders were arrested and the plan was dead.

17. The Komagatamaru Tragedy 1914 The Komagatamaru Incident was one of the first Indian challenges to colonist British beyond the pacific Coast. Gurdit Singh, a Sikh from a small village in Punjab was a son of a small time farmer near Amritsar. Father of Gurdit Singh left Punjab and moved to Malaysia. He became a small time contractor over there . In 1885, Gurdit Singh joined his father and later he established a steamship company. This company had leased a Japanese steamship Komagatamaru . The Canadian “Continuous Passage Act” was enacted to stop the so called “Brown Invasion’ from Asia, particularly India. This law required that the immigrants must travel nonstop to their country of the birth. At that time there was no direct ship from India and the journey of the Komagatamaru was set to circumvent this law.

18. The ship had sailed from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1914, aboard 376 passengers including 240 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus. The ship arrived on 23 May 1914 at Vancouver the Canadian authorities refused to allow the passengers to go ashore. Gurdit Singh, owner of the ship; was pressurized to pay the charter dues in one go. He said he would do so after selling the cargo but the ship was not allowed to unload its cargo. The Indians at Vancouver started agitations against the government. Aftersome confrontation, the only 24 passengers were admitted to Canada and the ship was forced back to India carrying rest all.

19. The Komagata Maru Incident

20. Budge Budge Riot After a return voyage, the Komagatamaru docked at Hooghly’s Budge Budge harbour. Here, the British government treated these passengers as rebels. The ship was searched and the Sikhs were herded in trains to force them back to Punjab. When some of them refused, Police opened fire killing 18 people. 200 people were herded in jails. The incident became famous as Budge Budge riot. Gurdit Singh escaped the Police and he surrendered in 1921, after 7 years

21. Sohan Singh Bhakana Sohan singh bhakna was also the founding president of Ghadar Party. He was one of the leading members involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy. Ghadar party shipped funds and arms from US and South-East Asia to India for the mutiny. This was later termed as the Hindu German Conspiracy which was later called the Ghadar Conspiracy. He was arrested in Calcutta in 1914 and sent to Ludhiana. He was actually given the death sentence which was later commuted to life imprisonment in Cellular jail. He ended up serving sixteen years in jail before he got released in 1930

22. Cont- In 1921, Sohan Singh was transferred to Coimbatore jail and then to Yervada . Here he famously embarked on a hunger strike in protest against Sikh prisoners not being allowed to wear turbans and their Kaccha . In 1927, he was shifted to the Central Jail at Lahore, where he again went on hunger strike in June 1928 to protest against the segregation of the so-called low-caste Mazhabi Sikhs from other ’high-caste’ Sikhs during meals. In 1929, while still interned, Sohan Singh famously went on a hunger strike in support of Bhagat Singh. Sohan Singh ultimately served 16 years before he was released early in July 1930. After his release, he worked closely with the Communist party of India and devoted his time to organize ‘ Kisan Sabhas ’. In addition, he also worked to get his fellow members in Ghadar mutiny released. Sohan singh bhakna was arrested a second time during World War 2 and he remained incarcerated for nearly years

23. Lala Hardayal He was a nationalist who founded the Ghadar Party in America. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple living and intellectual acumen inspired many expatriate Indians living in Canada and the USA. The Government of India awarded him a scholarship of 200 per annum for higher studies in England. He joined St. John’s College, Oxford, for the Honours Course in Modern History. He also did his Ph. D. from the London University. In London he came under the influence of Shyamaji Krishna Verma , Editor of the Indian Sociologist and a recognized leader of the Indian Revolutionary Movement. He also came under the influence of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Madam Cama . Under their influence he threw away the scholarship,

24. Devotion to the cause of freedom :  Such was the charm of their company that Hardyal threw away the scholarship, declaring that “No Indian who really loves his country ought to compromise his principle and barter his rectitude for any favour whatever at the hands of alien oppressive rulers of India.”  He addressed Indian community groups and exhorted them to liberate mother India with the force of arms. During his visit to Astoria, Oregon, Gadar Movement was born with Sohan Singh Bhakna as president and Har Dayal as secretary general. The movement spread like wildfire in the United States with large number of immigrant Indians joining – these included the students as well as the workers

25. Pandit Shyamji Krishna Verma Was a staunch nationalists and patriots who lived in England and mentored  the cause of India's freedom from the British rule. He lived in Europe during the most crucial period of India's struggle for freedom, helping revolutionaries and creating a nucleus for their activities.  A great disciple of Swami Dayanand Saraswati ,he became the first President of Bombay Arya Samaj. He later joined the Oxford University and was appointed Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at Blliol College. Subsequently, he entered Temple's Inn and was the first Indian Bar-at law.  He started the publication of a monthly 'Indian Sociologist' which became a vehicle of revolutionary ideas. In February 1905, he established the Indian Home Rule Society to raise his voice against British domination in India. He established 'India House' in London to help Indians visiting England. On account of his political activities, he was forced to leave England. He went to Paris, where he continued his activities supporting India's liberation. Due to the outbreak of the second World War, he could not stay in Paris and had to go to Geneva in Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life

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