Ghadar Party
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The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Indians (mostly Punjabis) of the United States and Canada in June, 1913 with the aim to liberate India from British rule. It was also known as the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast.
The first issue of the Ghadr, their paper was published from San Francisco in November 1, 1913, In it Har Dayal wrote: "Today there begins in foreign lands, but in our country's tongue, a war against the British Raj... What is our name? Mutiny. What is our work? Mutiny. Where will mutiny break out? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink."
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[edit] The word "Ghadar"
Ghadar is an Urdu/Punjabi word which means "mutiny" or "rebellion" or "revolt". As Lala Hardayal, one of the founders of the party, wrote in the first issue: "Today there begins 'Ghadar' in foreign lands, but in our country's tongue, a war against the British Raj. What is our name? Mutiny. What is our work? Mutiny. Where will mutiny break out? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink." The party consisted of mainly anarchist, socialists, and communists.
[edit] The Ghadar Newspaper
The party was built around the weekly paper ,The Ghadar, which carried the caption on the masthead: Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman (an enemy of the British rule). "Wanted brave soldiers", the Ghadar declared, "to stir up rebellion in India. Pay-death; Price-martyrdom; Pension-liberty; Field of battle-India". The ideology of the party was strongly secular. In the words of Sohan Singh Bhakna, who later became a major peasant leader of the Punjab: "We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism". The first issue of The Ghadar, was published from San Francisco on November 1, 1913.
Following the voyage of the Komagata Maru in 1914, a direct challenge to Canadian racist anti-Indian immigration legislations, several thousand Indians resident in the USA sold their business and homes ready to drive the British from India. However, Hardayal had fled to Europe concerned that the US authorities would hand him over to the British. Sohan Singh Bhakna was already in British hands, and the leadership fell to Ram Chandra. Following the entry of Canada into World War I, the organisation was centred in the USA and received substantial funding from the German government. They had a very militant tone, as illustrated by this quote from Harnam Singh:
- No pundits or mullahs do we need
- No prayer or litanies recite.
- These will only scuttle our boat;
- Draw the sword, it's time to fight!
- Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs though we be Sons of Bharat are we still.
- Postpone your prayers to another time; The call of the hour is to kill!
Promptly 61 Ghadarites, led by Jwala Singh, set sail from San Francisco, via Korea, Canton and Singapore to start an uprising in India. Joined by over a hundred others (including British spies), they were nearly all arrested upon arrival.
[edit] The Ghadar Party during the First World War
The Ghadar Party had from the ouset fore the advent of the First World War. Likewise, German diplomacy had envisaged using Indian discontent to disrupt the British Empire[1]. The Berliner Tageblatt published an article in March 1914 on ENgalnd's India Troubles which described how Indian nationalist secret societies were flourishing, mentioning California specifically.
It supported Indian deserters from the British Army in Mesopotamia during the Great War.
The party rose to prominence in the second decade of the 20th century, and grew in strength owing to Indian discontent over World War I and the lack of political reforms.
Ghadar activists undertook what the British described as political terrorism, but what was revolution to most Indians. Ghadar activists were responsible for bombs planted on government property, and targeted assassinations of British and police officials.
In 1915, the British government launched the first Lahore Conspiracy Case, sentencing more than two dozen youth to death, including Kartar Singh Sarabha and hundreds of others to life imprisonment and other heavy jail sentences in order to suppress the movement. This event is said to have influenced many revolutionaries of the area such as Bhagat Singh
In 1917 some of their leaders were arrested and put on trial in the Hindu German Conspiracy Trial in which their paper was quoted.
The Ghadar party commanded a loyal following the province of Punjab, but many of its most prominent activists were forced into exile to Canada and the United States. It ceased to play an active role in Indian politics after 1919. The party had active members in other countries such as Mexico, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaya, Indo-China and Eastern and Southern Africa.
[edit] Members of the Ghadar Party
[edit] References
- ^ Germany and the Next War by General Friedrich von Bernardi, 1911
[edit] External links
- Important Documents of the Ghadar Movement
- Ghadar: The Indian Immigrant Outrage Against Canadian Injustices 1900 - 1918 by Sukhdeep Bhoi
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