In 1913, the Ghadar movement was formed by the expatriates Punjabis in the United States with the shared leaders of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. It was one of the many revolutionary groups which were active along with Abhinav Bharat, Jugantar, Anushilan Samiti, and many more across Europe especially in Germany and United States. The goal of the Ghadar Party/movement was to overthrow the British colonial rule in India. And this was more or less the common goal of all the revolutionary groups, though their methodologies were different.
However as 1914, the
First world war commenced, most of the revolutionary groups synced in a common
understanding that by joining hands with the central powers, and using the
German empathy over Britain on India as its colony, there can be a major jolt
provided to the British rule in India.
The Indians in America
around 1912-13 were deeply stressed by the progress of the Indian freedom
movement and especially the approach of congress under Gandhi who was more of
assisting Britain in their war, that would help Britain providing independence
to India. In 1912, a Hindustan Association, dedicated to self-rule in India was
formed in Oregon. In California, the Ghadar Movement began in 1913 as a
coalition of expatriate Punjabis dedicated to raise money and support to
overthrow British rule in India. It was organized and headed by Lala Har Dayal,
who was at Stanford university. Its early leaders included two sikhs and a
muslim and the masthead of its publications bore the name “Ram, Allah, and
Nanak”.
The prejudices and
racial discriminations that Sikhs experienced in America fueled their passion
for ending colonial oppression in India. In 1914, the Canadian authorities
refused the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru permission to land, as a result of
which 300 punjabis were left stranded for weeks in Vacouver before which they
were to return to Pacific forcefully. This incident send shockwaves to the sikh
community down the west coast.
The main way of
working of the Ghadar party was by printing pamphlets and supplying arms and
volunteers for revolution to India. There had been many missions planned by the
party in India, which went unsuccessful. The international Ghadar activity in
Germany and elsewhere eventually led to what the press touted as the “Hindu
Conspiracy” trial in San Fransico in 1917-18. After the shooting of Ghadar’s
major leaders like Ram Chandra, the Ghadar movement left completely in the
hands of the Sikhs.
On the land front, the
Ghadar Party in San Francisco and the Germans executed the ‘Siam Project’ and
the ‘Batavia Plan’ in collaboration. These were the most crucial plans in this
troubled period. The details of these emerged through two people later arrested
by the British. They were an European employed in german secret service and held in Singapore by end July 1915
(referred to as Mr ‘X’) and a Punjabi arrested in Bangkok by end August 1915
(christened ‘Z’) . In the United
states and elaborate plan and arrangement was made to ship arms from the
country and from far East through Shanghai, Batavia (Jakarta), Bangkok (siam)
and Burma. Their idea was to organize 10000 men on the Bruma-Siam frontier and
overrun Burma and then the whoe of India. A German officer ‘George Paul
Boehm” who was to train these armed men was arrested in Singapore by the
British on 27th Septemebr 1915. One of the plans that ‘X’ revelaed
was that the Germans wanted to take over Andaman Islands. An agent was to visit
the islands as a merchant, land arms that were supplied by German sources,
destroy the wireless systems, contact the revolutionaries at the Cellular Jail,
free them and flee to Siam and then Rangoon. From ‘X’ was recovered the list of
political prisoners that this group wished to free-on top of the list were
Vinayak Savarkar and his brother, and members of the Maniktala Case*. The list,
he said was written out for him by one Dr Haidar in Berlin, though the
handwriting seemed to match that of revolutionary Bhupendra Nath Dutt. ‘X’ had
a complete set of photographs of the jail and information on the number of
officials, troops, police and warders across the Adnaman settlements. This
could not have been possible but for communication from someone from within the
Cellular Jail who had passed on vital information to the revolutionaries
abroad. The suspicion of the authorities naturally fell on Vinayak. Strict surveillance
was place on Vinayak and his movements within the jail, and the entire complex
became an armed fortress.
After repeated
failures, German interest in India slowly began to wane, while most of the
revolutionaries were tried and sentenced to life transportation to Mandalay or
given term convictions. In 1920s, the Ghadar party was reorganized and it
continued as a focal point for Punjabi and Sikh identity until the time of
Indian independence in 1947.
The series of attempts
by the Ghadar party between 1914 and 1917 to create a Pan-Indian rebellion
against the British Empire during WWI is referred by many as the Hindu-German
Conspiracy. Many more incidents and missions like: “Annie Larsen affair”,
“Black Tom explosion” , “Pan-India mutiny”, “Christmas Day Plot” were
part of the Ghadar movement or Hindu-German conspiracy.
The party was formally
dissolved in 1948. Key participants in the Ghadar Movement included Bhai Parmanand, Vishnu Ganesh
Pingle, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Bhagwan Singh
Gyanee, Har Dayal, Tarak Nath Das, Bhagat Singh Thind, Kartar Singh
Sarabha, Abdul Hafiz
Mohamed Barakatullah, Rashbehari Bose, and Gulab Kaur. Many of them part of different fragments like Anushilan Samiti,
Jugantar group etc etc.
Notes:
Maniktala Case or
Alipore Bomb conspiracy case:
The 'Alipore Bomb Case' was "the first
state trial of any magnitude in India". The British Government arrested
Sri Aurobindo, a prominent Nationalist Leader at the time, Barindra Ghose, and
many young revolutionaries. They were charged with "Conspiracy" or
"waging war against the King" - the equivalent of high treason and
punishable with death by hanging.