Well, the Ghadar Party had special importance to Punjab, with their ideology and its program of the revolution was unique in the 20th Century in India.
However, unlike Bengal, it represented the politicization of Punjabi peasants to create a common platform in creating a sense of urgency in India to be free from British hands.
Overview of the Ghadar Party
- The 3 main leaders who were the founders of the Ghadar Party were Lala Hardayal, Sohan Singh Bhakkna, and Taraknath Das.
- The party was based in 1913 and it’s headquarter was in San Francisco.
- Gadar is an Urdu word that implies “revolt” or “rebellion”.
- The Gadar was a weekly published magazine. The goal of this publication was to inspire folks to inspire to join the Indian freedom movement. British Indian government decided to ban Gadar in India.
- During the time of World War I, the Gadar organization doubled its effort. They sent arms and people to India and began to inspire the migrant Indians to join the movement against the British by showing patriotism.
- After we got Independence in 1948 it was dissolved.
History of Ghadar Party
Gadar Movement is the heroic tale of bravery and determination of overseas Indians who had come to their higher studies and employment in Canada and the United States.
They imbibed the hearth and zeal of revolutionaries and have become the path blazers of freedom struggle for his or her mother country, India. They have led their lives normally but they bought extraordinary heritage to the nation.
In the history of the 20th century, each India and North American country were under British dominance, so, Indians had easier access to transmigrate to North American countries. The new immigrants were working for accepted lower wages.
Therefore some Canadian firms publicized the economic and job opportunities offered in North American countries to hunt a lot of low-cost labor from India.
First few years, yearly approx 2000 immigrants, largely Punjabi farmers, and laborers were allowable to come. In 1909, severe immigration restrictions just about all over legal Indian immigration to Canada.
Indian immigrants realized the doors closing from Canada, they started getting to the U.S, their needed tons of labor work to make new communities. In the United States, they faced many problems and suffered various hardships and discrimination.
Initially, they were getting small jobs, however over a period of time with their zeal and determination, many of them became farmers with their own lands.
Within a few years, many people migrated from India to take place all over the system which led them problems in racial discrimination and resulted in the damages caused in loss of life and property.
This led the Indians to realize the importance of freedom in India who were treated as slaves in their own country.
For the damage caused, Japanese and Chinese governments sympathized with their overseas nationals and negotiated with the American government for compensation for loss of property and life. Indians realized the distinction between the Slave and being Citizen.
The U.S. had welcome qualified Indian students to get admissions in American universities. The discriminatory practices were against the terrible ideas of liberty and freedom that they had seen in their University atmosphere.
The Indian students were actuated to urge to eliminate the foreign rule India and were determined to fight for freedom for his or her mother country because of the racial difference seen in that country.
They were giving respect towards the feelings of loyalty and nationalism among their fellow Indian Immigrants.
From the USA, Canada, England, Germany, and France, many Indian students started advocating freedom for his or her motherland of India against the British. They shaped organizations or teams for India’s freedom.
Taraknath Das, a student, started a magazine Free Hindusthan in 1907, advocating armed rebellion against the rule of British and additionally shaped “East India Association” in 1911;
A group of patriotic Indians was called as on 23rd April 1913, in Astoria, Oregon, wherever Har Dyal, Bhai Parmanand and others spoke for throwing the British out of India.
It was at this meeting that the Hindustan Association of the Pacific ocean was shaped with a significant objective to liberate India with the force of arms from British exploitation, even as Americans had done over a century past, and facilitate establish a free India with equal rights for all.
Sohan Singh Bhakna was elected as President, Hardayal, General Secretary, and Pandit Kanshi Ram Mardauli, Treasurer.
The Gadar publication covered the British imperialism and called Indians to unite and fight against British rule and throw the British out of India.
It carried articles on the conditions of the people of India under the rule of British and also on problems of racial discrimination against them in the USA and Canada. Special problems with Gadar were conjointly written in Nepali, Bengali, Pashto, Gujarati, moreover as in several different languages.
Gadar literature was sent to Indian revolutionaries all over the world like India, Europe, Canada, Singapore, The Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Egypt, Turkey, and Afghanistan.
This incident got afraid to British and used each means that to prevent the circulation of Gadar and different such publications, significantly in India.
Despite the fact that one copy reached India to a fellow revolutionary then after everywhere, multiple copies were made for circulation.
Hindustan Association was barely a few months old when the British Government in India was under pressure, Har Dyal had been arrested by the U.S. Government, later got the bail.
He knew that the Germans had nice sympathy with the Gadar movement because both the enemy was the same enemy, British.
The objectives of the society were to rearrange money help from German Government for revolutionary activities and information add totally different countries of the globe, arrange coaching to a volunteer force of Indian patriots and prepare transportation of arms and ammunition’s to succeed in the Gadarites for a revolt against British Government in India.
The war between Germany and the European nation was broken get on August 1914 and created a golden chance for gadarites to expel the English from the Asian nation whereas British troops would be busy fighting the war at the front.
The gadarites started a forceful campaign to mobilize overseas Indians in Singapore, Burma, Egypt, Turkey and India and significantly Punjabi’s in North American country and therefore the USA to travel to India and launch the revolution.
The gadarites somehow made contact with the Indian fighters with their effort at different countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, and others with the hope for their participation in the battle against the British.
The British Government tried to suppress the Gadar Movement and had employed agents to penetrate the Ghadar party nearly from the start.
A number of the active gadarites who were arrested, Kartar Singh Sarabha and Hindu deity Govind Pingle, created an alliance with Ras Behari Satyendra revolutionaries escaped to India.
They came to India back to overthrow British rule and wished to unite and work with all those forces that were operating to liberate India.
Before they come to India, the Gadarites got the impression that Indians were prepared for a revolution. When the opportunity at the time of World War I, they came to India in a hurry. The tragedy is the Indian leaders who were co-operating British and overseas were praying to God for victory for the British.
The Gadarites had a flame of liberty in their hearts and didn’t hesitate to create any sacrifice for the freedom, dignity, and prosperity of their country at any cost. The valiance, bravery, and sacrifices of the Gadarites galvanized several freedom fighters to continue their mission.
Source – Written by Inder Singh is President of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin(GOPIO) and chairman of the Indian American Heritage Foundation.
Failures of the Ghadar Party
a) The party was just 1½ years recent and wasn’t established with proper planning since World War I took place in 1914.
b) Indian National Congress, Chief Kalsa Diwan (an organization of the Sikhs) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, etc. were in sympathy to the British cause in the war. The Punjabi’s were obtaining themselves recruited and fighting on the front. Prayers were performed in Gurdwaras, temples, mosques for the finish of land.
c) The leaders of the Ghadar Party were been arrested at the moment they step on to the Indian soil it busts the backbone of the party.
d) Moreover, the arms and amenities that were to be received from outside countries couldn’t reach India due to the seizing of them in San Diego (California) on ‘Anlarson’
e) Mr. Kirpal Singh’s admission into the inner committee of Mr. Sarat Chandra Satyendra Nath Bose, who was directing the Ghadar Party, was a big mistake; because he was the one who passed every single information of the Ghadar party to British government including the important date of rebellion.
