Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The Ghadar movement

The Ghadar movement

Indian revolutionaries in the USA and Canada had established the Ghadar[Rebellion] Party in 1913 at Sanfrancisco. The Party was built around the weekly paper the Ghadar. The ideology of the party was strongly secular. In the words of Sohan Singh Bhakna, “We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism”.

Most of the members of the party were Punjabi Sikh peasants and ex-soldiers, who had migrated there in search of livelihood, and face the full burnt of racial and economic discrimination. Lala Har Dayal, Mohammed Barkatullah, Bhagwan Singh, Ram Chandra and Sohan Singh Bhakna were the prominent leaders of the Ghadar Party. The Party had active members in other countries such as Mexico, Japan, China, Philippines, Malaya, Singapore, Thailand, Indo- China and East and South Africa.

The Ghadar Party highlighted the point that Indians were not respected in the world abroad because they were not free. With the outbreak of the First World War, Lala Har Dayal and several other Indians abroad moved up to Germany and set up “The Indian Independence Committee” at Berlin. The Ghhadarites decided to send arms and men to India to start an uprising with the help of soldiers and local revolutionaries. 21 February 1915 was fixed as the date for an armed revolt in the Punjab. Unfortunately the authorities came to know of these plans and took immediate action. The rebellious regiments were disbanded and their leaders were either imprisoned or hanged.


Bipan Chandra :India's Struggle for Independence
Bipan Chandra edtd : Freedom Struggle
Tara Chand : Freedom Movement
NCERT Text book

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