The Ghadar party

1. The Hindustan Ghadar‘We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism.’- Sohan Singh Bhakna
Prepared by
Dr. Rao, Faculty of History
Email. seesrirao@gmail.com
Ph.No. 91+9491046782

2. • Note:- Professional history person
explanation is required for
• Why Lala Har Dayal’s referred Mexican revolutionaries as ‘Mexican
Ghadarites.’
• The formulation of ‘The Pacific Coast Hindustan Association as
Ghadar Party
• How Ghadarites accumulated weapons
• The concept of -Indians are out of discrimination if they achieve
independence
• What type of Govt. by Ghadraties after overthrowing the British
form India
• The Ghadraties network in India
• Why it was failed even though 75% of Ghadarites are from ex-army
etc…

3. Introduction
 The British Empire outlet in the South East Asian, and East
African colonies
 By the end of the 19th century, famines and rural debt had
impoverished the peasantry and rendered the artisans out of
gainful employment
 The Punjabi immigrants at the West Coast of North America
had steadily increasing from 1904
 The discriminatory policies of the host countries soon
resulted in a flurry of political activity among Indian
nationalists
 As early as 1907, Ramnath Purl, a political exile on the West
Coast, issued a Circular-e-Azadi (Circular of Liberty) in which
he pledged support to the Swadeshi Movement

4. The pressure resulted in an restriction on Indian
immigration into Canada in 1908
By the end of 1912, the number of Indian immigrants
on the Pacific Coast had reached 20,000, in that about
98 percent among them were the Punjabis and out of
them 75 per cent were ex-soldiers
Tarak Nath Das in Vancouver started the Free Hindustan
and adopted a very militant nationalist tone
G.D. Kumar set up a Swadesh Sevak Home in Vancouver
on the lines of the India House in London and also
began to bring out a Gurmukhi paper called Swadesh
Sevak which advocated social reform and also asked
Indian troops to rise in revolt against the British

5. In 1910, Tarak Nath Das and G.D. Kumar forced out
of Vancouver & they Set up the United India House
at Seattle (Name of the Place) in the USA
United India House group, consisting mainly of
radical nationalist students, and the Khalsa Diwan
Society (The Khalsa Diwan Society was founded on July 22, 1906 at
Vancouver, is a Sikh society based at a Gurdwara in Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada. )
Decided to send a deputation to meet the Colonial
Secretary in London and the Viceroy and other
officials in India
Succeed in meeting the Viceroy and the Lieutenant
Governor of the Punjab But not the Colonial
Secretary in London

6. A series of public meetings at Lahore, Ludhiana,
Ambala, Ferozepore, Jullundur, Amritsar Lyallpur,
Gujranwala, Sialkot and Simla and they received
enthusiastic support from the Press and the general
public
The result of this sustained agitation, both in
Canada and the United States
The first revolutionary movement moves are stated
from Vancouver by Bhagwan Singh(Sikh priest who had worked in
Hong Kong and the Malay States)
He openly preached the gospel of violent overthrow
of British rule and urged the people to adopt Bande
Mataram as a revolutionary salute.

7. The centre of revolutionary activity soon shifted to
the USA
Yugantar Ashram became the home and
headquarters and refuge of these political workers
Lala Har Dayal arrived in California in April 1911. He
Published Yugantar Circular i.e praising the bomb
attack on the India Viceroy Lord Hardinge in Delhi
on 23 December, 1912
In 1912, at Portland The Hindustani Association of
the Pacific Coast was formed with Baba Sohan Singh
Bhakna as its president and GD Kumar as the
general secretary, later Kumar fell ill and his place
was taken by Lala Hardyal

8. It became popularly known as the Gadar Party
after it launched its journal “Gadar”
Ghadar is an Urdu word derived from Arabic which
means “revolt” or “rebellion”
The party was multi-ethnic, although mostly
Punjabi and Bengali had Sikh and Hindu members,
and even some Muslim members
Headquarter was Yugantar Ashram- SanFransisco
The main aim of the party was “To free India from
the British Rule”

9. Hindustan Gadar Party Emblem
The emblem contain
colours like red, saffron
and green. Red colour in
India symbolizing
happiness and good
fortune. Saffron stands for
seasoning and colouring
agent. Green for it’s the
Islamic colour of
representing the vegetation
and scenery.

10. Founding members
• Sohan Singh Bhakna(President)
• Lala Hardayal- General Secretary
• Kesar Singh (Vice-President)
• Kartar Singh Sarabha(Editor, Punjabi Gadar)
• Baba Jawala Singh (Vice-President)
• Sant Baba Wasakha Singh Dadehar
• Bhagwan Singh Gyanee
• Balwant Singh (Ghadarite)
• Pt. Kanshi Ram(Treasurer)

11. Leaders of the Ghadar Party at different
places
Name of the Leaders Place
Tarak Nath Das
America
Lala Har Dayal America
Baba Jwala singh America
Pandit Kanshi Ram America
Sant Baba Wasakha Singh Dadehar America
Gobind Behari Lal America
Kartar Singh Sarabha Berkely ( San Francisco)
Shaymji Krishna Varma London
Balwant Singh Canada

12. Name of the Leaders Place
Shaymji Krishna Varma London
Rash Bihari Bose Bengal
Darisi Chenchiah and Champak Raman
Pillai
South India
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle and Sadashiv
Pandurang Khankhoje
West India
Jatinder Lahari and Taraknath Das East India
Maulavi Barkatulla and Pandit
Permanand
Jhansi from Central India

13. In the words of Lala Har Dayal
‘Do not fight the Americans, but use the freedom that
is available in the US to fight the British; you will
never be treated as equals by the Americans until
you are free in your own land, the root cause of
Indian poverty and degradation is British rule and it
must be overthrown, not by petitions but by aimed
revolt; carry this message to the masses and to the
soldiers in the Indian Anny; go to India in large
numbers and enlist their support.’

14. Hindustan Gadar weekly
 Lala Hardayal, Kartar Singh Sarabha and Raghubar
Dayal Gupta were three key members of the press
On 1 Nov. 1913, the first issue of Ghadar the
Grumukhi edition, in Urdu was published on 9 Dec.
And was stated for free circulation and set up at
Yugantar Ashram (The name Yugantar was adopted to identify with
the early revolutionary movement in Bengal) in San Francisco as
headquarters
Front page of each issue was a feature titled Angrezi
Raj Ka Kacha Chittha or ‘An Expose of British Rule.’
Angrezi Raj ka Dushman’ or ‘An Enemy of British
Rule.’

15. • Emphasised on
(1) The Indian population numbers seven crores in the
Indian States and 24 crores in British India, while
there are only 79,614 officers and soldiers and
38,948 volunteers who are Englishmen
(2) Fifty-six years have lapsed since the Revolt of
1857; now there is urgent need for a second one
Propagated the Savarkar’s The Indian War of
independence —1857
Paper was published in four languages i.e Hindi,
Urdu, Gurumukhi and English
Ghadarite socialist literature was banned in India in
1913

16. The Ghadar weekly and 14 points
• This Ghadar consisted of fourteen points was
summarized and published every week
1. Enumerating the harmful effects of British
rule
2. Looting of Indian wealth
3. The low per capita income of Indians
4. The high land tax
5. The contrast between the low expenditure
on health and the high expenditure on the
military
6. The destruction of Indian arts and industries

17. 8. The use of Indian tax payers’ money for wars in
Afghanistan, Burma, Egypt, Persia and China
9. Policy of promoting discord in the Indian States to
extend their own influence
10.The discriminatory lenient treatment given to
Englishmen who were guilty of killing Indians or
dishonouring
11. Indian women
12. The policy of helping Christian missionaries with money
raised from Hindus and Muslims
13.The effort to foment discord between Hindus and
Muslims
14.The critique of British rule

18. Ghadar di Goonj Poems
“ Hindus, Sikhs, Pathans and Muslims,
Pay attention ye all people in the army.
Our country has been plundered by the British,
We have to wage a war against them.
We do not need pandits and quazis,
We do not want to get our ship sunk.
The time of worship is over now,
It is time to take up the sword.”

19. The Ghadár poem on Singhs race
“Why do you disgrace the name of Singhs?
How come! you have forgotten the majesty of ‘Lions’
Had the like of Dip Singh been alive today
How could the Singhs have been taunted?
People say that the Singhs are no good
Why did you turn the tides during the Delhi mutiny?
Cry aloud. ‘Let us kill the Whites’
Why do you sit quiet, shamelessly
Let the earth give way so we may drown
To what good were these thirty crores born.

20. Komagata Maru and Ghadar
Visit the below link for more details on Komagata Maru
https://www.slideshare.net/SSrinivasaRao5/history-of-komagata-maru-incident-dr-
rao-232680936
In Nov. 1913, the Canadian Supreme Court allowed
entry to thirty-five Indians who had not made a
continuous journey (Panama Maru)
Canada had for some rears imposed very strict
restrictions on Indian immigration in after Nov.
1913
Encouraged by this judgment, Gurdit Singh, an
Indian contractor living in Singapore, decided to
charter a ship and carry to Vancouver

21. Carrying a total of 376 Indian passengers, the ship
began its journey to Vancouver
Passengers- 337 Sikhs, 27 Muslims and 12 Hindus
When Komagata Maru arrived in Canadian,
waters immigration officer in Vancouver “Fred Cyclone
Taylor” not allowed to dock
The Press in Punjab warned of serious consequences if
the Indians were not allowed entry into Canada.
The Press in Canada took a different view and some
newspapers in Vancouver alerted the people to the
‘Mounting Oriental Invasion.’
Ghadar activists visited the ship at Yokohama (Japan) in
Japan, gave lectures and distributed literature

22. Komagata Maru & Indian Shore Committee
An organization set up by the local Indian community to
assist the passengers with food, provisions and legal
challenges
Shore committee had been formed with Husain
Rahim and Sohan Lal Pathak held in Dominion Hall,
Vancouver
Funds were raised, protest meetings organized &
Rebellion against the British in India was threatened.
Protest meetings were held in Canada and the United
States
The shore committee raised $22,000 as an instalment
for chartering the ship

23. lawsuit by J. Edward Bird’s legal counsel on behalf of
Munshi Singh, one of the passengers
On July 6, the full bench delivered a unanimous
judgement that under new orders-in-council it had no
authority to interfere with the decisions of the
Department of Immigration and Colonization
On July 19, the angry passengers mounted an attack on
Canadians
In the United States, under the leadership of Bhagwan
Singh, Baikatullah, Ram Chandra and Sohan Singh
Bhakna, a powerful campaign was organized and the
people were advised to prepare for rebellion
Since the ship and Passengers had not sailed directly
from India and had violated the exclusion laws

24. In the end, only twenty two passengers were
admitted to Canada
The ship was turned around and forced to depart
for Asia on July 23.
Before it reached Yokohama, World War I broke out
British Government passed orders that no
passenger be allowed to disembark anywhere on
the way
On landing at Budge Budge near Calcutta, the
harassed and irate passengers, provoked by the
hostile attitude of the authorities, resisted the
police and this led to a clash in which 19 passengers
were killed, and 202 arrested. A few of them
escaped

25. February Revolt
The Ghadar Party & the World War I
Ras Bihari Bose on request from Vishnu Ganesh Pingle,
an American trained Ghadar, who met Bose at Benares
and requested him to take up the leadership of the
revolution in India
He accepted as the leader of the abortive Ghadar revolt
in India in 1915
The Ailan-e-Jung or Proclamation of War of the Ghadar
Party was issued and circulated widely
Mohammed Barkatullah, Ram Chandra and Bhagwan
Singh organized and addressed a series of public
meetings to exhort Indians to go back to India and
organize an armed revolt

26. Prominent leaders were sent to persuade Indians living
in Japan, the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, The Malay
States, Singapore and Burma to return home and join
the rebels
Rash Behari Bose sent out men to contact army units
from Bannu in the North-West Frontier to Faizabad and
Lucknow in the U.P. and report back by 11 February
1915
The emissaries returned with optimistic reports
The Ghadar made an attempt to find a leaders
Bengali revolutionaries were contacted and through the
efforts of Sachindranath Sanyal and Vishnu Ganesh
Pingley, Rash Behari Bose, the Bengali revolutionary
who had become famous by his daring attack on
Hardinge, the Viceroy, finally arrived in Punjab in mid-
January 1915 to assume leadership of the revolt

27. The date for the mutiny was set first for 21 and then for
19 February 1915.
Ram Chandra sent a report to C.K. Chakravarty, Indian
revolutionary and an agent of German plot in U.S.A, on
the men dispatched by him from America. The figure
included: Sent to India 3000 from Canada and 2000
from United States to Shanghai 60 to Singapore 70 to
Burma 30 to Siam 50 to Berlin 07
But the army units which had promised to join the
revolution kept quiet. However, some
The joined units in india are 26 Punjabi, 7 Rajput, 12
Cavalry, 23 Cavalry, 128 Pioneers, Malaya State
Guides,23 Mountain Battery, 24Jat Artillery, 15 Cancers,
22 Mountain Battery,130 Baluch and 21 Punjabi did
come out in the open. About 700 men of 5 Light
Infantry, located in Singapore, mutineed on 15 February
and took possession of the fort.

28. The rebellion was subdued by the British troops; 126
men were tried by court martial which sentenced 37 to
death, 41 to transportation for life, and the remying to
varying terms of imprisonment Soldiers from other
units were punished as under: Death Transportation 23
Cavalry 12 Cavalry 130 Baluch 128 Pioneers 1 for life
Some Indian revolutionaries make attempts to organize
a mutiny among Indian troops stationed abroad who
were operating from Berlin, and who had links with the
Ghadar leader Ram Chandra in America, continued,
with German help
Raja Mahendra Pratap and Barkatullah tried to enlist
the help of the Amir of Afghanistan and even,
hopefully, set up a Provisional Government in Kabul,
but attempts failed

29. Emigrants & British India Govt.
An estimated 8,000 emigrants who returned to
India
On arrival, the emigrants, were scrutinized by the
British India police i.e
1. The ‘safe’ ones allowed to proceed home
2. The more ‘dangerous’ ones arrested and
3. The less dangerous’ ones ordered not to leave their
home villages.
Some of ‘the dangerous’ ones escaped detection and
went to Punjab to foment rebellion.

30. 1914 Aug 29th the Gadar party sent 60
revolutionaries to India in S.S. Korea ship but they
were detained at HongKong
Bharat Mata Society – Ghadar movement group in
Punjab
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had
succeeded in penetrating the organization
In India failed to take off in February 1915, more
than a hundred Gadar activists paid with their lives,
41 being shot in Singapore alone on 15 February,
1915.
Most of the leaders were arrested- Rash Behari
Bose escaped

31. Annie Larsen affair
Annie Larsen affair also called as Hindu–German
Conspiracy
The Annie Larsen was a three-masted schooner
It is a gun-running plot in the United States
during World War I involving Ghadar Party, the Irish
Republican Brotherhood and the German Foreign office
Established links between Indian and Irish residents in
Germany , including the British Foreign Office diplomat
Roger Casement (later became a humanitarian activist, poet and Easter
Rising leader. Described as the father of twentieth-century human rights investigations)
and the German Foreign office were used to tap into
the Indo-Irish network in the United States

32. Max von Oppenheim (a German lawyer, diplomat, and archaeologist, he
was considered a spy by the French and British) convinced Har Dayal of
the feasibility of the project and established contact
with the Ghadar party in the United States
Naval lieutenant Wilhelm von Brincken (was a German
diplomat and spy during World War I) establish contact
through Tarak Nath Das and an intermediary named
Charles Lattendorf (French general during the First World War),
with Ram Chandra
With the approval of San Francisco German Vice-
consul E.H. Von Schack, arrangements for funds and
armaments were secured

33. Ram Chandra was to receive a monthly payment of
$1,000. At the same time $200,000 worth of small
arms and ammunition was acquired by the German
military attache Captain Franz von Papen (German
military attache in Mexico and the United States from 1913 to 1915 and
also served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-
Chancellor under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1934. ) through
a Krupp ( Krupp is a 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is
famous for their production of steel, artillery, ammunition and
other armaments. )agent by the name of Hans Tauscher
Papen arranged Joseph McGarrity (Irish-American political
activist ) to make the necessary arrangements for arms
purchase & shipping by train from New York to San
Diego, where they were to be shipped to India
via Burma

34. The Annie Larsen would transfer its shipment at
Socorro Island near Mexico to the Maverick which
would then proceed towards South-East Asia
However, this failed too and it was subsequently
directed to Anjer, Java
At Anjer, a German operative named Theodore
Helfrichs was instructed to dispose of the ship, But
it was seized by Dutch authorities.
Starr-Hunt and four of the Ghadarites attempted to
flee in a ship, but were captured by the British
cruiser HMS Newcastle. Taken to Singapore and
Starr-Hunt confessed his role in the plot

35. Plans involving the Indian Berlin Committee (an
organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and
political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote
the cause of Indian Independence later 1915 , known as the Indian Independence
Committee ) leaked out through Czech revolutionaries
The American network of the Czech organisation
passed the information to the American
authorities they informed British intelligence.
An Indian operative, codenamed “C” and
described most likely to have been Chandra Kanta
Chakraverty

36. The Siam-Burma Scheme
The Siam region was considered important by
the Ghadarites as large number of Punjabis
were working there. Ghadar was being sent to
Siam to exhort the Indians to participate in the
freedom struggle.
With German help, a group of Ghadar party
members at Chicago branch and Siam began
planning an invasion of India from Burma with
the help of Indian forces stationed there.

37. The object of this enterprise was to buy arms and
ammunitions in a place called Pakho, north of the
capital Bangkok and
The Ghadar party made plan for the training of
10,000 Indians who lived in Siam with the help of
German military experts. Indians were to receive
training in Chandrai Jungle in Siam under three
German-Americans 1. George Boehm 2. Albert
Wehde and 3. Sterneck
But it failed without achieving any target.

38. Turkey and Ghadar Movement
At the beginning of 1915, Mohammad
Barkatullah, and Taraknath Das went to
Istambul where they were received by Enver
Pasha and were assured by the Turkish
Government of help in task of formulating a
plan of enlisting the Indian War prisoners into
a revolutionary army

39. A revolutionary committee was set up in Iran
with headquarter in Berlin
Attempts were made to combine other
Muslim states against the British and
Obeidullah carried on negotiations for this
purpose with various Arab States

40. In October 1915, Indo-German Mission was
sent to Kabul by the German Government
Make Kabul as a base for military training of
Indians
Mohammad Barkatullah procured a fatwa
from Shiekh-ul-Islam asking the Muslims to
join the Hindus against the British
‘A Provisional Government of India’ was set up
in Kabul on December 1, 1915

41. The Ghadarites took advantage of the pro-
Turkish and Pan-Islamic appeal among soldiers
But this plan could not be successful on
account of the communal spirit between the
Hindu and the Muslim soldiers

42. First Lahore Conspiracy Case -1915
 A series of trials held in Lahore and in the United States, in the aftermath of
the failed Ghadar conspiracy in 1915
 The trial was held by a Special tribunal constituted under the Defence of India
Act 1915
 The means to be adopted for the purpose were:
(1) the seduction of Indian soldiers from their allegiance to their King causing them
to mutine and join in the rebellion and to furnish them arms and ammunitions;
(2) the procurement or purchase of arms, ammunitions and men;
(3) the obtaining of money for the same by forcing and robbing government
treasuries and by dacoities, which necessarily involved murders;
(4) The murder of those police and other officials who interfered with the carrying
out of the conspiracy, and of all civil Europeans at the commencement of
rebellion;
(5) the wrecking of trains and railway bridges;
(6) sudden attack on and killing of His Majesty’s European troops; (7) the
production and circulation of seditious literature, the delivery of seditious
speeches and exhortations to rebels.

43. There were nine cases in total.
Besides the first conspiracy case,
FOUR Lahore supplementary conspiracy cases,
TWO Mandi conspiracy cases,
TWO Burma conspiracy circumstances, and
ONE Lahore city conspiracy case.
291 Ghadarites sent up for trial 42 had been sentenced to
death and hanged, 114 were transported for life, 93
were imprisoned to varying terms and 42 had been
acquitted.
And different court martial sentenced 18 men to death,
of them 12 had been hanged of 23rd cavalry.
Sohan Singh Trialed under First Lahore Conspiracy in
Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915 and served sixteen years of
life sentence

44. The Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial
 Commenced in the District Court in San Francisco on
November 12, 1917
 An Irish double agent by the name of Charles Lamb is said
to have passed on the majority of the information that
compromised the conspiracy and ultimately helped the
construction of the prosecution
 105 people, the former Consul-General and vice consul,
members of the Ghadar Party, and members of the German
consulate in San Francisco were tried.
 which 29 party members were convicted

45.  The trial was sensationally notable for the
assassination of the chief conspirator Ram Chandra. He
was assassinated on the last day of the trial in a packed
courtroom by one of his fellow accused, Ram Singh.
Ram Singh himself was also immediately shot dead by
a U.S. Marshal
 The trial lasted from November 20, 1917, to April 24,
1918.
 Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial, described at the time
as the longest and most expensive trial in American
legal history

46. Split in the Ghadar party
In January 1917, there was tussle among the
leaders of Ghadar party over the funds
received by Ram Chandra from the German
Government
Ram Chandra’s was suspend for six weeks on
the ground that he had used funds subscribed
by Indians in Panama for immoral purposes.
As a result, the Ghadar party broke into two
groups

47. The leadership of Bhagwan Singh and took the
possession of the Ghadar press at 436 Hill
Street, San Francisco
On the other hand, Ram Chandra installed his
new printing press at 1017, Valencia Street,
San Francisco
Finally Ram Chandra was successful in
publishing the paper in the beginning of
February 1917

48. Causes for the failure
The major weakness of the leaders organizational,
ideological, strategic, tactical, financial & sustained
leadership
The Chief Khalsa Diwan proclaiming its loyalty to
the sovereign, declared them to be ‘fallen’ Sikhs
and criminals, and helped the Government to track
them down
The party was formally dissolved in 1948

49. Main Achievements
It Criticise colonial rule and India’s poverty,
famine, epidemics etc.
Secular in nature.
Created a new class of enthusiastic
revolutionaries.
International in Nature.
The Gadar Movement was the most advanced
secular democratic movement of its time whose
tradition was upheld and appropriated by Bhagat
Singh later with further addition of the socialist
ideology

50. Hindustan Gadar Party building in USA

51. References
https://www.mentorstudypoint.in/downloads/(Bipan_
Chandra.pdf
https://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Gadar_Movemen
t
http://komagatamarujourney.ca/incident
https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/22
9726/10/10_chapter%204.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ghadr
Visit the below link for more details on ‘Komagata
Maru’
https://www.slideshare.net/SSrinivasaRao5/history-of-
komagata-maru-incident-dr-rao-232680936

52. Thank You