Fanning the fires of
freedom abroad

By Kulwant Singh

THE story of the Indian struggle for Independence will be incomplete without recollecting the contribution of the Indians settled abroad, and their publications which helped to fan the fire for Independence. The agitation against the British in foreign countries took a concrete shape towards the beginning of the 19th century, just prior to the World War I. It was supported by the Germans and the Japanese, both enemies of the British.

With the abolition of slavery by the British Parliament, early in the 19th century, and the refusal of the African slaves to work as free labour, indentured labour from India was sent to British colonies all over the world. The great Indian labour migration started in 1837, and by about 1915, their number had swelled to 3.5 million. A majority of the Punjabi immigrants, largely Sikh farm-hands, started settling down on the Pacific Coast of America and Canada, around California and Vancouver. Artisans preferred the Far East, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand. These areas, particularly California, became the hot bed for spreading sedition against the British Raj.

The first publication on foreign land to advocate violence, as a means of achieving India’s Indepen-dence, was a monthly magazine — Free Hindustan, edited by Tarak Nath Dass, a young handsome Bengali student who devoted his life for India’s struggle for freedom. He was assisted by a patriot exiled from Bengal, Surinder Mohan Bose, who later founded the famous East India Association, a body of intellectuals committed to self rule by the Indians. The first edition of Free Hindustan was published in 1909; it focused on the promotion of disaffection amongst the Sikh migrants, most of them had served as sepoys in the British Army. On their return to India, they were likely to influence the very classes from which the Sikh regiments were recruited. Therefore, this section of migrants was rightly chosen by Tarak Nath Dass. He was later deported from Canada for his "objectionable" activities and was imprisoned in San Francisco.

The popularity of Free Hindustan was followed by two more publications — Aryan and Swadesh Sewak. Equally revolutionary, they generally followed the theme of Free Hindustan. The men associated with these papers were committed in as much as they took courses in military training, evidently in contemplation of an armed revolution in India. The most important and well known amongst them was Lala Hardyal, who had a brilliant academic career, a student of Gurukul Kangri and was considered to be a mathematical wizard. He came to Oxford with a scholarship by the Indian government. He declined that as he felt he should not accept money from the British Government which was committing atrocities on Indians.

Hardyal also edited Bande Mataram, the most violent paper of all, financed by the famous Madam Cama — a British hater and a sympathiser of India’s cause. At that time (1909-1910) there were 5000 Indian settlers on the Pacific Coast, who were targeted by Hardyal to preach his doctrine — that young Indians should leave their homes in India and visit foreign countries so that the social sense may be quickened and intense indignation against injustice be aroused against the British occupation of India. He openly advocated murder, the use of bombs and dynamite. For four years, from 1909-1912, Bande Mataram remained his launch pad for propaganda until after the formation of the Ghadar Party which gave further impetus to the movement and introduced fresh publications with effective directions by an organised body.

During the period when Bande Mataram was being published, two Urdu periodicals - The Islamic Fraternity and El - Islam were also in circulation. These were edited and produced by a great revolutionary ,Mohammad Maulvi ,Barkatullah, who was a professor of Urdu at the Tokyo University. He was assisted by the Japanese in his efforts against the British. Barkatullah played an important role of being a connecting link between three different movements: Pan Islamic, Asia for Asiatic, and the Indian sedition. The common aim of all these movements and Barkatullah’s writing was to free Asia, including Turkey from the British domination. All his pamphlets were Islamic, funded by the Sultan of Turkey and Amir of Afghanistan. Barkatullah’s papers were smuggled into India in large numbers from Yokohama to Bombay and Calcutta and later to all cities with a sizeable Muslim population. Barkatullah was assisted in his efforts by a Granthi at Penang, Bhai Bhagwan Singh. The latter was the most wanted rebel by the British Government. He was hunted all over the world; more on him later.

The Ghadar Party, originally known as the Hindu Association of the Pacific Coast was formed in April 1912 at Astoria (Oregan) with the efforts of Hardyal, Barkatullah and Jatinder Nath, all known revolutionaries. It had seven founder members. Prominent among them were Rattan Singh, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Jawala Singh, Santokh Singh and Jagat Ram. The mouthpiece of this party, a weekly paper Ghadar was launched on November 1, 1913. It was published quite openly at the Yugantar Ashram, 436 Hill Street, San Francisco. It was initially published in Urdu and Gurmukhi. More languages were added later.

Two dedicated revolutionaries, Nahar Singh and Munsha Singh, both on the hit list of the British, were trusted with the task of producing the paper. A quotation from the very first number sufficiently indicates its character:

"Today, there begins in foreign lands, but in our own country’s tongue, a war against the English Raj....What is our name? Mutiny (Ghadar means mutiny). What is our work? Mutiny. Where will the mutiny break out? In India.....The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pen and ink.....Brave men and worthy sons of India, be ready with bullets and shots. Soon the fate of tyrants will be decided on the battlefield, and days of happiness and glory will dawn for India."

The paper preached to end the British rule in India through an armed revolution, and to set up a Republic Government based on liberty and equality; it was an effective cutting edge for spreading the "Ghadar Party’s philosophy and revolution. The paper was critical of nationalist leaders, who were soft towards the British, and did not support the radical methodology. Criminal intelligence report of the British Government of June 8, 1915, commenting on the contents of Ghadar issue of April 14, 1915, states "The leading article of this issue abuses Indian politicians, in particular Lala Lajpat Rai for subservience to the British rules. Even after his deportation, it is said, Lajpat Rai demeaned himself by practising in British courts and addressing the presiding officer as "your lordship". He even brought an action against a Calcutta newspaper for calling him a

rebel. They have nothing to do with political organisation in India, the members of which think they will get Independence by asking for it".

Every effort was made to secure a wide distribution for Ghadar, both in India and abroad. Large quantities of paper were sent to countries where Indian immigrants were settled. Hundreds of copies reached India every week from many places on the Pacific via Shanghai, Hong Kong and finally to Bombay. Some were sent to Sikhs in the Army, accompanied by private letters implying that every Indian on the Pacific Coast was prepared to join in the armed revolt against the British Government. A large portion of Indian settlers in the western states, even at the date, did look upon armed rebellion in India as both desirable and practicable, as a result of effective propaganda.

The postal censorship introduced during the war, revealed that Ghadar and other publications were dispatched by the postal authorities in the USA to practically every country where Indians were present. As consignments in bulk were liable to interception, the papers were being sent to individual addressees in envelopes or wrappers. The list of addresses was supplied by local contacts to the postal department; a well organised system was at work. A large number of army personnel were getting the publications even after the censorship; the supply to Army units continued clandestinely.

By the summer of 1914, there was a marked increase in the demand for Ghadar. To cover the wider number of readers, the publication started in more regional languages, to include Punjabi, Gujarati, Pushtu and Gurkhali. A small number of Indian settlers at places like Trinidad, Sudan, Eden, Madagascar, Morocco, Manila, Jawa and Fiji started to ask for copies of Ghadar which clearly established its appeal and popularity. The most popular were the poems written by Granthi Bhagwan Singh which were translated from Punjabi to other languages and inflamed passions as nothing else could do. His writings were rapacious. It will be worth quoting one of his poems entitled Kill or Die written in Punjabi; when translated in English it reads —

"Let us kill the whites; kill the wicked and tyrannous Europeans. Do not leave any trace of them. Extirpate the whole nation. Set fire to all churches. Kill European men and women. Show no mercy, whatever. Flay them alive so that they remember for ages. Fill the rivers with their dead bodies. We will even go to England shouting kill, kill, kill".

About Bhagwan Singh, the British War Office wrote: "With Barkatulla was associated, at a later date, Bhagwan Singh, a dangerous ruffian whose seditious activities had secured his dismissal from the post of granthi (priest) to the Sikh temple at Penang and Hong Kong, and who was subsequently deported from Canada (August 1913) for entering the country under a misrepresentation". Bhagwan Singh was also associated with the Ghadar movement; he had provided 270 pistols to Baba Gurdit Singh while Kamagata Maru was passing through Yokohama.

Soon after the war the visible affects of propaganda, by the publications, started to show results: Thirtythree serious crimes and several hundred other transgressions, including murders and raids by well organised radicals, were traced by the British Government to the Ghadar incitement on foreign lands. The assassination of Mr Hopkinson, a Canadian officer, may be added to the list. He had been tracing the organisations, responsible for promoting these publications, and thus was disliked by the ‘rebels’.

He was born in India (English father, Indian mother), and could speak Indian languages fluently. He had established a ring of informers who used to report to him about the activities of the Sikh community. He was known for taking bribes for petty favours. He played an active part in refusing admission of Sikhs who arrived at Wancoure in the Kamagata Maru. The flash point, leading to his murder was the false evidence which he was to give to save one of his stooges who had murdered two Sikhs in cold blood. Mewa Singh Lopoke, a devout Sikh and known revolutionary, shot Hopkinson on October 21, 1914, in the premises of the court, before he could give fabricated evidence. After killing Hopkinson, Mewa Singh surrendered to the police. Later, in his defence he stated "If the police and administration join together in perpetrating justice, somebody must rise against it. I have risen, I have taken courage to give a knock to this wall of injustice, you may hang me. What more can you do?"

Mewa Singh was hanged on January 11, 1915; His day of martyrdom is celebrated by Sikhs all over Canada to this day. This sensational murder brought in open the vulnerability of the British or whites who were not safe even in their own homeland. It also conveyed that sedition was not confined to the Indian subcontinent alone. Instead, it was a worldwide agitation.

During the same period, the visible affects of publications started to manifest in India. A comprehensive scheme was unearthed for provoking a mutiny amongst Indian troops. Seditious pamphlets published abroad, including large number of Bande Mataram and Ghadar, were being circulated amongst soldiers. Ten bombs were recovered from a cavalry regiment located at Meerut; plans of starting a revolt by massacre of European was timely foiled. All units located in the North Indian cantonments were searched to locate volatile literature, which was found aplenty. At least four mutinies in the Army were instigated by the publications. These were: Punjab Regiment’s revolt in Jhansi, mutiny by the Sikh Squadron of the Central India Horse (4 Sikh Sepoys were hanged and 108 were sentenced to Kalapani), Madras artillery mutiny, and mutiny in 3/12 Punjab Regiment. A large number of publications were found during the searches carried out after the arrest of Shaheed Bhagat Singh from the premises of members of the revolutionary organisations all over India.

The success of Ghadar can be assessed by quoting from the political summary of September, 1914, originating from the office of Security of States U.K.: It reads: "We know that there is active sedition propaganda in full swing openly preaching rebellion in America. This has spread through Japan to Hong Kong and Singapore, and has manifested itself in India. They preach mutiny openly and unashamedly. We have heard of manifestations of this movement from several centres in the Far East, and its existence is absolutely certain. It is in touch in Europe with seditionist centres at Paris and Zurich."

It will be in fitness to talk about Kirti: An Indian publication, parallel of Ghadar, first published in Amritsar in 1926, and later at Meerut. Kirti preached the philosophy of Kirti Leher, a well-organised and co-ordinated movement, ultra revolutionary, pro-Communist and seditionist, advocating violence and eulogising the activities of revolutionary heroes, many hanged. Members of the Kirti Leher group had made ‘contacts’ with serving Sikh soldiers at Meerut cantonment, with the object of spreading disloyalty in the Indian Army as one of the main points in their many sided programmes. These ‘contacts’ were persuaded to visit the Kirti office, where they were systematically lectured by Harminder Singh Sodhi, a former editor of Ghadar who had secretly returned to India after completing a full course of training in Moscow. He was deputed to take over charge of Meerut office by the Kirti Control Board, and subsequently to become Editor-in-Chief.

Copies of Kirti were given to the soldiers to be smuggled into regimental lines and barracks; the ‘contacts’ were instructed to form their own "cells" in the Army. Large scale desertions from a Sikh unit followed by serious cases of mutinous behaviour by Sikhs proceeding on active service abroad took place as a result of Kirti preachings. Rattan Singh and Santokh Singh, founder-members of Ghadar Party coordinated activities of Kirti Leher in India and Ghadar Party abroad, both organisations with identical ideologies and ultimate aims.

India’s struggle for Independence was given a global character by dedicated men. The literature they produced had a lasting impact on Indians abroad as well as at home. The long-term contribution of publications cannot be quantified by a few incidents quoted; the psyche of Indian youth was oriented towards seeking self rule by radical methods, irrespective of personal loss. Many young men who were hanged and transported were keen readers of these fiery publications. While we celebrate the 50th year of Independence, we salute the brave and bold men who contributed to India’s Independence by their pen.