Rebel we forgot: Ghadar icon Gulab Kaur, 100 years on

Sarika Sharma

For five decades after her death, Gulab Kaur remained unknown in her village Bakshiwala. One black and white photo that hung at the Kisan Sabha’s 1973 conference led the village to look for its daughter they never knew they had. And from this pursuit emerged the portrait of an iconic woman — an active underground member of the Ghadar Party during India’s freedom movement, who had for long been just a footnote in history.

The lanes of Bakshiwala (now in Sangrur) had been witness to many militant peasant struggles — from the PEPSU-Mujhara Movement to Anti-Betterment Levy Movement; from the Naxalite movement to the recent anti-farm law struggle. That September, many villagers from Bakshiwala had taken rickety buses to attend the conference of the All India Kisan Sabha at Bathinda. Photographs of rebels adorned the walls of the venue. What struck them was the sole woman among the Ghadarites — a dupatta covering the head, her eyes dull, but something resolute about the jawline. ‘Bakshiwala’ — the name of their village obviously stood out for the villagers. But Gulab Kaur… they had never heard that name. “So many of us were there in Bathinda at the time and all of us were clueless. Upon our return, we began frantically looking for details of her life,” recalls Labh Singh, now 72. They searched and searched — from the village elders to her colleagues Hari Singh, Kehar Singh and Giani Bachan Singh, all of whom were alive then, from village to village. Some efforts were in vain, but some bore fruit.

They were able to identify her clan, but there was no trace of her family. The story in the village goes that Gulab Kaur (born in 1890) was the only daughter of her parents; their ancestral village was the nearby Gaggarpur. She learnt Gurmukhi and Urdu at the dera of Baba Sant Sharan Das in the village and when it was time, she was married to Mann Singh from Jakhepal village (also in Sangrur), who had returned home from the Philippines. She accompanied him to Manila and they were to leave for America in a few months, but she was not meant to live and die in anonymity. Gulab — her name meaning rose — was to bloom as a revolutionary.

In history books written on the glorious Ghadar Movement, Gulab Kaur’s story hardly goes beyond a few words; the only exception are two pieces by Gurcharan Singh Sainsra. However, over the years, even as historians haven’t gotten down to writing Gulab Kaur’s biography, amateur historians have tried to piece together the story of her life and how a simple woman from the hinterland emerged as a Ghadar icon. Farm labourer Milkha Singh Snehi from Bakshiwala was the first to come up with a small booklet on her life around two decades back.

On August 11, 1914, Ghadar Party’s weekly, ‘Hindustan Ghadar’, sought to recruit ‘fearless brave soldiers’ for revolt. In return, ‘death’ was offered as salary, ‘martyrdom’ as award, ‘freedom’ as pension and their goal was ‘Hindustan’. Soon, the Ghadarites embarked upon their mission to launch a revolution and began returning home from North America in ships. Kartar Singh Sarabha and several other comrades had already reached India on September 15, 1914, followed by a second batch.

The third batch reached Manila and gathered at the gurdwara where Ghadar Party’s Philippines president Hafiz Abdulla gave a speech, motivating several Indians headed for newer destinations to return to India and serve their motherland. Gulab Kaur and Mann Singh also enlisted for the revolution, entering their names in the register with a pencil. When Mann Singh developed cold feet at the last moment, Gulab Kaur boarded SS Korea without him. The comrades with her included Rehmat Ali Wazidke, Bakhshi Singh, Lal Singh, Jagat Singh and Chanda Singh Waraich, besides others.

Rakesh Kumar, Sunam-based author of ‘Gulab Kaur: Ghadar Lehar Di Daler Yodha’ (‘Gulab Kaur: A Brave Warrior of Ghadar Movement’), says the ships that the Ghadarites boarded (first SS Korea and then Tosa Maru) would stop at various places on the way. The Ghadarites would alight and mobilise people at gurdwaras. During one such meeting under a neem tree at a Hong Kong gurdwara, Gulab Kaur dramatically took off the bangles from her left hand and gave a fiery speech, exhorting the men to be a part of the fight: “Anyone who steps back from this rare chance to defend our homeland should wear these bangles and step aside… we women will take their place in the fight.”

The ring in her words was shrill enough for the British secret police in India to keep a vigil on the woman who would elude them by sometimes becoming Gulab Devi and sometimes Basant Kaur, or Kirpo. Later, during their interrogation, many arrested Ghadarites found the CID looking for clues about her. Ghadarite Baba Jawala Singh Thatthiyaan recounted his questioning by a DSP of CID in Lahore. “At the meeting inside the gurdwara, which bibi spoke? Who said that men should work at home and let the women enter the maidan-e-jung. Oh kehdi Singhni si?” (Who was that woman?) Gulab Kaur’s speech also found mention in the proceedings of the famous Ferozepur Trial of Ghadarites in 1915.

It is the contribution of amateur historians like Rakesh Kumar, Chiranji Lal Kangniwal and Milkha Singh that at Bakshiwala, people today often refer to her underground life, which began as soon as she stepped on Indian soil. Amid a crackdown on Ghadarites, she somehow escaped arrest and headed straight to Kotla Naudh Singh in Hoshiarpur with comrade Jiwan Singh, who was also on the ship, faking to be his wife.

It was in Amritsar, however, that she was to live an active life as an underground revolutionary. Sant Gulab Singh’s dera and Barpali dharamshala served as secret headquarters of the party. The dera was mostly used for rest and food. Gulab Kaur’s task was cut out: to keep an eye on those who came visiting. She would sit with a charkha at the door and hide behind the demeanour of an ubiquitous village woman involved in seva. Ghadarite Harnam Singh Koota recounted to the chroniclers of the Ghadar movement that she was the first stop for everyone there. No one could go to the secret hideout directly; they had to meet her first. This hideout was frequented by Rash Behari Bose and was used to draw plans to spread the message of Ghadarites.

When the hideout didn’t remain safe, they shifted base to Lahore. For carrying out their underground activities here, they needed houses and a cautious government had told landlords to rent houses only to married couples. Gulab Kaur got one for the party in Sarai Mulchand, this time faking to be the wife of Inder Singh Bhasin. Its address was known only to three people: Kartar Singh Sarabha, Amar Singh and Harnam Singh Tundilat. Chiranji Lal, author of ‘Ghadari Veerangana Bibi Gulab Kaur’ (‘Ghadar Braveheart Bibi Gulab Kaur’), says that besides a sewing machine to stitch Ghadar Party flags, the building housed an underground press with six cyclostyle machines operating from her room. Though Sarabha was in charge of printing, in his absence, Gulab Kaur would take over. The revolutionaries were bringing out two papers — Ghadar Sandesh and Elaan-e-Jung. It was Gulab Kaur’s duty to circulate these. She was never tired, never scared. Her modus operandi was interesting: she carried a two-layered basket. The lower part held a pistol, ammunition and the newspapers, while the upper one had the wares she pretended to sell. She would cleverly deliver these at the Ghadari addas. This is how she overcame the hurdle of operating in the urban areas.

Gulab Kaur, Rakesh Kumar says, was so proficient in hiding in plain sight that once when the police got wind of a secret meeting being held in Sangwal, an armed squad was dispatched from Jalandhar cantonment to conduct a raid. The Ghadarites managed to escape in time, but left behind important party papers and some weapons in haste. Gulab Kaur placed all the stuff in a basket and quietly walked past the unsuspecting cops, Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, the Ghadar icon who died in 2009, wrote in his book, ‘Ghadar Lehar De Unphole Varke’ (‘The Unopened Pages of Ghadar Movement’).

Gulab Kaur was arrested in March 1915. Over the next two years, she was tortured and threatened with gallows like Sarabha and Jiwan Singh if she did not reveal information about Ghadar activities. Gulab Kaur didn’t relent. Freed two years later and with nowhere to go, she went to Amar Singh’s house in Kotla Naudh Singh. Torture took a toll on her health and she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Local vaids refused to treat her for fear of retribution at the hands of the government. She died in 1925 and soon went into oblivion as newer heroes emerged.

But today, Gulab Kaur’s stories have been resurrected in Bakshiwala. CPI leader Satpal Kaur Khive, who is married in Bakshiwala, says that at a time when village women wouldn’t study or venture out, Gulab Kaur had the courage to even leave her husband for the sake of her country.

When farmers marched to Delhi in November 2020, thousands of them camped in their trolleys at Tikri on National Highway 9, setting up a new village. Giving two hoots to revenue records, they named it ‘Ghadari Gulab Kaur Nagar’. Women from Bakshiwala also lived in that ‘nagar’. Today, almost every child of Bakshiwala has photos of ‘Ghadari Gulab Kaur Nagar’ in their phones and with a hint of pride, they say she was a daughter of our village (“Saade pind di kudi si”). A hundred years after her death, the daughter of revolution lives on in Bakshiwala.

In literature, popular culture

Nanak Singh, a contemporary of Gulab Kaur, was the first to write about her in a novel, ‘Ik Miyaan Do Talwaraan’ (1959), based on the Ghadar movement. Marrying fact and fiction, several books followed — ‘Ghadari Gulab’ (1987) by Kesar Singh, Hari Singh Dhudike’s ‘Ghadari Gulab Kaur’ (2014), Ajmer Aulakh’s play ‘Tu Charkha Ghughda Rakh Jinde’ (2015) and Des Raj Chhajli’s epic poem ‘Veergatha Ghadari Gulab Kaur’. Kavishris or ballads held across Punjab in the evenings have taken her story to the common people.