World War I and Gadar movement – Meghalaya PCS Free Notes

World War I and Indian Nationalism

Increasing number of Indians from Punjab were emigrating to North America.
The British government thought that these emigrants would be affected by the idea of liberty. Hence, they tried to restrict emigration.
Tarak Nath Das, an Indian student in Canada, started a paper called Free Hindustan.
The Hindi Association was setup in Portland in May 1913.
Under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, a weekly paper, The Ghadar was started and a headquarters called Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Fransisco.
On November 1, 1913, the first issue of Ghadar was published in Urdu and on December 9, the Gurumukhi edition.
In 1914, three events influenced the course of the Ghadar movement:
- The arrest and escape of Har Dayal
- The Komagata Maru incident
- Outbreak of the first world war
Gharadites came to India and made several attempts to instill the Indian population to revolt. However, this was of no avail.
The Ghadar movement was very secular in nature.
Ghadar militants were distinguished by their secular, egalitarian, democratic and non-chauvinistic internationalist outlook.
The major weakness of the Ghadar leaders was that they completely under-estimated the extent and amount of preparation at every level – organizational, ideological, strategic, tactical, financial – that was necessary before an attempt at an armed revolt could be organized.
It also failed to generate an effective and sustained leadership that was capable of integrating the various aspects of the movement.
Another weakness was its almost non-existent organizational structure.
Some important leaders: Baba Gurmukh Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Rahmat Ali Shah, Bhai Parmanand and Mohammad Barkatullah.
Inspired by the Ghadar Party, 700 soldiers at Singapore revolted under the leadership of Jamadar Chisti Khan and Subedar Dundey Khan. The rebellion was crushed.
Other revolutionaries: Jatin Mukharjee, Rash Bihari Bose, Raja Mahendra Pratab, Lala Hardayal, Abdul Rahim, Maulana Obaidullah Sindhi, Champakaraman Pillai, Sardar Singh Rana and Madame Cama

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