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EMINENT GREWAL PERSONALITIES GADAR MOVEMENT-1

Dalvinder Singh Grewal

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Jan 3, 2010
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EMINENT GREWAL PERSONALITIES GADAR MOVEMENT-1
(On the special eve of Gadar Movement day 16 Nov 2022)

Dr. Dalvinder Singh Grewal
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1. Paper Gadar di goonj 2. Kartar Singh Sarabha 3. Hari Singh Usman 4. Bhai Randhir Singh

The Gadar Party, initially the Pacific Coast Hindustan Association, was formed on 15 July 1913 in the United States. It was an international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British Rule in India (25). The official founding has been dated to a meeting on 15 July 1913 in Astoria, Oregon, (26) with the Gadar headquarters and Hindustan Gadar newspaper based in San Francisco, California. Later, its headquarter was created at Yugantar Ashram in San Francisco. The Gadar Movement was built around the weekly paper The Gadar, which carried the caption on the masthead: Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman (an enemy of British rule). "Wanted brave soldiers", the Gadar declared, "to stir up rebellion in India. Pay-death; Price-Martyrdom; Pension-Liberty; Field of battle-India". The ideology of the party was strongly secular. "We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism", said Sardar Sohan Singh Bhakna, the key leader.

The first issue of The Gadar was published in San Francisco on 1 November 1913. Kartar Singh Grewal of Sarabha was on the editorial committee of the Gadar paper and one of the founders of the party. In the first issue, he wrote: "Today there begins 'Gadar' in foreign lands, but to our countrymen means, a war against the British Raj. What is our name? Gadar. What is our work? Gadar. Where will be the Revolution? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink." The party quickly gained support from Indian expatriates, especially in the United States, Canada, East Africa, and Asia. Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, some Gadar party members returned to Punjab to incite armed revolution for Indian Independence. From 1914 to 1917 Gadarites continued underground anti-colonial actions with the support of Germany and Ottoman Turkey, which led to a sensational trial in San Francisco in 1917. Gadarites smuggled arms into India and incited Indian troops to mutiny against the British. Kartar Singh Grewal of Sarabha had a stellar role in this freedom movement. Later 42 mutineers were executed following the Lahore Conspiracy Case trial.

Following the voyage of the Komagata Maru in 1914, a direct challenge to Canadian anti-Indian immigration laws, several thousand Indian residents in the United States sold their businesses and homes ready to drive the British from India. The British Government responded by passing anti-immigration laws. They had a very militant tone, as illustrated by this quote from Harnam Singh: 'Although Gadar publication such as independence Hindustan and revolutionary activities of Gadar Party against British rule continued from 5 Wood Street San Francisco, the place where now the Gadar Memorial has been built. The Founding members were Sohan Singh Bhakna (President), Kesar Singh (Vice-President), Baba Jawala Singh (Vice-President), Kartar Singh Sarabha (Editor, Punjabi Gadar), Pt. Kanshi Ram (Treasurer), Munshi Ram (Organizing Secretary), Lala Thaker Das (Dhuri) (Deputy Secretary), Lala Hardayal, Udham Singh, Bhai Parmanand, Tarak Nath Das, V. G. Pingle, Bhagwan Singh Gyanee, Santokh Singh (Gadarite), Balwant Singh (Gadarite), Rehmat Ali (Gadarite), Harnam Singh Tundilat, G. D. Verma, Nidhan Singh Chugha, Baba Chattar Singh Ahluwalia (Jethuwal), Baba Harnam Singh (Kahri Sahri), Mangu Ram Mugowalia(11)(12), Karim Bakhsh, Amir Chand, Sant Baba Wasakha Singh, Maulavi Barkatullah, Harnam Singh Saini, Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje, Ganda Singh, Karim Bux, Baba Prithvi Singh Azad, and Gulab Kaur.

Kartar Singh Sarabha (24 May 1896-16 November 1915) (25) was one of the leading Indian revolutionaries. Kartar Singh was born into a Grewal Jat Sikh family in Sarabha, a village near Ludhiana in Punjab. His father was Mangal Singh Grewal and his mother was Sahib Kaur. He was very young when his father died and his grandfather brought him up. After receiving his initial education in his village, Kartar Singh joined the Malwa Khalsa High School in Ludhiana. He studied there until 8th standard. Then he went to his uncle (father's brother) in Orissa and stayed there for over a year. (25) After coming back to his grandfather, his family decided to board him to the United States for higher education. He sailed to San Francisco in July 1912. He was supposed to get enrolled at University of Berkeley but the evidence that he did study there varies. A historical note by Baba Jwala Singh mentions that when he went to Astoria, Oregon in December 1912, he found Kartar Singh working in a mill factory. Some say that he studied in Berkeley, but the college did not find any record of enrollment with his name. (27)

His association with the Nalanda club of Indian students at Berkeley aroused his patriotic sentiments and he felt agitated about the treatment of immigrants from India, especially manual workers employed in the United States. (28)

Sohan Singh Bhakna, the founder of the Gadar Party, inspired Kartar Singh to campaign against British colonial rule for the sake of an independent country. Sohan Singh Bhakna called Kartar Singh "Baba Jarnail". He learned from Americans how to shoot a gun, and how to make detonating devices. Kartar Singh also took lessons for flying airplanes. He frequently spoke with other Indians, many of whom supported the colonial rule, on the need for India to become independent from British rule. (25)

When the Gadar party was founded in mid-1913 with Sohan Singh, a Sikh peasant from Bhakna village in the Amritsar district, as president and Lala Hardyal as secretary, Kartar Singh stopped his university work, moved in with Lala Hardyal and became his helpmate in running the revolutionary newspaper Gadar (revolt). He undertook the responsibility for printing the Gurmukhi edition of the paper. He composed patriotic poetry for it and wrote articles.

Kartar Singh Sarabha was 15 years old when he became a member of the Gadar Party. He then became a leading luminary member and started fighting for the Indian independence movement. He was one of the most active members of the movement. In November 1915 at Central Jail, Lahore, he was executed for his role in the movement when he was 19 years old. (26) On 15 July 1913, the Punjabi Indians of California assembled and formed the Gadar Party (Revolution Party). The aim of the Gadar Party was to get rid of British rule in India by means of an armed struggle. On 1 November 1913, the Gadar Party started printing a paper named Gadar, which was published in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujrati, and Pushto languages. Kartar Singh was quite heavily involved in the publishing of that paper. This paper was sent to Indians living in all countries throughout the world. Its purpose was to convince both Indians and the Indian diaspora to support the freedom movement. Within a short time, the Gadar Party became famous through The Gadar. It drew Indians from all walks of life.

With the start of World War I in 1914, British India became thoroughly engrossed in the Allied war effort. Thinking it to be a good opportunity, the leaders of the Gadar Party published the "Decision of Declaration of War" against the British in the issue of 'The Gadar' dated 5 August 1914. Thousands of copies of the paper were distributed among army cantonments, villages, and cities. Kartar Singh reached Calcutta via Colombo on board SS Salamin in October 1914 along with other Gadar leaders, Satyen Sen and Vishnu Ganesh Pingale, and a large number of Gadar freedom fighters. With a letter of introduction from Jatin Mukherjee the Jugantar leader, Kartar Singh and Pingle met Rash Behari Bose at Banaras to inform him that 20,000 more Gadar members were expected very soon (29). A large number of leaders of the Gadar Party were arrested by the government at the ports. In spite of these arrests, a meeting was held by members of the Gadar Party at Laudhuwal near Ludhiana in which it was decided to commit robberies in the houses of the rich to meet finance for armed action. Two Gadris, Waryam Singh and Bhai Ram Rakha, were killed in a bomb blast in one such raid (30, 31).

After the arrival of Rash Behari Bose at Amritsar on 25 January 1915, it was decided in a meeting on 12 February that the uprising should be started on 21 February. It was planned that after capturing the cantonments of Mian Mir and Ferozepur, the mutiny was to be engineered near Ambala and Delhi. (32)

BETRAYAL

Kirpal Singh, a police informer in the ranks of the Gadar Party, had a large number of members arrested on 19 February and informed the government of the planned revolt. The government disarmed the native soldiers and the revolt failed. (33) After the failure of the revolution, the members who had escaped arrest decided to leave India. Kartar Singh Sarabha, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Jagat Singh, and others were asked to go to Afghanistan and made a move toward that area. But Kartar's conscience did not permit him to run away when his comrades had been held. On 2 March 1915, he came back with two friends and went over to Chak No. 5 in Sargodha where there was a military stud farm, and started propagating rebellion amongst the army men. Risaldar Ganda Singh had Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh Tundilat, and Jagat Singh arrested from Chak No. 5, Lyallpur District. (34)

EXECUTION

All of these accused in the Conspiracy Case, for India's freedom who had worked long years and suffered privations, and sacrificed everything that man runs after, were executed in the Lahore Central Jail on 17 November 1915. In the Courtroom, as also standing before the gallow s the condemned men refused to accept their endeavor to be termed a 'conspiracy'. They contended that it was an open challenge to the foreigners who charged the patriots, those who were sacrificing everything for the freedom of their Motherland with the offense of sedition, of waging war against the King. Kartar Singh was not at all sorry for what he had done; rather he felt proud for enjoying the privilege of throwing out the challenge in the face of a lot of usurpers. He was really sorry about the outcome of their efforts. He averred that every 'slave' had a right to revolt and it could never be a crime to rise in defense of the primary rights of the sons of the very soil. When he was being tried on the charge of sedition, he took the entire blame upon himself. The Judge was astounded to see such a young boy behaving in such a nonchalant manner. In view of his tender age, he advised the young revolutionary to modify his statement, but the result was the very opposite of what was desired by him. When asked to appeal he retorted: "Why should I? If I had more lives than one, it would have been a great honor to me to sacrifice each of them for my country." (35, 36)

He was later sentenced to death and hanged in 1915. During the period of his detention in Lahore Central Jail, Kartar managed to get hold of some instruments. With their help, he wanted to cut the iron bars of his window and escape in the company with some other revolutionaries. The authorities learned about his designs well in time and seized the tools from underneath an earthen pitcher in his room and the plan was rendered abortive by the jail authorities. At the time of his execution, Kartar Singh was hardly nineteen years old. But such was his courage that in the course of his detention he gained 14 pounds of additional weight.

LEGACY

Bhagat Singh was inspired by him. "On Bhagat Singh’s arrest, a photo of Sarabha was recovered from him. He always carried this photo in his pocket. Very often, Bhagat Singh would show me that photograph and say, 'Dear mother, this is my hero, friend, and companion.' " said Bhagat Singh's mother. (35, 36) Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha, an Indian Punjabi-language biographical film on the revolutionary was released in 1977 (37)
 
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