SFS 2nd Conference

SFS 2nd Conference

Monday, November 11, 2013

THE GHADAR CONTINUES…



“56 years have passed since the Ghadar of 1857, now there is urgent need of the second one…” -- Ghadar,  1 November, 1913

Above lines were published in the first issue of the Ghadar newspaper of the November 1913. April 2013 marks the birth centenary of the Hindustan Ghadar party, which was formed by the
Indians living in North America with the aim to liberate their country from the British imperialism. The Ghadar movement emerged as an opposition to our economic and political slavery. The Ghadarites were greatly influenced by the mutiny of 1857. The British exploited Indian agriculture and domestic industry for their own profits and this totally devastated the Indian economy. This economic downturn and exploitation of the Indians forced many poor and unemployed Indians to seek labor in the newly prospering cities of America and Canada. However, they encountered the similar problems on economic and social levels because they were treated as people coming from a British colony. The emigrants and labourers from the other countries met with the similar discrimination. Whereas the Japanese and Chinese governments raised voice in favour of the emigrants from their countries, there was no one to raise voice for the Indians. From here it became clear to them what it means to be a resident of free country. The ideas of revolution, equality and democracy in America enlightened the Indians that this freedom is very much related to the Indian freedom. This created the very base to enhance their political understanding. The history of the Ghadar movement is too enormous to cover in two or three pages. The Ghadar movement contributed formidably to the national liberation struggle.
Ghadar means “rebellion” or “revolt”. The movement did not emerge out of any romanticism or anarchism but it was an organized political movement. The seed of its birth were sown in 1907 with a leaflet “Circular-e-Azadi” and a magazine named “Free Hindustan” published by Taraknath Das in 1908. In the beginning of 1912, there was a large gathering in Portland where a party named ‘Hindi Association of Pacific Coast’ was unanimously formed with Sohan Singh Bhakna  as its President and Lala Hardyal as its General Secretary. Lala Hardyal was also the editor of the “Ghadar” newspaper. This movement has some popular leaders to its name for instance Gulab Kaur, Bhai Balwant Singh Khurdpur, Harnam Singh Sahri, Taraknath Das, Bhai Jawala Singh, Pandit Kanshi Ram, Bhai Bhagwan Singh, Ram Chandra, Maulavi Muhammad Barqtullah, Hussain Raheem, Kartar Singh Sarabha etc. The Ghadar movement tried to organise the Indians living in different cities of America and Canada to unite for Indian independence.
Ideology of the Ghadar movement: Under the able leadership of Lala Hardyal, the party started publishing the newspaper ‘Ghadar’ from November 1, 1913 to organize Indians. This played a significant role in popularizing the movement.  Initially, the newspaper was published in Urdu. Subsequently, it started publishing in Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, and Nepali. The first issue contained the fourteen points describing how the British rule is responsible for the terrible condition of the Indians. From the beginning, there was consensus on this view that independence cannot be gained through appeals or petitions but only through an armed rebellion on a large scale by mobilizing people to get rid of the imperialist leeches. They were clear that the Indians should accept nothing less than ‘complete independence’. They gave the slogan to end the British rule completely. They put forth the concept of true and genuine nationalism and also implemented it. The leaders of Indian National Congress, according to them, instead of fighting for ‘Inqlab’ but were ready to make small compromises and were only limited to reforms.
Despite of the fact that the majority of its members were of Punjabi origin, the biggest achievement of the Ghadar movement was to aim for the freedom of the all Indian people. As the movement was influenced by the worldwide national liberation struggles, it went beyond the issues of religion, caste, race, and regionalism to include Punjabi, Bengalis, Tamils and Marathi revolutionaries at the same time. According to its constitution, religion was considered a private affair and anyone, who believes in caste or untouchability, cannot be a member of Ghadar party.
As the British government was fighting to sustain during the world war in 1914, the Ghadarites took it as an opportunity to rebel against them with the help of the Indian army. Nearly 8000 Ghadarites reached India in 1916 to organize a revolt. However, the British government issued an ordinance to crush the returning Ghadarites and other revolutionaries. This maintained that the government could arrest any person coming from outside even if he/she is an Indian citizen. The passengers of Komagata maru became the first victims of this ordinance. The ship had 356 passengers who were not allowed to land in Canada. Most of the passengers were arrested on their return to India and more than 40 were killed in firing at Calcutta. However, nearly 2000 Ghadarites escaped arrest. Kartar Singh Sarabha was one among them.  Later on, they organized the rest of the Ghadarites and contacted other Indian revolutionaries to make arrangements for revolt. They started making detachments in the British Indian army to organize revolt. Contrary to the first plan, the date was changed to 19th February as the British government came to know the earlier plans. However, the second date was also leaked by informer Kirpal Singh. The British disarmed the affected regiments and the troops favouring the Ghadarites faced court martial. British government severely crushed and thwarted the movement. Hundreds of Ghadarites were hanged while many more were put into prisons.
Even when the movement was thwarted, they were still determined and proceeded ahead after analyzing the situation. The Russian revolution of 1917 made a huge impact on them where the Communist Party established the State of workers after ending the Czarist dictatorship. Many Indians were sent to Russia to get ideological and military training from there. After their return, the Ghadar party started a newspaper “Kirti” whose slogan was: Workers of the World, Unite. This leaflet chose the path of continuous struggle against the British government with the aim to unite the labourers and peasants. It exposed the policies of the government and supported all the people who were struggling on different fronts.
Relevance of Ghadar today: The saga of Ghadar is essentially a story to relate the national liberation with equality, justice and emancipation from exploitation and oppression. Today, when the unemployment and inflation has crossed all barriers, when the economic condition of the people is constantly deteriorating and youth in huge numbers is moving abroad in search of employment opportunities, peasantry committing suicides under the burden of debt, for the workers the matter of bread and butter is the sole question and the question of education and health facilities is not even in the frame and the government is exploiting the people in the same manner as the British did, it is paramount to remember and learn from the Ghadar legacy. Even after 100 years, the Ghadar movement is a source of inspiration for all the Indians who want to change society in favour of the masses. The dream of Ghadarites is still incomplete. Today when the natural resources of the country are being sold to the foreign and Indian corporate sectors under the name of liberalization, privatization, and globalization, the relevance of the Ghadar becomes even more pronounced.
The Ghadar movement was not limited to liberate the country from the clutches of British imperialism instead the Ghadar martyrs struggled for such a society in which people will not be divided on the lines of religion, caste, race or color. They gave the message of equality and wanted end of exploitation in society. Even today when Casteism one of the base of exploitation and oppression and the political parties are dividing people on issues of religion and caste. Today, such a reactionary politics is branded as nationalism which under the name of ‘development’ is selling away the natural resources and the laboring power of Indian masses. On the other hand, any voice that is raised against State oppression is stamped as anti-national. It is clear that the present reality is drastically different from what the Ghadar martyrs dreamt of. In such a scenario, Ghadar again connects us to the real essence of nationalism that lies in struggling for the rights of the exploited and oppressed. Instead of only emotionally reciting about bravery, martyrdom, and sacrifice of Ghadarites we should understand their dreams, thoughts and ideology of those patriots. The struggles of Adivasis for their life, or the struggle of the peasants deep under debt, or the unemployed struggling for jobs or the workers struggling for their basic rights are just the personification of the same struggle. The saga of the Ghadar needs to be repeated till it reaches its mission. Till then the Ghadar continues…..