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“What is our name? Ghadar. What is our work? Ghadar. Where will be the Revolution? In India. The time will come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink.”
-Kartar Singh Sarabha
On April 23, 1918, in a San Francisco courthouse, 32 defendants of Indian, German, and American descent sat in silence during the last day of their trial.
In the moments after the closing arguments, Ram Singh pulled out a gun and shot his former comrade, Ram Chandra. Ram Singh was then shot by a US Marshal. The New York Post (Sunday, April 28, 1918)
In the early 1900s, thousands of Punjabis left India to search for opportunity in the US. As experienced farmers, many found jobs in California.
A few made it into universities like UC Berkeley. These men, such as Tarak Nath Das and Sohan Singh Bhakna, were molded by conflicting narratives. They were inspired by the story of American revolution, but the racism they experienced made them see that Americans didn’t support the struggle of their people. The Stockton Gurdwara, where the Ghadar Party was started. On New Year’s Eve in 1913, they met at the Stockton Gurdwara and founded the Ghadar Party, a secular group dedicated to armed revolution for independence.
“We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism.”
Gandhi and Annie Besant
In 1914, the Congress Party of India, lead by Gandhi and Annie Besant, gave its full support to England in World War I, leading to the conscription of more than a million Indian troops.
The Ghadar Party opposed the shedding of Indian blood for the British empire and began to spread its own message through pamphlets and in its weekly paper, The Ghadar.
Ghadar Pamphlet
A few also began to organize more seriously.
In 1917, Dr. Chandan Chakravarty and others finalized a plot with the German consulate in San Francisco.
Germany, interested in destabilizing England, would supply funds for arms.
Ghadar men would get them to India.
The plot was thwarted when British intelligence decoded an encrypted message.
Popular Mechanics article about the code break
Chakravarty and Chandra confessed and made deals, leading an angry Ram Singh to shoot Chandra (he was killed before he got to Chakravarty).
Though he made a deal, Chakravarty still defended his actions:
“We in India are endeavoring to do just as America did in 1776. While George Washington was struggling at home, Benjamin Franklin was seeking aid in France.”
credit- https://medium.com/@soodsandeep/the-hindu-german-conspiracy-6140cd603417
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