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Garma
Garam More |
A Saga of Sacrifice & Struggle |
Gadar Party - 2In Oregon a meeting of the Indians was held in Portland in 1912 at which the Hindustani Association was formed which ultimately turned into GADAR PARTY. Sohn Singh Bhakna and Bhai Udham Singh Kasel were laid off from their jobs and they went to Astoria, Oregon to see their friend Bhai Kesar Singh. There a branch of the party was opened with Bhai Kesar Singh, Munshi Karim Bakhsh and Shri Munshi Ram as President, Secretary and Treasurer respectively. Only five or six meetings were held when G. D. Kumar, who was to start an Urdu weekly paper "The India", fell sick and the paper could not be started. During this time Lala Tkakar Dass (Dhuri) came to Portland to see Sohan Singh Bhakna and Kanshii Ram and advised them to send for Lala Hardyal and entrust him the work of running the paper and Lala Hardyal also agreed to it. He however, along with Bhai Parmanand reached St. John, Oregon in the last week of March, 1913. A meeting of the Association was called and representatives from other cities were invited to attend. It was decided in the meeting that the Hindustani Association's branches should be Headquartered in San Francisco California. Plans were also made to open branches in other additional cities. The office Headquarters at San Francisco was to be named as "GADAR ASHRAM" or "UGANTER ASHRAM." And the party to be known as "Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast." The other important decision of the meeting was to use force to overthrow the foreign rule in India. The earlier aims of industrial and agricultural development and education and ending of foreign exploitation in India gave place to one single aim of ending foreign rule through force. At the end of the meeting, the following resolutions were adopted: 1.
The organization be named as "Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast;" In almost every country there existed a branch or branches of the GADAR PARTY. Whereas in countries, other than those British-ruled, these branches were working openly, in British-ruled countries they worked underground.
Causes of the failure of the Gadar Party:
1. The party was only one and half years old and was not fully established when the first World War broke out in 1914 and the Ghardrites had to declare war against the British rule in India without full preparation. 2. The Gadrites who had hurried homeward from America and other places were under the impression that the conditions in India were ripe for revolution but this was not true. Indian National Congress, Chief Khalsa Diwan (an organization of the Sikhs) Mahatma Gandhi, B. J. Tilak, etc. were in sympathy with the British cause in the war. The Punjabis were getting themselves recruited and fighting on the front. Prayers were performed in Gurdwaras, temples, mosques for the victory of the British. 3. The leaders of the Gadar Party were arrested the very moment they placed their feet on the Indian soil; it broke the backbone of the party. 4. Moreover, the arms and ammunitions which were to be received from outside countries could not reach India just like the supply loaded from San Diego (California) on 'Anlarson' was seized on the way. 5. Mr. Kirpal Singh's admission into the inner committee of Mr. Sarat Chandra Bose, directing the Gadar Party, was a mistake; as it was he who passed on every piece of information of the Gadar party to the British government including the date of rebellion. Source:
http://www.lib.ucdavis.edu/punjab/famous.html#movement Courtesy:
T.S. Sibia |
