Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s3.t4: The Ghadar Party
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c14.s3.t4
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The Ghadar Party
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One of the most active Indian political organisations in Republican China was the Ghadar Party, also known as the Hindustani Ghadar Party. The Ghadar Party was founded by Indian workers and intellectuals in North America in 1913 with the aim of overthrowing British colonial rule in India through force of arms. The Ghadar Party recruited Indians to go back to India to take part in the struggle, publicised the cause of Indian freedom through their publications and mobilisation activities, and also organised financial support and supply of arms and ammunition to send back to India. They successfully utilised the revolutionary conditions prevailing in China and the anti-imperialist sentiment they found there to establish a base for their activities in China, from the time of the first World War through the 1930s. They found particularly strong support among hundreds of Indian soldiers and policemen stationed in Hong Kong and China’s treaty ports, who formed a large proportion of the Indian community in China in this period.
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In the first phase of their activities in China around the time of World War I, the Ghadar Party focussed on their aim of organising an armed uprising in India. They actively mobilised among the large number of Indian soldiers and policemen who formed a part of the British armed forces in Hong Kong and China, urging them to go back to India and fight. Since it was not easy to approach the soldiers’ barracks, they regularly used to contact them in the gurudwaras or places of worship of the Sikhs in China. They also used to bring out a publication known as ‘*Ghadar*’ (revolt), which circulated widely among these Indians.
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The other aim of the Ghadar Party in China was to urge unity among Indians and Chinese against their common imperialist oppressors. An early poem in their publication ‘*Ghadar ki Gunj*’ translates as follows: “Oh Brother, do not fight in a war against the Chinese. Beware of the enemy. He should not deceptively instigate you to fight your Chinese brothers. The enemy splits brothers and makes them kill each other. The people of Hind, China and Turkey are real brothers.” This makes them one of the earliest Indian political organisations to openly denounce the British practice of using Indians in their wars against the Chinese people. Records show that they received definite support from various sympathetic Chinese, including some leading Chinese political figures of the time.
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After the suppression of their first attempt to launch an armed uprising in India, the Ghadar Party reorganised itself. A new phase of their activities was launched in China. In 1925, a group of Ghadar activists accompanied the exiled Indian revolutionary Raja Mahendra Pratap to China from North America. This group managed to set up active bases in Shanghai, Beijing, Hankou and other places. As the British authorities sought to harass and persecute them, they repeatedly had to shift their headquarters. In Shanghai, they set up their headquarters in the office of the General Labour Union in Zhabei, while in Beijing they set up a Ghadar Ashram. They also began publication of a fortnightly journal, ‘*Ghadar Dhandora*’, in the Gurmukhi script to reach out to the large number of Punjabis in China. The revolutionary upsurge in China in the 1925-27 period was very favourable for their activities. The Ghadar Party again strongly condemned the British attempts to use Indian forces to shoot down Chinese protesters. One of the articles in ‘*Ghadar Dhandora*’, entitled - The Duties of the Indian Army in China, explained to the Indian soldiers that - “The dutiful sons of China are fighting for the freedom of their country. The freedom of India and the freedom of China have a close connection with each other. With the freedom of China, the day of the freedom of India will draw near. It is the duty of Indians to help the Nationalist Party of China so that they may have the pleasure of seeing India free.” The propaganda of the Ghadar Party played a key role in the refusal of some detachments of Indian soldiers and policemen to fire on Chinese in this period.
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From the 1930s, the Ghadar Party in China faced difficulties with relentless British persecution and the deportation of some of its leaders, along with dwindling patronage from Chinese political forces. Nevertheless, they continued to remain active at some level in China until World War II.
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(*Madhavi Thampi*)