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Guran Ditt Kumar, also known as G.D. Kumar Singh, was an Indian revolutionary associated with the pioneers of the Gadhar movement involved in the Indo-German conspiracy during the First World War.
Guran Ditt Kumar (born ? – died ?), was a native of Bannu on the North-West Frontier Province, now in Pakistan. "Guran Ditta" is Punjabi for "Given By the Gurus" - a comparatively common name in the Sikh community, so his actual name is more likely to be Guran Ditta Singh.
In 1893 the 2,640 km long Durand line was created to separate British India from the rebel tribes in Afghanistan.
Kumar began his working life as an apprentice to an Indian photographer at Rawalpindi.
Attracted by the National College at Kolkata with Sri Aurobindo as principal, in 1907 he joined it as a teacher of Hindi and Urdu. Earlier he had come to know Taraknath Das and Surendramohan Bose. Moreover, the Maratha Lodge, where he resided, was a boarding-house frequented by other revolutionary suspects of the time. Arrested in Mumbai, in February 1909, Ganesh Savarkar, brother of Vinayak Savarkar, was found in possession of "60 pages of closely typed matter in English, which proved to be a copy of the same bomb manual (…) found in the Manicktolla garden [in Kolkata]. Savarkar's copy was more complete, as it contained 45 sketches of the bombs, mines and buildings to illustrate the text." (Ker, p182).
On 31 October 1907, Kumar landed in Victoria, B.C., and was received by Taraknath Das to look after a grocery store. In February 1908, the Canadian Press accused him of directing a seditious organisation among the Sikh labourers in British Columbia; he repudiated this charge in a letter published in the Punjabee of Lahore on 5 November 1908, claiming himself to be a Sikh, signing himself G.D. Kumar Singh. Constantly visiting Taraknath Das in Seattle, in August 1909, he settled there. In November he opened at 1632, 2nd Avenue West, Fairview, in Vancouver, a hostel called the Swadesh Sewak ('Servant of the Motherland') : in addition to a night school of Shashida type, to teach English and Mathematics, the building was used for the office and the press of the a monthly paper of the same name that he published in Gurumukhi, broadly reflecting the objectives of Free Hindustan edited by Taraknath Das. "Its tone generally became more and more objectionable, and as it was addressed principally to the Sikhs in the Indian Army in their own language, and was being sent out to India in considerable numbers (…) Its importation into India was prohibited in March 1911, under the Sea Customs Act." (Ker, pp230–231). With a new immigration law passed on 9 May 1910, when the condition of Indians in British Columbia further deteriorated, Kumar as the Secretary of the local Hindustani Association wrote, on 28 June, to the Prime Minister of Canada to protest against the unfair move. Availing of Tarak's return to Vancouver in September, they utilised the temper of the Indians to organise among them a revolutionary movement. (Bose, p53). These grievances were to bring about much trouble in the future years. For example, reports of two meetings held at Vancouver on 24 April and at Victoria on 15 May 1910, Kumar in the May issue of his paper discussed: (1) The law creates an unfair distinction between the European and the Indian subjects of the British Government. (2) Indians are subjected to an additional disgrace in that even Japanese are admitted more readily than they are. (3) Only Indians who have come direct from an Indian port are admitted: two examples of the working of this rule are given. (4) As there is no direct route from India to Canada, the above rule operates to prevent immigration altogether. (5) Other countries, e.g., the United States, have laws to prohibit the immigration of Chinese and other labourers; but Canada prohibits even the immigration of Indian merchants and students as in the case of Jogesh Chandra Misra who was sent out by a Kolkata association as a student, was prevented from landing, and is now studying at Seattle University. (6) Even the members of the families of Indians owning land in Canada have to show 200 dollars each on landing. (7) The present law is a restriction on the liberty of the subject. (8) Other British subjects get a vote after six months' residence, but Indians do not. No doubt such anti-Indian distinctions exist in America, Germany or Japan; the result of the Canadian law is that Indians have to admit with regret that they are better off in foreign countries than in British territory. (Ker, pp231–232). The paper came to an end in 1911. In spite of a considerably moderate tone than that of the Free Hindustan, Kumar as much as Das raised the presumption of sedition, as confirmed by the discovery early in 1911 that they distributed, among other harmful publications, the Bande Mataram published by Madame Cama and the Talvar by Virendranath Chattopadhyay from Paris. They drew the attention of Sikhs in America and India to the "vulgar effusions" of certain Canadian papers on the immigration question.
They circulated, for instance, the reprint of an article quoted by the Aryan in its issue of March–April 1912 : "The smoke-coloured Hindu, exotic, unmixable, picturesque, a languid worker and a refuge for fleas, we will always have with us, but we don't want any more of him. We don't want any Hindu women. We don't want any Hindu children. It's nonsense to talk about Hindu assimilation. The Sikh may be of Aryan stock; I always thought he was of Jewish extraction. He may be near-white though he does not look it. But we know him, and don't want any more of him. British Columbia cannot allow any more of the dark meat of the world to come to this province. To deport these British subjects from India would be the wisest thing. These Sikhs are far too obtrusive. They are of no use to the country. British Columbia would be a hundred times better off without them. Certainly no more of them must be allowed to come." Both Das and Kumar with the help of Surendramohan Bose and Hussain Rahim had set to bring together the various Indian communities in terms of a united action, until it reached the climax in the Gadhar organisation. Bose had been sent to Japan by the Scientific and Industrial Association of Kolkata in 1906. On reaching Canada at the end of 1907, Bose had informed Sri Aurobindo on 26 December, that Bengalis were wrong in hoping for Japanese help in their nationalist movement, although they had some sympathisers. Specialised in chemistry, he also toured as a lecturer on Indian subjects. In 1913 he became the general secretary of the Hindustan Association of the USA. Shortly before leaving America, in 1913, from Chicago, he sent to Harnam notes and formulae of his own for making bombs. In January 1914, Bose wrote again from Paris along with "a valuable copy of the process used by the Russian Revolutionists..." Having visited revolutionaries in Paris and Geneva, Bose reached India in February 1914. Harnam Singh (of Sahri) was the other important revolutionary who shared with them this patriotic task : a former trooper of the 4th Cavalry in India, he had gone to China in 1904 and, three years later, reached Canada with Kumar. In 1908-1909 he attended school at Seattle, and went to Vancouver as Kumar's guest. In a letter to Das, in July 1913, Kumar described Harnam as the leader of the revolutionary movement in Vancouver. Owing to his friendship with Harnam, Baba Gurdit Singh of the Komagata Maru affair knew well this zealous group and, prior to his expedition, had received from Das names and addresses of the leading Jugantar figures like Atulkrishna Ghose and Satish Chakravarti who worked under Jatindranath Mukherjee. Harnam was deported from San Francisco on 26 September 1914.
While the Gadhar ramifications extended widely, in May 1913, Kumar sailed from San Francisco for the Philippine Islands. He plainly expressed the object of this trip when he wrote Taraknath Das : "I am going to establish a base at Manila (P.I.) forwarding Depôt, supervise the work near China, Hongkong, Shanghai. Professor Barakatullah is all right in Japan." (Ker, p237). According to Ker's report, "he was engaged in supervising the work of the Ghadr Party in the Far East. Amongst the correspondence of Harnam Singh of Sahri were several letters from G.D. Kumar showing that he was working hard on behalf of the cause. He was in constant touch with Bhagwan Singh and Barakatullah and was collecting money for the Ghadr campaign and was sending to Har Dayal. He afterwards went to Japan, where he busied himself meeting Ghadr parties passing through Yokohama on the way to India." (p425).
In the Special List of Record Group 118 (Records of the U.S. Attorney) preserved in San Francisco, and in San Francisco Chronicle of 19 January 1918, we find report of Taraknath Das's trial as defendant. Kumar, too, was mentioned during the 1917-18 San Francisco Trial consisting of 'The German Hindu Conspiracy' and 'Violations of U.S. Neutrality 1913-20.' He was accused of having "formed party in Shanghai in 1914. Associate of German agent Mueller and of Scrinivas (sic!) R. Wagel. Sent arms and ammunition to revolutionary agents in India." No further information is available on this rebel's later life.
The Ghadar Movement was an early 20th century, international political movement founded by expatriate Indians to overthrow British rule in India. Many of the Ghadar Party founders and leaders, including Sohan Singh Bhakna, would go on and join the Babbar Akali Movement and would help it in logistics as a party and publishing its own newspaper in the post-World War 1 era. The early movement was created by revolutionaries who lived and worked on the West Coast of the United States and Canada, but the movement later spread to India and Indian diasporic communities around the world. The official founding has been dated to a meeting on 15 July 1913 in Astoria, Oregon, and the group would splinter into two factions the first time in 1914, with the Sikh-majority faction known as the “Azad Punjab Ghadar” and the Hindu-majority faction known as the “Hindustan Ghadar.” The Azad Punjab Ghadar Party’s headquarters and anti-colonial newspaper publications headquarters would remain in the Stockton Gurdwara located in Stockton, California, whereas the Hindustan Ghadar Party’s headquarters and Hindustan Ghadar newspaper would relocate to be based in nearby Oakland, a suburb of San Francisco, California.
The Komagata Maru incident involved the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru, on which a group of people from British India attempted to immigrate to Canada in April 1914, but most were denied entry and forced to return to Budge Budge, Calcutta. There, the Indian Imperial Police attempted to arrest the group leaders. A riot ensued, and they were fired upon by the police, resulting in some deaths.
Bagha Jatin or Baghajatin, born Jatindranath Mukherjee ; 7 December 1879 – 10 September 1915) was an Indian independence activist.
Mohamed Barakatullah Bhopali, known with his honorific as Maulana Barkatullah, was an Indian revolutionary from Bhopal. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itawra mohalla, Bhopal in what is today Madhya Pradesh, India. He fought from outside India, with fiery speeches and revolutionary writings in leading newspapers, for the independence of India. He did not live to see India independent. He died at San Francisco in 1927 and buried at Sacramento City Cemetery California. In 1988, Bhopal University was renamed Barkatullah University in his honour. He was also Prime Minister of first Provisional Government of India established at Afghanistan in 1915.
The Revolutionary movement for Indian Independence was part of the Indian independence movement comprising the actions of violent underground revolutionary factions. Groups believing in armed revolution against the ruling British fall into this category, as opposed to the generally peaceful civil disobedience movement spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi.
Jugantar or Yugantar was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence. This association, like Anushilan Samiti, started in the guise of suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman and many of them joined the Communist Consolidation in the Cellular Jail.
Barindra Kumar Ghosh or Barindra Ghosh, or, popularly, Barin Ghosh was an Indian revolutionary and journalist. He was one of the founding members of Jugantar Bengali weekly, a revolutionary outfit in Bengal. Barindra Ghosh was a younger brother of Sri Aurobindo.
Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, also known by his pseudonym Chatto, was a prominent Indian revolutionary who worked to overthrow the British Raj in India using armed force. He created alliances with the Germans during World War I, was part of the Berlin Committee organising Indian students in Europe against the British, and explored actions by the Japanese at the time.
Taraknath Das was an Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America and discussed his plans with Tolstoy, while organising the Asian Indian immigrants in favour of the Indian independence movement. He was a professor of political science at Columbia University and a visiting faculty in several other universities.
Jadu Gopal Mukherjee was a Bengali Indian revolutionary who, as the successor of Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin, led the Jugantar members to recognise and accept Gandhi's movement as the culmination of their own aspiration.
Kartar Singh Sarabha was an Indian revolutionary. He was 15-years old when he became a member of Ghadar Party; he then became a leading luminary member and started fighting for the 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.
Atulkrishna Ghosh was an Indian revolutionary, member of the Anushilan Samiti, and a leader of the Jugantar movement involved in Hindu German Conspiracy during World War I.
The Hindu–German Conspiracy(Note on the name) was a series of attempts between 1914 and 1917 by Indian nationalist groups to create a Pan-Indian rebellion against the British Empire during World War I. This rebellion was formulated between the Indian revolutionary underground and exiled or self-exiled nationalists in the United States. It also involved the Ghadar Party, and in Germany the Indian independence committee in the decade preceding the Great War. The conspiracy began at the start of the war, with extensive support from the German Foreign Office, the German consulate in San Francisco, and some support from Ottoman Turkey and the Irish republican movement. The most prominent plan attempted to foment unrest and trigger a Pan-Indian mutiny in the British Indian Army from Punjab to Singapore. It was to be executed in February 1915, and overthrow British rule in the Indian subcontinent. The February mutiny was ultimately thwarted when British intelligence infiltrated the Ghadarite movement and arrested key figures. Mutinies in smaller units and garrisons within India were also crushed.
The Ghadar Mutiny, also known as the Ghadar Conspiracy, was a plan to initiate a pan-India mutiny in the British Indian Army in February 1915 to end the British Raj in India. The plot originated at the onset of World War I, between the Ghadar Party in the United States, the Berlin Committee in Germany, the Indian revolutionary underground in British India and the German Foreign Office through the consulate in San Francisco. The incident derives its name from the North American Ghadar Party, whose members of the Punjabi community in Canada and the United States were among the most prominent participants in the plan. It was the most prominent amongst a number of plans of the much larger Hindu–German Mutiny, formulated between 1914 and 1917 to initiate a Pan-Indian rebellion against the British Raj during World War I. The mutiny was planned to start in the key state of Punjab, followed by mutinies in Bengal and rest of India. Indian units as far as Singapore were planned to participate in the rebellion. The plans were thwarted through a coordinated intelligence and police response. British intelligence infiltrated the Ghadarite movement in Canada and in India, and last-minute intelligence from a spy helped crush the planned uprising in Punjab before it started. Key figures were arrested, and mutinies in smaller units and garrisons within India were also crushed.
Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna was a Sikh revolutionary, the founding president of the Ghadar Party, and a leading member of the party involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915. Tried at the Lahore Conspiracy trial, Sohan Singh served sixteen years of a life sentence for his part in the conspiracy before he was released in 1930. He later worked closely with the Indian labour movement, devoting considerable time to the Kisan Sabha.
Vishnu Ganesh Pingle was an Indian revolutionary and a member of the Ghadar Party who was one of those executed in 1915 following the Lahore conspiracy trial for his role in the Ghadar conspiracy.
William Charles Hopkinson (1880–1914) was an Indian police officer and later an immigration inspector in the Canadian Immigration Branch in Vancouver, British Columbia, who is noted for his role in infiltration and intelligence on the Ghadarite movement in North America in the early 1900s.
Harnam Singh Saini was a notable Indian revolutionary who participated in Ghadar Conspiracy and was hanged by British colonial government on 16 March 1917 in Lahore for instigating revolt against the empire. He was tried under third Lahore Conspiracy Case trial.
Mewa Singh Lopoke was a Sikh activist in Canada who was a member of the Vancouver branch of the Ghadar Party, which called for the overthrow of British rule in India. On October 21, 1914, Mewa Singh murdered a Canadian immigration inspector, W. C. Hopkinson, a political act of violence for which he was executed by the Canadian government. In the eyes of Sikh Canadians, Mewa Singh's assassination of Hopkinson was a display of martyrdom, one which they commemorate annually.
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