*Kartar Singh Sarabha Being One Of the Most Active Member Of Ghadar Party*
Early Life
Kartar Singh Sarabha was born on 24th May 1896, in Sarabha Village of District Ludhiana to Mata Sahib Kaur and Mangal Singh. He lost his parents at an early age and was then brought up by his grandfather Sardar Badan Singh.
In the early ages of childhood, Kartar Singh Sarabha was enriched with the qualities of exponential leadership and courage. Because of this, his classmates and friends named him “AFLAATU“(person with sharp and extraordinary mind).
After completing basic education from Ludhiana, he went to the USA to pursue higher studies, in 1912 at the age of 15. But upon reaching the San Francisco; he was subjected to rigorous immigration check from the authorities. He felt humiliated by this attitude of Immigration Officials towards him as many Immigrants from other countries were allowed to pass after minor formalities. Upon enquiring from a fellow immigrant regarding this behavior from the authorities, the answer was India being a colony of British Empire was considered as a slave nation. This incident brought a major change into his life. Not only this, he also experienced that Indian Nationals were subject to racism, discrimination from the Civilians of US and Canada too and were treated no less than slaves. The root cause for this was only one- India being a colony of Britishers, they were considered as a slave nation. This sort of humiliation he faced in the western country was the major cause for his rebellion against the British Rule in India. He had a firm belief that nothing can be achieved by fighting for rights in Immigrant Country, the only way to change the mindset of the people here is to oust the British rule from India. Once the British rule is abolished, Indians will no longer be considered as a slave nation and the only way to throw the Britishers out of power from India is only through an armed rebellion.
Founding of Ghadar Party
Punjabi Immigrants from US and Canada formed the Ghadar Party in June, 1913.Kartar Singh Sarabha along with Lala Hardayal and Sohn Singh Bakhna were one of the important and founding members of the Ghadar Party. The Headquarter named Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Francisco.
Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha is regarded as one of the most prominent faces in the independence movements against the Britishers. Out of those, one such movement was the Ghadar Movement of which Sarabha was a part of. Ghadar means an armed rebellion against a particular Government. By leading a rebellion against the Britishers Kartar Singh Sarabha was martyred at the age of 19 years after being executed in the Lahore Conspiracy Trial on 16th November, 1915. Such was the impact of his martyrdom that it paved the way to lay the foundation of many Independence Movements against the British . Shaheed Bhagat Singh used to consider Kartar Singh Sarabha as his hero and would always keep a photo of his role model with him.
Early Life
Kartar Singh Sarabha was born on 24th May 1896, in Sarabha Village of District Ludhiana to Mata Sahib Kaur and Mangal Singh. He lost his parents at an early age and was then brought up by his grandfather Sardar Badan Singh.
In the early ages of childhood, Kartar Singh Sarabha was enriched with the qualities of exponential leadership and courage. Because of this, his classmates and friends named him “AFLAATU“(person with sharp and extraordinary mind).
After completing basic education from Ludhiana, he went to the USA to pursue higher studies, in 1912 at the age of 15. But upon reaching the San Francisco; he was subjected to rigorous immigration check from the authorities. He felt humiliated by this attitude of Immigration Officials towards him as many Immigrants from other countries were allowed to pass after minor formalities. Upon enquiring from a fellow immigrant regarding this behavior from the authorities, the answer was India being a colony of British Empire was considered as a slave nation. This incident brought a major change into his life. Not only this, he also experienced that Indian Nationals were subject to racism, discrimination from the Civilians of US and Canada too and were treated no less than slaves. The root cause for this was only one- India being a colony of Britishers, they were considered as a slave nation. This sort of humiliation he faced in the western country was the major cause for his rebellion against the British Rule in India. He had a firm belief that nothing can be achieved by fighting for rights in Immigrant Country, the only way to change the mindset of the people here is to oust the British rule from India. Once the British rule is abolished, Indians will no longer be considered as a slave nation and the only way to throw the Britishers out of power from India is only through an armed rebellion.
Founding of Ghadar Party
Punjabi Immigrants from US and Canada formed the Ghadar Party in June, 1913.Kartar Singh Sarabha along with Lala Hardayal and Sohn Singh Bakhna were one of the important and founding members of the Ghadar Party. The Headquarter named Yugantar Ashram was set up in San Francisco.
Working of Ghadar Party
Phase I ( USA & Canada )
The party issued their 1st newspaper ‘Ghadar’ on 1st Nov, 1913 from University of Berkley. Initially published in Urdu and later in Gurmukhi, the weekly Newspaper showed the true picture of the British Raj in India and simultaneously visioned the future prospects of India.
Kartar Singh Sarabha was the incharge of the Punjabi edition of the Ghadar. The newspaper highlighted the continuous atrocities committed by the authorities under the British Raj and fueled revolutionary ideas among Indian Immigrants which were mainly Punjabi.
The head of the paper carried a declaration, “Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman, (Enemy of English Rule)” and an exhortation,
‘O manly young men of India take to weapons quick’. The Gurmukhi editions carried, an injunction from the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh Ji of the Sikhs,” Jo Tau Prem Khelan ka Chao Sir Dhar Tali Gali Meri Aao” (If you have the passion to play the game of love (then) come with the head placed on the palm of your hand).
The other regular weekly features were,”Angreji Raaj ka Kacha Chittha” (A Balance sheet of the English Rule) and “Ankhon ki Gawahi” (Evidence of Statistics).
Phase II ( Hindustan )
Simultaneously, the party made plans to start a Ghadar (armed rebellion) against the Britishers, all they were waiting for was the perfect time and opportunity and it arrived when World War 1 broke out in 1914. Seeing it as a perfect opportunity Kartar Singh Sarabha with other associates decided to shift their base to their homeland and in October 1914, Kartar Singh Reached Calcutta. He and his associates met another revolutionary Rash Bihari Bose in Banaras and informed him about the plans of revolution and that 2000 members of Ghadar party were to be expected very soon.
But the incident of Komagata Maru and the Britishers getting informed of these plans from their spies led to several arrests of the Ghadarites and seizures of arms at the port by the government. But these incidents did not deter the determination of Kartar Singh and his fellows. The group now marched towards Punjab and focused on winning over the students, peasants and villagers by openly preaching and lecturing in favor of the Ghadar (armed rebellion). With the arms and ammunition not being able to be smuggled to India through ports, it was decided to resort to loot and dacoit the rich; particularly British loyalists and government treasuries in order to finance the purchase of Arms to lead the rebellion. A total of five such political dacoities were actually committed between 23 January and 3 February 1915.
Attempt to win over the Soldiers in the Army
Kartar Singh Sarabha also focused on mobilizing Indian soldiers in the British army to join the movement. Given the particular conception of revolt, “Go and awake the armies” was a regular refrain in the Ghadar propaganda. In the poems the call was frequently made direct to “Faujan Waleo” (O’ Men of the Armies). ‘Give (your) thought to it simple men’, the soldiers were told, ‘you have continued to fight and sacrifice your lives for the vested interests of the foreign oppressor, even as the white soldiers stayed aside. . . Are your lives worth only nine rupees (each)? . . . Must you remain slaves forever. . . . Fight for your freedom . . . Let’s not repeat the mistake of 1857'. The major support came from the two Units, the 23rd Cavalry at Lahore and 26th Infantry at Ferozepur. Harnam Singh of 26th Punjabi Regiment described the confidence and courage with which Kartar Singh Sarabha frequently visited them in their barrack, dressed as a Sadhu, a Sweeper or a Fakir. In a meeting on 12 February, 1915 it was decided that the uprising should start on 21 February. It was planned that after capturing the cantonments of Mian Mir and Ferozepur; Ambala and Delhi were to be prepared for the mutiny.
But the Betrayal by Kirpal Singh, who was a member of the Ghadar Party but from inside was a police informer got number of members arrested on 19 February by informing the government of the planned revolt and leaking all the information. As a result, the Government disarmed all the native soldiers and the rebellion failed. But Kartar Singh was successful in evading arrest.
After the failure of the rebellion, the members who had escaped arrest decided to leave India. Kartar Singh, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Jagat Singh and others went to Afghanistan. But on 2nd March, 1915 Kartar Singh came back with Harnam Singh Tundilat and Jagat Singh and made a last attempt to start rebellion. They went over to Chak №5 in Sargodha where there was a military stud and started propagating rebellion amongst the army men. But there Risaldar Ganda Singh had Kartar Singh Sarabha, Harnam Singh Tundilat, and Jagat Singh arrested from Chak №5, Lyallpur district.
Lahore Conspiracy Trial - April, 1915
Sarabha along with other members of the Ghadar Party was sent to trial at Lahore in what came to be called the Lahore Conspiracy case trial. Kartar Singh and many others were tried in the Lahore Conspiracy trial in April 1915 for their roles in the February plot.
When questioned about his role, Sarabha was defiant stating that it was his duty to get Indians to rebel against the British. When he was being tried on the charge of sedition, he took the entire blame upon himself. The Judge was astounded to see such a young boy behaving in such a non-chalant manner. In view of his tender age, he was advised to modify his statement, but the result was the very opposite of what was desired. When asked to appeal he retorted,
“Why should I? If I had more lives than one, it would have been a great honour to me to sacrifice each of them for my country.”
Sarabha was sentenced to death and was hanged at the Lahore Central Jail on 16 November 1915 along with 6 other members.
The names of the other members are Kartar Singh Sarabha, Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Jagat Singh, Surain Singh, Surain Singh -2 (Gilwali) , Bakhshish Singh (Gilwali)
Conclusion
Though Kartar Singh Sarabha and his fellow members were not successful in bringing the Ghadar against the Britishers, the fact that these people left the western shores of opportunity to return to their homeland and planned a rebellion in order to free India from the British Colonial rule generated a consciousness of the people towards their Homeland. The Britishers were able to crush the movement but could not crush their ideology. It led to uprising of many mutinies against the Britishers later on. Kartar Singh Sarabha became a symbol of National Hero in the eyes of the locals with specially Bhagat Singh who later also got martyred leading a rebellion against the Britishers considered Kartar Singh Sarabha as his role model. The Ghadar movement will always remain an important chapter in the phase of Indian Nationalism which shall never be forgotten
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