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The Hindu
03-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Veterinarian Rana Preet Gill revives memories of the Ghadar movement in her new book
When veterinary officer with Punjab government, Rana Preet Gill went on a vacation to the Andamans in 2019, she saw a statue of Pt Ram Rakha Bali in the park outside the Cellular Jail. What hit her most was how little she knew about the man associated with the Mandalay conspiracy case, wherein members of the Ghadar Party were accused of conspiring to incite rebellion against British rule in India, among troops in Mandalay and other parts of Burma, in a series of trials in 1916 and 1917. 'I felt ashamed; I hail from Hoshiarpur, the same village as Bali in Punjab and hardly had any knowledge about the contribution of this Ghadar revolutionary,' she says. After returning home, Rana Preet began researching and seamlessly it led her on a journey to write The Ghadar Movement: A Forgotten Struggle, published by Penguin Viking. Several lesser-known revolutionaries of the Ghadar Movement find mention in the book, replete with rich anecdotes and in-depth research. 'I was intrigued by Ram Rakha, who went on a hunger strike and sacrificed his life. It aroused my curiosity about the Mandalay Conspiracy and I met many historians and gathered information. The research led me to the Ghadar Movement and the book was born out of my love for the martyrs. The library in Jalandhar, built by the Gadharites, is invaluable,' says Rana Preet. There were few books on members of the Ghadar Party,including a few by Bhagat Singh. Rana Preet decided to make the stories accessible. 'A majority of the literature available is academic and out of bounds for common readers,' she says. Her experience of writing two novels earlier motivated her to attempt this complex subject. . It took Rana Preet five years to complete the manuscript. The 38-chapter narrative, spanning 244 pages, is lucid, beginning with Bombay, Bengal, and Punjab under British Rule. It sets the tone with tales of bravery and transitions to the exodus of the Punjab peasantry to far-flung places including Burma, Malaya, Singapore, China, Iran, Egypt, and East Africa before exploring Canada and America. Stories about Sohan Singh Bhakna and Pandit Kanshi Ram are well constructed. Rana Preet is at her best when writing about the revolutionaries in exile- Shyamaji Krishnavarma, who owned the India House at 9, Queen's Wood, Highgate; Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama, Ramnath Puri, a bank clerk from Lahore; Taraknath Das, who went abroad to master the art of revolution; Guru Dutt Kumar, who operated from Canada; Pandurang Khankhoje and Abdul Hafiz Mohammed Barakatullah `Bhopali', who was proficient in Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, English, German and Japanese. Barakatullah travelled to England, America, Japan and was said to be a great advocate of Hindu-Muslim unity. Rana Preet highlights the allure and appeal of studying abroad during those times. Jawala Singh Thatthiyan, a 'prosperous potato farmer' near California, was at the forefront, offering scholarships to meritorious students. The scholarships began in 1912 and provided a monthly stipend of $ 50 in addition to study materials and travel expenses. The chapter on Lala Har Dayal, described as the Face of Ghadar, is one the most engaging. Inspired by the `Lion of Punjab', Lala Lajpat Rai, Lala Har Dayal left for England on a British Government scholarship in 1905 at the age of 21 and returned to India in 1908. 'After India attained independence, the Ghadar Party was officially disbanded. The premises on 5 Wood Street was handed over to the government of India marking the end of an era of revolution. But the spirit of Ghadar stayed alive. A living, breathing, formless, fiery spirit with a heart and soul,' says Rana Preet.
Hindustan Times
11-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Unplanned solo trips can be food for soul
With 10% of battery charge left in my phone, I sat sulking at the Jalandhar bus stand. Bus operations to Chandigarh were to resume 10 hours later at 5pm. I wondered what to do with the time on hand. Last December, I had chosen to set myself free from the routine and went to visit a friend in Kapurthala. It was a one-day trip and I was supposed to return the next morning. We were having fun until the news of a Punjab bandh called by farmers from 9am to 6pm the next day flashed on TV. Hoping to dodge the protest, I decided to take the bus back to Chandigarh at 7am. My friend dropped me at the Jalandhar bus stand before heading to work in the misty morning. To my surprise, not a single bus was running. I waited an hour only to be told that there would be no bus service till the evening. Going back to Kapurthala didn't seem practical with my friend off to work. In the hurry to catch the morning bus, I had even forgotten the phone charger. Sitting at the bus stand was the last thing I wanted to do that winter morning. So, I made a call to another friend and asked him about the places I could visit in the city. Of all the places he mentioned, I chose to go to the Ghadar Movement Museum simply because it was a kilometre away from the bus stand. The museum building, painted in red and white, looked serene with hardly any visitors. On the left stood a bookshop and on entering the premises, I found a library with a few students studying in scattered corners. In the museum, I met Ravinder Kumari Kochhar, a lady in her late eighties, wearing a green scarf on her white hair. She gave me a guided tour of the museum, telling me about Kartar Singh Sarabha, Lala Har Dayal, and all prominent figures of the Ghadar Party, who had envisioned an independent country for their people, free of any discrimination and had sacrificed their life for the cause. Seeing the pictures of sacrifices, hardships and the Komagata Maru ship, there was a subtle realisation of what freedom had cost our forefathers. With much zeal, my elderly guide narrated the story behind each picture. Her voice was as vibrant as the red colour in a 'Ghadar di Gunj' poster. As she held my hand during the tour, she reminded me of my grandmother who would often take our support to climb stairs. The lady was compassionate enough to help me with the charger. As I put my phone to charge, she took me to her room on the first floor which was full of pictures of her family. On top of the wall stood a flag of the Communist party and a photo of Stalin. She told me how she had devoted her life to the nation and chosen not to marry. Having shown all the pictures, she took me to the cafeteria. The food was kept on the table, each person serving themselves and washing their plate afterwards. It was a simple meal that felt like home. The lady bid me adieu with a warm hug, and I left for my next destination, the Tripurmalini Shakti Peeth Temple. Like Harmandar Sahib, the temple is surrounded by water. I sat beside it, letting the still water seep calmness in me. Having watched the sunset, I made my way back to the bus stand. Gladly, buses had started plying and soon I was on my way home, wiser and more grateful. The writer is a correspondent with Hindustan Times, Chandigarh.
New Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Immigrants, rebels, freedom fighters
Should one write history just for academic study, or should it be written with common people in mind? For author Rana Preet Gill, the aim of writing The Ghadar Movement: A Forgotten Struggle (Penguin) was to make a larger Indian audience, and not just Punjabis, understand the Ghadar Party's history and the importance of what they did more than 100 years ago. 'I wanted more and more people from across the nation to connect with this important chapter of Indian history. Hence, I wrote a narrative history, rather than an academic history, and emphasised storytelling. Many Ghadarites from places such as Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar joined the movement. Not many of today's generation are aware of them, at the most they are shadowy figures,' she says. Origin story Divided into 38 chapters, the book traces the party's origin and the conditions that led to its birth. 'In search of a better future, many poor Punjabis from peasant families moved to places like Canada and London. They also came into close contact with several Indian revolutionaries there; it was also their first brush with political ideas such as Liberalism and Marxism. Educated Punjabis such as Lala Har Dayal met revolutionaries like Shyamji Krishnavarma and VD Savarkar. Savarkar inducted Har Dayal in his group Abhinav Bharat,' she adds. The party & a newspaper It was in 1912 that Punjabi peasants, exiled revolutionaries, and students joined hands to form the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast (what the Ghadar Party was first called) in Portland, United States. Sohan Singh Bhakna was its first president, GD Kumar was the secretary, and Kanshi Ram, the treasurer. The organisation advocated armed resistance. Lala Har Dayal and his close aide Bhai Paramanand joined the organisation a year later. The organisation not only focused on bringing an end to British rule on the Indian subcontinent, but also worked towards the abolition of casteism. Religion for them was a private matter, and any show of religious symbols was discouraged among its members. To spread its ideas among the masses, the organisation brought out a newspaper, The Ghadar (in Urdu and Punjabi in Gurumukhi script). 'It became extremely popular, and it gave a call to Indians living in the US to join the anti-British movement,' says Gill. Rise and decline May 23, 1914, is a landmark date in Ghadarite history. Gurdit Singh, an Indian businessman, chartered the Komagata Maru, a Japanese ship, to transport 376 Indian passengers (predominantly Sikhs) to Canada, hoping to circumvent Canada's restrictive immigration policies. The ship was denied permission and the aftermath was brutal. Many Indian immigrants, working as informers in the Canadian immigration department, were murdered, says Gill. Hopkins, an Anglo-Indian working for the immigration department, was assassinated by Mewa Singh, a Ghadar activist in Vancouver. Party members eventually headed towards India to initiate a full-fledged struggle against the British, but many were arrested. 'The Gharadites did not make secrecy a part of revolutionary tactics, and hence, it was easy for the British to take them down,' says the author. 'Its senior leaders were arrested. Besides, a section of activists in India also started dacoity in Punjab, which made them unpopular.' Can the Ghadar movement be seen as a 'failure' when it stirred the revolutionary spirit among many Indians, questions Gill. Bhagat Singh was one of the revolutionaries it inspired. 'Singh was inspired by Kartar Singh Sarabha, an important member of the Ghadar Party. He used to keep Sarabha's picture in his pocket,' she says.
