113-715: See also: Hindu–German Conspiracy The Hindu–German Conspiracy 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
226-566: A Jugantar Party member and at the time one of the leading revolutionary figures in Bengal. The office of the 25-member committee at No.38 Wielandstrasse was accorded full embassy status. German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg authorized German activity against British India as World War I broke out in September 1914. Germany decided to actively support the Ghadarite plans. Using
339-763: A 1908 attempt on board a ship called the SS Moraitis which sailed from New York for the Persian Gulf , before it was searched at Smyrna . The Irish community later provided valuable intelligence, logistics , communication, media, and legal support to the German, Indian, and Irish conspirators. Those involved in this liaison, and later involved in the plot, included major Irish republicans and Irish-American nationalists like John Devoy , Joseph McGarrity , Roger Casement , Éamon de Valera , Father Peter Yorke and Larry de Lacey. These pre-war contacts effectively set up
452-662: A Ghadarite named Mathra Singh visited Shanghai to promote the nationalist cause amongst Indians there, followed by a visit to India in January 1914, when Singh circulated Ghadar literature amongst Indian soldiers through clandestine sources before leaving for Hong Kong . Singh reported that the situation in India was favorable for revolution. By October 1914, many Ghadarites had returned to India and were assigned tasks like contacting Indian revolutionaries and organizations, spreading propaganda and literature, and arranging to get arms into
565-704: A common umbrella under the leadership of Rash Behari Bose in North India, V. G. Pingle in Maharashtra , and Sachindranath Sanyal in Benares . A plan was made for a unified general uprising, with the date set for 21 February 1915. In India, unaware of the delayed shipment and confident of being able to rally the Indian sepoy , the plot for the mutiny took its final shape. Under the plans, the 23rd Cavalry in Punjab
678-569: A defecting Baltic-German agent under the alias " Oren ". The Maverick was seized, while in India, police destroyed the underground movement in Calcutta as an unaware Jatin proceeded according to plan to the Bay of Bengal coast in Balasore . He was followed there by Indian police and on 9 September 1915, he and a group of five revolutionaries armed with Mauser pistols made a last stand on the banks of
791-571: A head when the 1912 Delhi–Lahore Conspiracy , led by erstwhile Jugantar member Rash Behari Bose , attempted to assassinate the then- Viceroy of India , Charles Hardinge . In the aftermath of this event, the British Indian police made concentrated efforts to destroy the Bengali and Punjabi revolutionary underground. Though the movement came under intense pressure for some time, Rash Behari successfully evaded capture for nearly three years. By
904-539: A major platform for loyalists' demands for political liberalization and for increased autonomy. The nationalist movement grew with the founding of underground groups in the 1890s. It became particularly strong, radical and violent in Bengal and in Punjab , along with smaller but nonetheless notable movements in Maharashtra , Madras and other places of South India. In Bengal the revolutionaries more often than not recruited
1017-548: A million rifles . However, the deal fell through when they realized that the weapons offered were obsolete flintlocks and muzzle loaders . From China, Gupta went to Japan to try to procure arms and to enlist Japanese support for the Indian independence movement. However, he was forced into hiding within 48 hours when he came to know that the Japanese authorities planned to hand him over to the British. Later reports indicated he
1130-534: A network which the German foreign office tapped into as war began in Europe. Large-scale Indian immigration to the Pacific coast of North America took place in the 20th-century, especially from Punjab, which faced an economic depression . The Canadian government met this influx with legislation aimed at limiting the entry of South Asians into Canada and at restricting the political rights of those already in
1243-451: A pan-Islamic insurrection beginning in the tribal belt of north-west India . The Indo-German mission pressed Emir Habibullah to break from his neutral stance and open diplomatic relations with Germany, eventually hoping to rally the Emir to the German war effort. Habibullah Khan vacillated on the mission's proposals through much of the winter of 1915, hoping to maintain his neutral stance till
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#17327721270301356-630: A planter from Batavia , passed information about arms shipments from Shanghai to British agents after being captured. Maps of the Bengal coast were found on Kraft when he was initially arrested and he volunteered the information that these were the intended landing sites for German arms. Kraft later fled through Mexico to Japan where he was last known to be at the end of the war. Later efforts by Mahendra Pratap 's Provisional Government in Kabul were also compromised by Herambalal Gupta after he defected in 1918 and passed on information to Indian intelligence. By
1469-636: A previous stay in London, and his subsequent career in Japan put him at the heart of Indian political activities there. Myron Phelp, an acquaintance of Krishna Varma and an admirer of Swami Vivekananda , founded an "India House" in Manhattan , New York, in January 1908. Amidst a growing Indian student population, erstwhile members of the India House in London succeeded in extending the nationalist work across
1582-484: A strong and militant base in the wake of Komagata Maru . Har Dayal's extant group was found to have strong links with Rash Behari Bose, and were "cleaned up" in the wake of the Delhi bomb case. At the outbreak of the war, Punjab CID sent teams to Hong Kong to intercept and infiltrate the returning Ghadarites, who often made little effort to hide their plans and objectives. These teams were successful in uncovering details of
1695-766: A substantial scale. In October 1914, German Vice Consul E.H von Schack in San Francisco approved the arrangements for the funds and armaments. The German military attaché Captain Franz von Papen acquired $ 200,000 worth of small arms and ammunition through Krupp agents, and arranged for its shipment to India through San Diego, Java, and Burma. The arsenal included 8,080 Springfield rifles of Spanish–American War vintage, 2,400 Springfield carbines , 410 Hotchkiss repeating rifles , 4,000,000 cartridges , 500 Colt revolvers with 100,000 cartridges, and 250 Mauser pistols along with ammunition. The schooner Annie Larsen and
1808-569: A successful rendezvous off Socorro Island with the Maverick . The plot had already been infiltrated by British intelligence through Indian and Irish agents linked closely with the conspiracy. Upon her return to Hoquiam, Washington after several failed attempts, the cargo of the Annie Larsen was seized by US customs. The cargo was sold at auction despite German Ambassador Count Johann von Bernstoff 's attempts to take possession, insisting it
1921-483: A two-month legal battle, 24 of the passengers were allowed to immigrate. On reaching Calcutta, the passengers were detained under the Defence of India Act at Budge Budge by the British Indian government, which tried to forcibly transport them to Punjab. This caused rioting at Budge Budge, resulting in fatalities on both sides. Ghadar leaders like Barkatullah and Tarak Nath Das used the inflammatory passions surrounding
2034-507: A widespread political impact. Acting as a stimulus for radical nationalist opinion in India and abroad, it became a focal issue for Indian revolutionaries. Revolutionary organizations like Jugantar and Anushilan Samiti emerged in the 20th century. Significant events took place, including assassinations and attempted assassinations of civil servants , prominent public figures and Indian informants, including an attempt in 1907 to kill Bengal Lieutenant-Governor Sir Andrew Fraser . Matters came to
2147-453: Is a blend of Gullick's attempts to assassinate Virendranath and Mata Hari 's story. Winston Churchill reportedly advised Maugham to burn 14 other stories. The Czech revolutionary network in Europe also had a role in uncovering Bagha Jatin 's plans. The network was in touch with the members in the United States, and may have also been aware of and involved in the uncovering of the earlier plots. The American network, headed by E. V. Voska ,
2260-608: The Hindustan Ghadar essentially espoused the philosophies of anarchism and revolutionary terrorism against British interests in India. Political discontent and violence mounted in Punjab, and Ghadarite publications that reached Bombay from California were deemed seditious and banned by the Raj. These events, compounded by evidence of prior Ghadarite incitement in the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy of 1912, led
2373-473: The 5th Light Infantry stationed at Singapore was among the few units to mutiny successfully. Nearly eight hundred and fifty of its troops mutinied on the afternoon of the 15th, along with nearly a hundred men of the Malay States Guides . This mutiny lasted almost seven days, and resulted in the deaths of 47 British soldiers and local civilians. The mutineers also released the interned crew of
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#17327721270302486-555: The British Indian Army and build networks with underground revolutionary groups. Efforts had begun as early as 1911 to procure arms and smuggle them into India. When a clear idea of the conspiracy emerged, more earnest and elaborate plans were made to obtain arms and to enlist international support. Herambalal Gupta , who had arrived in the United States in 1914 at the Berlin Committee 's directive, took over
2599-754: The Congress -led mainstream movement for dominion status as modest and its constitutional methods as soft. Ghadar's foremost strategy was to entice Indian soldiers to revolt. To that end, in November 1913 Ghadar established the Yugantar Ashram press in San Francisco . The press produced the Hindustan Ghadar newspaper and other nationalist literature. Towards the end of 1913, the party established contact with prominent revolutionaries in India, including Rash Behari Bose . An Indian edition of
2712-514: The Crown Prince of Germany during the latter's visit to Calcutta in 1912, and received assurances that he would receive arms and ammunition At the same time, an increasingly strong pan-Islamic movement began to develop, mainly in the North and North-West regions of India. At the onset of the war in 1914, members of this movement formed an important element of the conspiracy. At the time of
2825-653: The Ghadar on the Pacific coast were noted by W. C. Hopkinson , who was born and raised in India and spoke fluent Hindi. Initially Hopkinson had been despatched from Calcutta to keep the Indian Police informed about the doings of Taraknath Das . The Home department of the British Indian government had begun the task of actively tracking Indian seditionists on the East Coast as early as 1910. Francis Cunliffe Owen,
2938-635: The Indian Sociologist and the Gaelic American published by Taraknath Das — moved in 1908 from Vancouver and Seattle to New York. Das established extensive collaboration with the Gaelic American with help from George Freeman before it was proscribed in 1910 under British diplomatic pressure. This Irish collaboration with Indian revolutionaries led to some of the early but failed efforts to smuggle arms into India, including
3051-621: 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
3164-727: The Indische Legion and the Indian National Army , and in Italy Mohammad Iqbal Shedai formed the Battaglione Azad Hindoustan . Nationalism had become more and more prominent in India throughout the last decades of the 19th century as a result of the social , economic and political changes instituted in the country through the greater part of the century. The Indian National Congress , founded in 1885, developed as
3277-655: The Italian anarchists , with explosives manufactured in Italy. Barkatullah, by now in Europe and working with the Berlin Committee, arranged for these explosives to be sent to the German consulate in Zurich, from where they were expected to be taken charge of by an Italian anarchist named Bertoni. However, British intelligence was able to infiltrate this plot, and successfully pressed Swiss police to expel Abdul Hafiz. In
3390-685: The Komagata Maru event as a rallying point and successfully brought many disaffected Indians in North America into the party's fold. The British Indian Army , meanwhile, contributed significantly to the Allied war effort in World War I. Consequently, a reduced force, an estimated 15,000 troops in late 1914, was stationed in India. It was in this scenario that concrete plans for organising uprisings in India were made. In September 1913
3503-475: The SMS Emden , who were asked by the mutineers to join them but refused and actually took up arms and defended the barracks after the mutineers had left (sheltering some British refugees as well) until the prison camp was relieved. The mutiny was suppressed only after French, Russian and Japanese ships arrived with reinforcements. Of 200 people tried at Singapore, 47 mutineers were shot in public executions, and
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3616-585: The Suez Canal . These groups carried out successful clandestine work in spreading nationalist literature and propaganda amongst the Indian troops in Mesopotamia, and on one occasion even bombed an officer's mess . Nationalist work also extended at this time to recruiting Indian prisoners of war in Constantinople , Bushire , and Kut-al-Amara . M. P. T. Acharya's own works were directed at forming
3729-569: The University of California at Berkeley including Dayal, Tarak Nath Das , Kartar Singh Sarabha and V.G. Pingle . The party quickly gained support from Indian expatriates, especially in the United States, Canada and Asia. Ghadar meetings were held in Los Angeles , Oxford , Vienna , Washington, D.C. , and Shanghai . Ghadar's ultimate goal was to overthrow British colonial authority in India by means of an armed revolution . It viewed
3842-541: The partition of Bengal , Shyamji Krishna Varma founded India House in London and received extensive support from notable expatriate Indians including Madam Bhikaji Cama , Lala Lajpat Rai , S. R. Rana , and Dadabhai Naoroji . The organization – ostensibly a residence for Indian students – in reality sought to promote nationalist opinion and pro-independence work. India House drew young radical activists like M. L. Dhingra , V. D. Savarkar , V. N. Chatterjee , M. P. T. Acharya and Lala Har Dayal . It developed links with
3955-604: The third Anglo-Afghan war began. Pratap may also have influenced the " Kalmyk Project ", a Soviet plan to invade India through Tibet and the Himalayan buffer states. Another arm of the conspiracy was directed at the Indian troops who were serving in Middle East. In the Middle Eastern theatre, members of the Berlin Committee, including Har Dayal and M. P. T. Acharya , were sent on missions to Baghdad and Syria in
4068-530: The 14th Rajput Regiment in Calcutta and cut the line to Madras at Balasore and thus take control of Bengal. Jugantar also received funds (estimated to be Rs 33,000 between June and August 1915) from the Helfferich brothers through a fictitious firm in Calcutta. However, it was at this time that the details of the Maverick and Jugantar plans were leaked to Beckett, the British Consul at Batavia, by
4181-465: The Atlantic. The Gaelic American reprinted articles from the Indian Sociologist , while liberal press-laws allowed free circulation of the Indian Sociologist . Supporters could ship such nationalist literature and pamphlets freely across the world. New York increasingly became an important centre for the Indian movement, such that Free Hindustan — a political revolutionary journal closely mirroring
4294-512: The Berlin committee was able to convince Har Dayal that organising a revolution in India was feasible. In May 1914, the Canadian government refused to allow the 400 Indian passengers of the ship Komagata Maru to disembark at Vancouver . The voyage had been planned by Gurdit Singh Sandhu as an attempt to circumvent Canadian exclusion laws that effectively prevented Indian immigration. Before
4407-646: The British government to pressure the American State Department to suppress Indian revolutionary activities and Ghadarite literature, which emanated mostly from San Francisco. With the onset of World War I , an Indian revolutionary group called the Berlin Committee (later called the Indian Independence Committee) was formed in Germany. Its chief architects were C. R. Pillai and V. N. Chatterjee . The committee drew members from Indian students and erstwhile members of
4520-456: The CID was successful in recruiting the services of Kirpal Singh to infiltrate the plan. Singh, who had a Ghadarite cousin serving in the 23rd Cavalry, was able to infiltrate the leadership, being assigned to work in his cousin's regiment. Singh was soon under suspicion of being a spy, but was able to pass on the information regarding the date and scale of the uprising to British Indian intelligence. As
4633-594: The Egyptian nationalists distrusted the Berlin Committee, which was seen by the former as a German instrument. Nonetheless, in culmination of these efforts, Indian prisoners of war from France, Turkey, Germany, and Mesopotamia —especially Basra , Bushehr , and from Kut al Amara —were recruited, raising the Indian Volunteer Corps that fought with Turkish forces on many fronts. The Deobandis, led by Amba Prasad Sufi , attempted to organise incursions to
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4746-654: The Emir's hands. In January 1916, the Emir approved a draft treaty with Germany to buy time. However, the Central campaign in the Middle East faltered at around this time, ending hopes that an overland route through Persia could be secured for aid and assistance to Afghanistan. The German members of the mission left Afghanistan in June 1916, ending the German intrigues in the country. Nonetheless, Mahendra Pratap and his Provisional Government stayed behind, attempting to establish links with Japan, Republican China and Tsarist Russia. After
4859-594: The German Finance minister Karl Helfferich — established links with Jugantar through Jitendranath Lahiri in March that year. In April, Jatin's chief lieutenant Narendranath Bhattacharya met with the Helfferichs and was informed of the expected arrival of the Maverick with arms. Although these were originally intended for Ghadar use, the Berlin Committee modified the plans, to have arms shipped into India by
4972-600: The Germans from crossing into Afghanistan, and to protect British supply caravans in Sarhad from Damani, Reki and Kurdish Baluchi tribal raiders who may have been tempted by German gold. Among the commanders of the Sistan force was Reginald Dyer who led it between March and October 1916. In the United States, the conspiracy was successfully infiltrated by British intelligence through Irish and Indian channels. The activities of
5085-410: The Germans. The Aga Khan 's brother was killed while fighting the rebels. The rebels also successfully harassed British forces in Sistan in Afghanistan, confining them to Karamshir in Balochistan, and later moving towards Karachi. Some reports indicate they took control of the coastal towns of Gawador and Dawar. The Baluchi chief of Bampur, having declared his independence from British rule, also joined
5198-438: The Ghadarite conspiracy. In April 1915, unaware of the failure of the Annie Larsen plan, Papen arranged, through Krupp 's American representative Hans Tauscher, a second shipment of arms, consisting of 7,300 Springfield rifles, 1,930.3 pistols, ten Gatling guns and nearly 3,000,000 cartridges. The arms were to be shipped in mid June to Surabaya in the East Indies on the Holland American steamship SS Djember . However,
5311-449: The Ghadarite established a training headquarters in the jungles near the Thai-Burma border for Ghadarites arriving from China and Canada. German Consul General at Shanghai, Knipping, sent three officers of the Peking Embassy Guard for training and in addition arranged for a Norwegian agent in Swatow to smuggle arms through. However, the Thai Police high command, which was largely British, discovered these plans and Indian police infiltrated
5424-517: The Ghadarite organisation. The failure of the February plot, the lack of bases in Southeast Asia following China's participation in the war in 1917, and the problems of supporting a Southeast Asian operation through the sea stemmed the plans significantly. Infiltration by British agents, change in American attitude and stance, and the changing fortunes of the war meant the massive conspiracy for revolution within India never succeeded. British intelligence began to note and track outlines and nascent ideas of
5537-545: The Ghadarites, and plans for rebellion in Burma (which was a part of British India at the time) had been proposed by the Ghadar party as early as October 1914, which called for Burma to be used as a base for subsequent advance into India. This Siam-Burma plan was finally concluded in January 1915. Ghadarites from branches in China and United States, including Atma Ram, Thakar Singh, and Banta Singh from Shanghai and Santokh Singh and Bhagwan Singh from San Francisco, attempted to infiltrate Burma Military Police in Thailand, which
5650-450: The Ghadarites. But the war in Europe turned for the worse for Turkey and Baghdad was captured by the British forces. The Ghadarite forces, their supply lines starved, were finally dislodged. They retreated to regroup at Shiraz, where they were finally defeated after a bitter fight during the siege of Shiraz . Amba Prasad Sufi was killed in this battle, but the Ghadarites carried on guerrilla warfare along with Iranian partisans until 1919. By
5763-446: The India House including Abhinash Bhattacharya , Dr. Abdul Hafiz, Padmanabhan Pillai, A. R. Pillai , M. P. T. Acharya and Gopal Paranjape. Germany had earlier opened the Intelligence Bureau for the East headed by archaeologist and historian Max von Oppenheim . Oppenheim and Arthur Zimmermann , the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire, actively supported the Berlin committee, which had links with Jatin Mukherjee —
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#17327721270305876-432: The Indian National Volunteer Corps with the help of Indian civilians in Turkey, and to recruiting Indian prisoners of war. He is further known to have worked along with Wilhelm Wassmuss in Bushire amongst Indian troops. The efforts were, however, ultimately hampered by differences between the Berlin committee members who were predominantly Hindus, and Indian revolutionaries already in Turkey who were largely Muslims. Further,
5989-410: The Indian border via Yunnan and the other to penetrate upper Burma and join with revolutionary elements there. The Germans, while in Manila, also attempted to transfer the arms cargo of two German ships, the Sachsen and the Suevia , to Siam in a schooner seeking refuge at Manila harbour. However, US customs stopped these attempts. In the meantime, with the help of the German Consul to Thailand Remy,
6102-405: The Indian coast. The plan was proposed by Vincent Kraft , a German planter in Batavia who had been wounded fighting in France. It was approved by the foreign office on 14 May 1915, after consultation with the Indian committee, and the raid was planned for Christmas Day 1915 by a force of nearly one hundred Germans. Knipping made plans for shipping arms to the Andaman islands. However, Vincent Kraft
6215-460: The Indian leaders in Europe. A British agent named Donald Gullick was dispatched to assassinate Virendranath Chattopadhyaya while the latter was on his way to Geneva to meet Mahendra Pratap to offer him Kaiser Wilhelm II 's invitation. It is said that Somerset Maugham based several of his stories on his first-hand experiences, modelling the character of John Ashenden after himself and Chandra Lal after Virendranath. The short story "Giulia Lazzari"
6328-707: The Lahore cantonment on 26 November. A further plan called for a mutiny to start on 30 November from Ferozepur under Nidham Singh. In Bengal, the Jugantar, through Jatin Mukherjee , established contacts with the garrison at Fort William in Calcutta. In August 1914, Mukherjee's group had seized a large consignment of guns and ammunition from the Rodda company, a major gun manufacturing firm in India. In December 1914, several politically motivated armed robberies to obtain funds were carried out in Calcutta. Mukherjee kept in touch with Rash Behari Bose through Kartar Singh and V.G. Pingle. These rebellious acts, which were until then organised separately by different groups, were brought into
6441-436: The Persian deserts before it reached Afghanistan in August 1915. In Afghanistan, it was joined in Kabul by members of the pan-Islamic group Darul Uloom Deoband led by Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi . This group had left India for Kabul at the beginning of the war while another group under Mahmud al-Hasan made its way to Hijaz , where they hoped to seek support from the Afghan Emir , the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Germany for
6554-476: The Raj was forced to intercept copies of the Afghan newspaper Siraj al Akhbar sent to India. It raised to the Emir a threat of a coup d'état in his country and unrest among his tribesmen, who were beginning to see him as subservient to British authority even as Turkey called for a pan-Islamic Jihad. In December 1915, the Indian members founded the Provisional Government of India , which it was hoped would weigh on Habibullah's advisory council to aid India and force
6667-405: The Russian revolution, Pratap opened negotiations with the Soviet Union, visiting Trotsky in Red Petrograd in 1918, and Lenin in Moscow in 1919 and he visited the Kaiser in Berlin in 1918. He pressed for a joint Soviet-German offensive through Afghanistan into India. This was considered by the Soviets for some time after the 1919 coup in Afghanistan in which Amanullah Khan was instated as the Emir and
6780-526: The SS Siberia , Chinyo Maru , China , Manchuria , SS Tenyo Maru , SS Mongolia and SS Shinyō Maru . Although the Korea' s party was uncovered and arrested on their arrival at Calcutta, a successful underground network was established between the United States and India, through Shanghai, Swatow , and Siam . Tehl Singh, the Ghadar operative in Shanghai, is believed to have spent $ 30,000 on helping revolutionaries to get into India. The Ghadarites in India were able to establish contact with sympathisers in
6893-482: The United States and in Japan emulated the example of London's India House. Krishna Varma nurtured close interactions with Turkish and Egyptian nationalists and with Clan na Gael in the United States. The joint efforts of Mohammed Barkatullah , S. L. Joshi and George Freeman founded the Pan-Aryan Association — modelled after Krishna Varma's Indian Home Rule Society — in New York in 1906. Barkatullah himself had become closely associated with Krishna Varma during
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#17327721270307006-406: The United States that have been linked to the conspiracy is the Black Tom explosion when, on the night of 30 July 1916, saboteurs blew up nearly 2 million tons of arms and ammunition at the Black Tom terminal at New York harbour, awaiting shipment in support of the British war effort. Although blamed solely on German agents at the time, later investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence in
7119-424: The United States, an elaborate plan and arrangement was made to ship arms from the country and from the Far East through Shanghai, Batavia , Bangkok and Burma . Even while Herambalal Gupta was on his mission in China and Japan, other plans were explored to ship arms from the United States and East Asia. The German high command decided early on that assistance to the Indian groups would be pointless unless given on
7232-528: The aftermath of the Annie Larsen affair in 1917. The conspiracy resulted in the Lahore conspiracy case trials in India as well as the Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial — at the time the longest and most expensive trial ever held in the United States. This series of events was pivotal for the Indian independence movement , and became a major factor in reforming the Raj's Indian policy. Similar efforts were made during World War II in Germany and in Japanese-controlled Southeast Asia . Subhas Chandra Bose formed
7345-466: The aftermath of the Annie Larsen incident unearthed links between the Black Tom explosion and Franz von Papen, the Irish movement, the Indian movement as well as Communist elements active in the United States. By the start of 1915, many Ghadarites (nearly 8,000 in the Punjab province alone by some estimates) had returned to India. However, they were not assigned a central leadership and begun their work on an ad hoc basis. Although some were rounded up by
7458-448: The arrest of leading Ghadarites in August. Only a single raid into Burma was launched by six Ghadarites, who were captured and later hanged. Also to coincide with the proposed Jugantar insurrection in Calcutta was a planned raid on the penal colony in the Andaman Islands with a German volunteer force raised from East Indies. The raid would release the political prisoners, helping to raise an expeditionary Indian force that would threaten
7571-450: The censors, leading to the arrest of the cell members. Among other plans that were considered at this time were conspiracies in June 1915 to assassinate Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey and War Minister Lord Kitchener . In addition, they also intended to target French President Raymond Poincaré and Prime Minister René Viviani , King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and his prime minister Antonio Salandra . These plans were coordinated with
7684-424: The charge of Ram Chandra Bharadwaj , who became the Ghadar president in 1914. The German consulate in San Francisco was tasked to make contact with Ghadar leaders in California. A naval lieutenant by the name of Wilhelm von Brincken with the help of the Indian nationalist journalist Tarak Nath Das and an intermediary by the name of Charles Lattendorf established links with Bharadwaj. Meanwhile, in Switzerland
7797-478: The community. Faced with increasingly difficult situations, the community began organizing itself into political groups. Many Punjabis also moved to the United States, but they encountered similar political and social problems. Meanwhile, India House and nationalist activism of Indian students had begun declining on the east coast of North America towards 1910, but activity gradually shifted west to San Francisco. The arrival at this time of Har Dayal from Europe bridged
7910-406: The conspiracy as early as 1911. Incidents like the Delhi-Lahore Conspiracy and the Komagata Maru incident had already alerted the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the existence of a large-scale network and plans for pan-Indian militant unrest. Measures were taken which focussed on Bengal—the seat of the most intense revolutionary terrorism at the time—and on Punjab, which was uncovered as
8023-519: The conspiracy at the last moment through a sepoy named Kirpal Singh . Sensing that their plans had been compromised, D-Day was brought forward to 19 February, but even these plans found their way to the intelligence. Plans for revolt by the 130th Baluchi Regiment at Rangoon on 21 January were thwarted. Attempted revolts in the 26th Punjab, 7th Rajput, 130th Baluch, 24th Jat Artillery and other regiments were suppressed. Mutinies in Firozpur , Lahore , and Agra were also suppressed and many key leaders of
8136-879: The conspiracy were arrested, although some managed to escape or evade arrest. A last-ditch attempt was made by Kartar Singh and V. G. Pingle to trigger a mutiny in the 12th Cavalry regiment at Meerut . Kartar Singh escaped from Lahore, but was arrested in Varanasi , and V. G. Pingle was apprehended in Meerut. Mass arrests followed as the Ghadarites were rounded up in Punjab and the Central Provinces . Rash Behari Bose escaped from Lahore and in May 1915 fled to Japan. Other leaders, including Giani Pritam Singh , Swami Satyananda Puri and others fled to Thailand . On 15 February,
8249-467: The country. The Punjabi community had hitherto been an important loyal force for the British Empire and the Commonwealth . The community had expected that its commitment would be honored with the same welcome and rights which the British and colonial governments extended to British and white immigrants. The restrictive legislation fed growing discontent, protests and anti-colonial sentiments within
8362-501: The country. The first group of 60 Ghadarites led by Jawala Singh left San Francisco for Canton aboard the steamship Korea on 29 August. They were to sail on to India, where they would be provided with arms to organise a revolt. At Canton, more Indians joined, and the group, now numbering about 150, sailed for Calcutta on a Japanese vessel. They were to be joined by more Ghadarites arriving in smaller groups. During September and October, about 300 Indians left for India in various ships like
8475-460: The course of the war offered a concrete picture. However, the mission opened at this time secret negotiations with the pro-German elements in the Emir's court and advisory council, including his brother Nasrullah Khan and son Amanullah Khan . It found support among Afghan intellectuals, religious leaders and the Afghan press which rallied with increasingly anti-British and pro-Central articles. By 1916
8588-403: The date for the mutiny approached, a desperate Rash Behari Bose brought forward the mutiny day to the evening of 19 February, which was discovered by Kirpal Singh on the very day. No attempts were made by the Ghadarites to restrain him, and he rushed to inform Liaqat Hayat Khan of the change of plans. Ordered back to his station to signal when the revolutionaries had assembled, Singh was detained by
8701-622: The eastern coast of India, through Hatia on the Chittagong coast, Raimangal in the Sundarbans and Balasore in Orissa , instead of Karachi as originally decided. From the coast of the Bay of Bengal , these would be collected by Jatin's group. The date of insurrection was fixed for Christmas Day 1915, earning the name "The Christmas Day Plot". Jatin estimated that he would be able to win over
8814-482: The educated youth of the urban middle-class Bhadralok community that epitomized the "classic" Indian revolutionary , while in Punjab the rural and military society sustained organized violence. Other related events include: Parts of the conspiracy also included efforts to subvert the British Indian Army in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I . The controversial 1905 partition of Bengal had
8927-637: The end of 1917, divisions had begun appearing between the Ghadar Party in America on the one hand, and the Berlin Committee and the German high command on the other. Reports from German agents working with Ghadarites in Southeast Asia and the United States clearly indicated to the European wing a significant element of disorganisation, as well as unrealism in gauging public mood and support within
9040-545: The full scale of the conspiracy, and in discovering Har Dayal's whereabouts. Immigrants returning to India were double checked against a list of revolutionaries. In Punjab, the CID, although aware of possible plans for unrest, was not successful in infiltrating the conspiracy for the mutiny until February 1915. A dedicated force was formed, headed by the Chief of Punjab CID, and including amongst its members Liaqat Hayat Khan (later head of Punjab CID himself). In February that year,
9153-527: The gap between the intellectual agitators in New York and the predominantly Punjabi labor workers and migrants in the west coast, and laid the foundations of the Ghadar movement . The Ghadar Party, initially the 'Pacific Coast Hindustan Association', was formed in 1913 in the United States under the leadership of Har Dayal , with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president. It drew members from Indian immigrants, largely from Punjab. Many of its members were also from
9266-414: The grounds that American war preparation could actually be directed against Japan. Later in 1915, Abani Mukherji — a Jugantar activist and associate of Rash Behari Bose — is also known to have tried unsuccessfully to arrange for arms from Japan.The ascendancy of Li Yuanhong to Chinese Presidency in 1916 led to negotiations reopening through his former private secretary, who resided in the United States at
9379-613: The guise of an officer of the British General Headquarters, proceeded to France where he operated from Paris, working with the French political police, the Sûreté . Among Wallinger's recruits in the network was Somerset Maugham , who was recruited in 1915 and used his cover as an author to visit Geneva without Swiss interference. Among other enterprises, the European intelligence network attempted to eliminate some of
9492-638: The information the American authorities. In the Middle East, British counter-intelligence was directed at preserving the loyalty of the Indian sepoy in the face of Turkish propaganda and the concept of The Caliph's Jihad , while a particularly significant effort was directed at intercepting the Kabul Mission . The East Persian Cordon was established in July 1915 in the Sistan province of Persia to prevent
9605-779: The intelligence network operated by Courtenay Bennett, the Consul General to New York, was able to trace the cargo to Tauscher in New York and passed the information on to the company, thwarting these plans as well. In the meantime, even after the February plot had been scuttled, the plans for an uprising continued in Bengal through the Jugantar cohort under Jatin Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin). German agents in Thailand and Burma, most prominently Emil and Theodor Helferrich— brothers of
9718-574: The leadership of American wing of the conspiracy after the failure of the SS Korea mission. Gupta immediately began efforts to obtain men and arms. While men were in plentiful supply with more and more Indians coming forward to join the Ghadarite cause, obtaining arms for the uprising proved to be more difficult. The revolutionaries started negotiations with the Chinese government through James Dietrich, who held Sun Yat-sen 's power of attorney, to buy
9831-589: The links established between Indian and Irish residents in Germany (including Irish nationalist and poet Roger Casement ) and the German Foreign Office, Oppenheim tapped into the Indo-Irish network in the United States. Har Dayal helped organise the Ghadar party before his arrest in the United States in 1914. He jumped bail and made his way to Switzerland, leaving the party and its publications in
9944-694: The moniker "The most dangerous organization outside India" from Valentine Chirol . In 1909 in London M. L. Dhingra fatally shot Sir W. H. Curzon Wyllie , political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India . In the aftermath of the assassination, the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office rapidly suppressed India House . Its leadership fled to Europe and to the United States. Some, like Chatterjee, moved to Germany; Har Dayal and many others moved to Paris . Organizations founded in
10057-636: The officer heading the Home Office agency in New York, had become thoroughly acquainted with George Freeman alias Fitzgerald and Myron Phelps , the famous New York advocate, as members of the Clan-na-Gael . Owens' efforts were successful in thwarting the SS Moraitis plan. The Ghadar Party was incidentally established after Irish Republicans, sensing infiltration, encouraged formation of an exclusively Indian society. Indian nationalist movement Too Many Requests If you report this error to
10170-473: The plot through an Indian secret agent who was revealed the details by the Austrian chargé d'affaires . Thailand, although officially neutral, was allied closely with Britain and British India. On 21 July, the newly arrived British Minister Herbert Dering presented Foreign Minister Prince Devawongse with the request for arrest and extradition of Ghadarites identified by the Indian agent, ultimately resulting in
10283-405: The police on suspicion, many remained at large and began establishing contacts with garrisons in major cities like Lahore , Ferozepur and Rawalpindi . Various plans had been made to attack the military arsenal at Mian Meer, near Lahore and initiate a general uprising on 15 November 1914. In another plan, a group of Sikh soldiers, the manjha jatha , planned to start a mutiny in the 23rd Cavalry at
10396-568: The rest were transported for life to East Africa, or given jail terms ranging between seven and twenty years. In all, 800 mutineers were either shot, imprisoned or exiled. Some historians, including Hew Strachan , argue that although Ghadar agents operated within the Singapore unit, the mutiny was isolated and not linked to the conspiracy. Others deem this as instigated by the Silk Letter Movement which became intricately related to
10509-517: The revolutionary movement in India and nurtured it with arms, funds and propaganda. Authorities in India banned The Indian Sociologist and other literature published by the House as "seditious". Under V. D. Savarkar's leadership, the House rapidly developed into a centre for intellectual and political activism and a meeting-ground for radical revolutionaries among Indian students in Britain, earning it
10622-465: The river Burhablanga. Seriously wounded in a gun battle that lasted seventy five minutes, Jatin died the next day in Balasore. To provide the Bengal group enough time to capture Calcutta and to prevent reinforcements from being rushed in, a mutiny coinciding with Jugantar's Christmas Day insurrection was planned for Burma with arms smuggled in from neutral Thailand. Thailand (Siam) was a strong base for
10735-549: The sailing ship SS Henry S were hired to ship the arms out of the United States and transfer it to the SS ; Maverick . The ownership of ships were hidden under a massive smokescreen involving fake companies and oil business in south-east Asia. For the arms shipment itself, a successful cover was set up to lead British agents to believe that the arms were for the warring factions of the Mexican Civil War . This ruse
10848-481: The ship reached Vancouver, German radio announced its approach, and British Columbian authorities prepared to prevent the passengers from entering Canada. The ship was escorted out of Vancouver by the protected cruiser HMCS Rainbow and returned to India. The incident became a focal point for the Indian community in Canada, which rallied in support of the passengers and against the government's policies. After
10961-475: The side of the Central Powers , which it was hoped would incite a nationalist or pan-Islamic uprising in India and destabilise the British recruiting grounds in Punjab and across India. After Russia's defeat in the 1905 Russo-Japanese war, her influence had declined, and it was Afghanistan that was at the time seen by Britain as the only power in the sub-continent capable of directly threatening India. In
11074-539: The spring of 1915, an Indo-German expedition was sent to Afghanistan via the overland route through Persia. Led by the exiled Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap , this mission sought to invite the Afghan Emir Habibullah Khan to break with Britain, declare his independence, join the war on the Central side, and invade British India. It managed to evade the considerable Anglo-Russian efforts that were directed at intercepting it in Mesopotamia and in
11187-635: The summer of 1915, tasked with infiltrating the Indian Expeditionary Force in southern Mesopotamia and Egypt and to attempt to assassinate British officers. The Indian effort was divided into two groups, one consisting of a Bengali revolutionary P.N. Dutt (alias Dawood Ali Khan) and Pandurang Khankoje . This group arrived at Bushire, where they worked with Wilhelm Wassmuss and distributed nationalist and revolutionary literature among Indian troops in Mesopotamia and Persia. The other group, working with Egyptian nationalists, attempted to block
11300-516: The time World War I began in 1914, the revolutionary movement had revived in Punjab and Bengal. In Bengal the movement, with a safe haven in the French base of Chandernagore , had sufficient strength to all but paralyze the state administration. The earliest mention of a conspiracy for armed revolution in India appears in Nixon's Report on Revolutionary Organization , which reported that Jatin Mukherjee (Bagha Jatin) and Naren Bhattacharya had met with
11413-704: The time the war broke out, the Indian Political Intelligence Office , headed by John Wallinger , had expanded into Europe. In scale this office was larger than those operated by the British War Office, approaching the European intelligence network of the Secret Service Bureau . This network already had agents in Switzerland against possible German intrigues. After the outbreak of the war Wallinger, under
11526-518: The time. In exchange for allowing arms shipments to India through China, China was offered German military assistance and the rights to 10% of any material shipped to India via China. The negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful due to Sun Yat-sen 's opposition to an alliance with Germany. The Indian nationalists then in Paris had, with Egyptian revolutionaries, made plans to assassinate Lord Kitchener as early as 1911, but did not implement them. After
11639-804: The war began, this plan was revived, and Har Dayal's close associate Gobind Behari Lal visited Liverpool in March 1915 from New York to put this plan in action. He may also have intended at this time to bomb the docks in Liverpool. However, these plans ultimately failed. Chattopadhyaya also attempted at this time to revive links with the remnants of India House that survived in London, and through Swiss, German and English sympathisers then resident in Britain. Among them were Meta Brunner (a Swiss woman), Vishna Dube (an Indian man) and his common law German wife Anna Brandt, and Hilda Howsin (an English woman in Yorkshire). Chattopadhyaya's letters were however traced by
11752-546: The western border of India from Persia, through Balochistan , to Punjab. Amba Prasad was joined during the war by Kedar Nath Sondhi, Rishikesh Letha and Amin Chaudhry. These Indian troops were involved in the capture of the frontier city of Karman, Uzbekistan and the detention of the British consul there, and also successfully harassed Percy Sykes ' Persian campaign against the Baluchi and Persian tribal chiefs who were aided by
11865-401: The would-be mutineers, but managed to escape under the cover of answering the call of nature. The role of German or Baltic-German double-agents, especially the agent named "Oren" , was also important in infiltrating and preempting the plans for autumn rebellions in Bengal in 1915 and in as scuttling Bagha Jatin 's winter plans that year. Another source, the German double agent Vincent Kraft ,
11978-465: Was a double agent , and leaked details of Knipping's plans to British intelligence. His own bogus plans for the raid were in the meantime revealed to Beckett by " Oren ", but given the successive failures of the Indo-German plans, the plans for the operations were abandoned on the recommendations of both the Berlin Committee and Knipping. Efforts were directed at drawing Afghanistan into the war on
12091-506: Was a counter-espionage network of nearly 80 members who, as Habsburg subjects, were presumed to support Germany, but were involved in spying on German and Austrian diplomats. Voska had begun working with Guy Gaunt , who headed Courtenay Bennett 's intelligence network, at the outbreak of the war and on learning of the plot from the Czech European network, passed on the information to Gaunt and to Tomáš Masaryk who further passed on
12204-532: Was composed mostly of Sikhs and Punjabi Muslims. Early in 1915, Atma Ram had also visited Calcutta and Punjab and linked up with the revolutionary underground there, including Jugantar . Herambalal Gupta and the German consul at Chicago arranged to have German operatives George Paul Boehm, Henry Schult, and Albert Wehde sent to Siam through Manila with the purpose of training the Indians. Santokh Singh returned to Shanghai tasked to send two expeditions, one to reach
12317-621: Was meant for German East Africa . The Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial opened in 1917 in the United States on charges of gun running and at the time was one of the lengthiest and most expensive trials in American legal history. Franz von Papen attempted to sabotage rail lines in Canada and destroy the Welland Canal . He also attempted to supply rifles and dynamite to Sikhs in British Columbia for blasting railway bridges. These plots in Canada did not materialise. Among other events in
12430-469: Was protected at this time by Toyama Mitsuru , right-wing political leader and founder of the Genyosha nationalist secret society. The Indian Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore , a strong supporter of Pan-Asianism , met Japanese premier Count Terauchi and Count Okuma , a former premier, in an attempt to enlist support for the Ghadarite movement. Tarak Nath Das urged Japan to align with Germany, on
12543-413: Was successful enough that the rival Villa faction offered $ 15,000 to divert the shipment to a Villa-controlled port. Although the shipment was meant to supply the mutiny planned for February 1915, it was not dispatched until June. By then the conspiracy had been uncovered in India, and its major leaders had been arrested or gone into hiding. The shipment itself failed when disastrous co-ordination prevented
12656-562: 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 Indo-German alliance and conspiracy were the target of a worldwide British intelligence effort, which successfully prevented further attempts. American intelligence agencies arrested key figures in
12769-579: Was to seize weapons and kill their officers while on roll call on 21 February. This was to be followed by mutiny in the 26th Punjab, which was to be the signal for the uprising to begin, resulting in an advance on Delhi and Lahore. The Bengal cell was to look for the Punjab Mail entering the Howrah Station the next day (which would have been cancelled if Punjab was seized) and was to strike immediately. However, Punjab CID successfully infiltrated
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