and asked: “Those brethren who wish to hang them in their houses, will please let the Gadar know by postcard. This is most necessary.”34 After an announcement that Har Dayal and Ram Chandra were to preach in upcoming issues on the nature of patriotism,35 Kartar Singh led them all in song: the chorus was, more or less, “Come, let’s go, join us in the battle for freedom.”
Then there were news articles on current and relevant legal, political, or economic matters, especially regarding immigration or nationalism. Updates were requested from all towns, villages, districts, and departments, on recent dacoities and political killings, as well as on any acts of British government tyranny or police abuses.36 One much-circulated item was titled “Angrezi Raj ka Kacha Chittha” (Balance Sheet of British Rule),37 which, with “Ankon ki Gawahi” (Evidence of Statistics),38 collated damning numbers that more or less echoed Dadabhai Naoroji’s economic drain theory: how much money was removed by British taxation, how much was spent on the army, how much on education, how much grain produced, how many lost to famine or treatable disease, and so forth. In this, in Behari Lal’s words, “For the first time the readers received the kind of information which they had never before been given—a revelation that shook them to their very depths”;39 and at the same time they were provided a stock of facts and figures in which to frame grievances credibly to those who might previously have dismissed them. Among the damning legacies of colonial rule were the following: land tax over 65 percent of net produce; army expenditure (29.5 crore) over four times the amount dedicated to the education of 240 million people; 20 million dead of famine in the last ten years; 8 million dead of plague in the last thirty years, and rising; intercommunal strife instigated; arts and craft s industries destroyed; money and lives sacrificed to the conquest of China, Afghanistan, Burma, Egypt, and Persia.40
The Ghadar Press also put out various individual pamphlets and leaflets both in English and in Indian languages. Some of these reprinted previous articles, such as “Zulm! Zulm! Gore Shahi Zulm!” (Tyranny! Tyranny! The Tyranny of White Rule),41 which was first printed on the occasion of Bhagwan Singh’s deportation in 1913; William Jennings Bryan’s scathing indictment entitled “British Rule in India”;42 and Har Dayal’s “Nayen Zamane ke Nayen Adarsh” (New Ideals for a New Age), which decried benighted social and religious causes that distracted tracted from the struggle for freedom and equality,43 “Social Conquest of the Hindu Race,” which pointed toward what we now might call hegemony as well as domination, and “Barabari da Arth” (The Meaning of Equality).44
Overall the movement revealed in the Yugantar Ashram publications with a romanticist emotional intensity was militant, insurrectionist, patriotic, internationalist, modernist, secularist and antisectarian, and egalitarian, favoring politically federated democratic-republicanism, while leaning ever more toward socialist redistributive economics—two factors that can be seen as the strongest expressions of their two beloved guiding principles, liberty and equality. But at this point tyranny and exploitation were still being framed in primarily moral terms, awaiting a more scientific restatement in the 1920s.
The Ghadar Press also produced a different and very popular (and populist) literary corpus: a series of poetry collections called Ghadar-di-Gunj (Echoes of Revolt).45 The first edition came out in booklet form in April 1914. Unlike the editorials, essays, and reportage that appeared in the weekly, the poetry was primarily the work of the farm laborers. These Punjabi couplets were equally explicit in their indictments of British rule and their exhortations to prepare rebellion (and explanations of how to do it) and plainly well aware of the implications of colonial economics.46
It may seem remarkable, commented Vatuk, that a print medium should become the glue and fuel of a massive movement of which only a small minority of the initial membership was literate. This was possible because of a thriving oral culture in which it could be read aloud and shared, and the songs and poems of Ghadar-di-Gunj were memorized and sung at gatherings.47 Inder Singh, granthi at the Stockton gurdwara, formerly of Hong Kong, even “learnt by heart most of the poems … and prepared a cypher system into which he transcribed [them].” 48
Darisi Chenchiah recalled that as “intellectuals arose” from among “the Punjabee labourers,” they began to contribute articles and poems to the newspaper and to address public meetings. “They were sincere and brave,” though until quite recently “ignorant and illiterate.” But now they had “suddenly become politically conscious, highly patriotic and intensely revolutionary. As a result, the Ghadar movement passed rapidly into the hands of these masses.” 49 As a leader Har Dayal evinced great confidence in their potential as revolutionary fighters; this may be why they liked him as well. Moreover, while he may have been a professional intellectual, he was a Punjabi nonetheless. Har Dayal happily supported and encouraged their vernacular contributions, Chenchiah continued, even when they contained mistakes or “abusive words,” precisely because they were—to use an anachronistic term—organic.
Some translated excerpts courtesy of Gerald Barrier powerfully express the themes of sectarian and ethnic unity, courage and sacrifice, and redemption through taking responsibility for the plight of the country, all the while exhibiting a global perspective and a social vision linking personal and collective transformation. While addressed to the lionhearted Singhs, these poems also showed broad awareness of issues and allusions relevant to Hindus and Muslims.50
The very first poem of the first collection set the tone:
The world calls us coolie.
Why doesn’t our flag fly anywhere?
… … … … … … … … … …
How shall we survive, are we slaves forever?
Why aren’t we involved in politics?
… … … … … … … … … …
From the beginning we have been yoked to thralldom. Why don’t we even dream of freedom?
Only a handful of oppressors have taken our fields.
Why has no Indian cultivator risen and protected his land?
Our children cry out for want of education.
Why don’t we open science colleges?51
Poem 6 called for unity as the veterans of foreign battles turned their attention homeward:
Why do you sit silent in your own country
You who make so much noise in foreign lands?
Noise outside of India is of little avail.
Pay attention to activities within India.
… … … … … … … … … … … … … …
You are quarreling and Hindu-Muslim conflict is prevalent.
The jewel of India is rotting in the earth
Because you are fighting over the Vedas and the Koran. [Does this imply Sikhs were above sectional strife?]
Go and speak with soldiers.
Ask them why they are asleep, men who once held swords.
Muslims, Pathans, Dogras and Sikh heroes should join together.
The power of the oppressors is nothing if we unitedly attack him.
Indians
