Burma, Egypt, China and the Sudan.52
Poem 8 interpreted faith as a call for social justice and reproachfully invoked the Sikhs’ historical role in the first mutiny:
The Gurus founded this Path for the welfare of others.
Otherwise what was the need?
Open your eyes and look at the world….
People say the Singhs are cruel and insensitive.
Why did they turn the tide during the Delhi Mutiny?
The country would have enjoyed freedom.
How and why did they commit this blunder?53
Poem 11, after touching on the same themes of Sikh history, martyrdom, and sacrifice, called on the Singhs to avenge Bhagwan Singh, put in a cage; to think of Ajit Singh, Cama, and Krishnavarma in France; of Gandhi (is this the first mention of him?) rotting in jail for the injustice of Africa; and of Muhammed Barakatullah in Japan, for “he has complete faith in god alone.”54
Song 17 was a striking reflection juxtaposing tactical guidelines with the ethical, psychological growth of the revolutionary needed in the process of creating a new society:
We have tired of just observing; let us work out a program for doing something.
We should make cowards lions before acting; convert men who have said “sir, sir” for ages.
We should be cautious lest on a rapid ascent we fall down.
We should first memorize the alphabet, then learn mathematics.
We should first handle fire and pistols. Then we will not be afraid of guns and rifles.
We should develop brotherly love so that we cannot be divided.
The enemy is initially the traitor within;
We shall deal with the whites after we teach the unfaithful a lesson….
If they are willing to be treated like gentlemen, we shall plead with them.
If they do not come to terms through dialogue, then we must consider other ways to make them understand….
You must meet the traitors in the way they deserve, with full force.
In this way you should unite and form a branch of the Ghadar party.
Then we shall send some brave persons to India….
They will organize secret societies.
Some branches should be left in foreign lands, branches with deep roots.
We can then commit dacoities on the government
And in this way awaken the Punjab and the whole country.
At some places we should use guerrilla warfare and adopt the methods that best suit us.55
This was the source of the movement’s global influence, cementing its stature as a broad movement rather than as a localized party. As it spread abroad, the global “branches” functioned in an autonomous and self-organized way, not subject to the central authority or direct guidance of San Francisco. But the paper that issued forth from that source was nevertheless a tangible guide and inspiration. The Ghadarite ideas “spread like wildfire in foreign countries where there are Indians,” said Chenchiah. “Even the individualist terrorist movement in Bengal paled into insignificance in the face of this mighty mass movement in the estimation of the British Rulers.”
One might map the diaspora by the Ghadar’s path: by June 1914 Yugantar Ashram publications had been spotted in Egypt, South Africa, Fiji, Canada, British East Africa, and British Guiana. Ghadar organizers were reported to be active on the ground in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, the Dutch East Indies, Mexico, Panama, and Brazil.56 In January 1915 the paper was intercepted in Trinidad, Sudan, and Aden; in March, Morocco, Manila, Siam, and Java; in April, Madagascar and Reunion; June, Canton; and July, Johannesburg and Nairobi, Fiji, and Australia. To this list F. C. Isemonger and James Slattery added Japan, Shanghai, Hankow, Tientsin, Singapore, the Malay States, Trinidad, and Honduras. It reached, “in fact, to every place where Indians were known to be residing,” and was oft en re-posted from these places to India.57
The first copies arrived in India on 7 December 1913. Despite instant proscription and heightened interception efforts through the Sea Customs Act, hundreds of copies trickled into the country in the next few months via Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Bombay. Oft en the shipments were divided into small parts and “contained in ordinary envelopes, addressed by hand and having the appearance of private letters.” Some contained personal messages on “small slips of paper instructing the recipients to read the paper to others or to pass it on.”58
The writer of one such letter began by exhorting fellow Sikhs not to stand for the whites’ expropriation of the Golden Temple and Khalsa College back home—a foreshadowing for the returned Ghadarites who flowed into and radicalized the Babar Akali mobilizations in the 1920s. He then proceeded to convey his New World perspective: “Now I will write about this country and what we see with our own eyes. The country belonged formerly to the Canadians but the English conquered it four hundred years ago. The original inhabitants now are not allowed to walk in the streets and they go about the country like wandering tribes. They do not possess an inch of land but subsist by fishing on the sea. In our country there is no sea. What shall we do?”59
It is quite striking that he draws an implicit analogy between the plight of indigenous Canadians and his own Punjabi people, who nevertheless from one sentence to the next seem to have grown less landlocked: “This pride in the Feringhis will uproot us and throw us into salt sea water, and no trace of the name Bharat will be left ”; then, “Sikhs, Hindus and Muhammadans all will be treated alike. Brother, the means of salvation is this. Educate all your children, boys and girls. Hindus, Muhammadans and Sikhs must cultivate love among themselves and then the work will gradually be accomplished. Read to all what I have written and also the paper I am sending. The paper may be read by anybody, but do not give the letter to anyone. Burn it after you have gone through it yourself and read it to others. The paper may be read by anyone; there is nothing to fear on that account as the paper is printed in America and the English cannot stop it.” 60
Another letter, this time sans newspaper, was written from a Sikh in California to a soldier in the Eighty-second Punjabis at Nowshera: “At first there were about ten thousand of our countrymen here but now only about six thousand remain. The English no longer require us and have stopped our migration here. These badmashes have plundered us and we shall not escape disgrace unless we get out of their hands…. All Indians living in America and Canada are prepared to kill and die. No one wishes to see these evil Englishmen…. It is written that it is far better for the community which loses its sacred places to die…. The only remedy against these tyrants is that the troops should mutiny.” The writer then repeats some of the facts contained in Balance Sheet of British Rule concerning economic drain and plague. As with the first letter, the writer’s concern for the control of Sikh sacred places by foreigners points the way toward the Akali Dal.
The writer concludes: “All these facts which I have written have been copied from a paper called Ghadr, which is printed in America. I intended to send you the paper in original, but as its entry into India is prohibited I have written
