Hindu–German Conspiracy: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Use Indian English|date=June 2016}}

The '''Hindu–German Conspiracy'''^{[[#Note on the name|(Note on the name)]]} was a series of attempts between 1914 and 1917 by [[Indian nationalist movement|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 the [[Indian independence committee]] in the decade preceding the Great War.<ref name="Plowman 84">{{Harvnb|Plowman|2003|p=84}}</ref><ref name=Hoover252>{{Harvnb|Hoover|1985|p=252}}</ref><ref name=GBrown300>{{Harvnb|Brown|1948|p=300}}</ref> The conspiracy began at the start of the war, with extensive support from the [[Auswärtiges Amt|German Foreign Office]], the German consulate in [[San Francisco]], and some support from [[Ottoman Turkey]] and the [[Irish republicanism|Irish republican movement]]. The most prominent plan attempted to foment unrest and trigger a Pan-Indian [[mutiny]] in the [[British Indian Army]] from [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]] to [[Singapore]]. It was to be executed in February 1915, and overthrow British rule in the [[Indian subcontinent]]. The [[Ghadar Conspiracy|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.

Organizations founded in the United States and in [[Imperial Japan|Japan]] emulated the example of London's India House.<ref name="Fischer-Tinē333">{{Harvnb|Fischer-Tinē|2007|p=333}}</ref> Krishna Varma nurtured close interactions with [[Turkish people|Turkish]] and [[Egyptians|Egyptian]] nationalists and with [[Clan na Gael]] in the United States. The joint efforts of [[Mohammed Barkatullah]], [[S. L. Joshi]] and [[George Freeman (newspaper editor)|George Freeman]] founded the Pan-Aryan Association — modelled after Krishna Varma's [[Indian Home Rule Society]] — in New York in 1906.<ref name="FischerTine333">{{Harvnb|Fischer-Tinē|2007|p=334}}</ref> Barkatullah himself had become closely associated with Krishna Varma during a previous stay in London, and his subsequent career in Japan put him at the heart of Indian political activities there.<ref name="FischerTine333"/> Myron Phelp, an acquaintance of Krishna Varma and an admirer of [[Swami Vivekananda]], founded an "India House" in [[Manhattan]], New York, in January 1908.<ref name="FischerTine333"/> Amidst a growing Indian student population, erstwhile members of the India House in London succeeded in extending the nationalist work across 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.<ref name="FischerTine333"/> New York increasingly became an important centre for the Indian movement, such that ''Free Hindustan''— a political revolutionary journal closely mirroring the ''Indian Sociologist'' and the ''[[The Gaelic American|Gaelic American]]'' published by [[Taraknath Das]]—<ref name="Plowman 84" /> 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{{by whom|date=June 2013}} in 1910 under British diplomatic pressure.<ref name=FischerTine335>{{Harvnb|Fischer-Tinē|2007|p=335}}</ref> This Irish collaboration with Indian revolutionaries led to some of the early but failed efforts to smuggle arms into India, including 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]].<ref name="Plowman82"/><ref name=Popplewell148>{{Harvnb|Popplewell|1995|p=148}}</ref> The [[Irish community in Britain|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.<ref name="Plowman 84" /> These pre-war contacts effectively set up a network which the German foreign office tapped into as war began in Europe.<ref name="Plowman 84" />

{{See also|SS Komagata Maru|Ingress into India Ordinance, 1914}}

| access-date=8 December 2007}}</ref>

The Ghadar Memorial Hall in San Francisco honours members of the party who were hanged following the Lahore conspiracy trial,<ref name=Radhan203>{{Harvnb|Radhan|2002|p=203}}</ref> and the Ghadar Party Memorial Hall in [[Jalandhar]], Punjab commemorates the Ghadarites who were involved in the conspiracy. Several of those executed during the conspiracy are today honoured in India. Kartar Singh is honoured with a memorial at his birthplace of the Village of Sarabha. The [[Ayurvedic Medicine]] [[College]] in [[Ludhiana]] is also named in his honour.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.sikhpioneers.org/gadarphoto.html | title = Pioneer Asian Indian immigration to the Pacific coast | access-date = 9 December 2007 | publisher = Sikhpioneers.org | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071217042511/http://www.sikhpioneers.org/gadarphoto.html | archive-date = 17 December 2007}}</ref> The Indian government has produced [[Postage stamp|stamps]] honouring several of those involved in the conspiracy, including [[Har Dayal]], [[Bhai Paramanand]], and [[Rash Behari Bose]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.indianpost.com/viewstamp.php/Color/Blue%20Gray/BHAI%20PARMANAND | title = Bhai Paramanand | access-date =9 December 2007 | publisher = IndianPost, Adarsh Mumbai News and Feature Agency}}</ref> Several other revolutionaries are also honoured through India and the Indian American population.

A memorial [[Commemorative plaque|plaque]] commemorating the ''[[Komagata Maru]]'' was unveiled by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] at Budge Budge in Calcutta in 1954, while a second plaque was unveiled in 1984 at Gateway Pacific, Vancouver by the Canadian government. A heritage foundation to commemorate the passengers from the Komagata Maru excluded from Canada was established in 2005.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.komagatamaru.ca/foundation.asp?id=3 | title = Komagata Maru Walk 2006 | access-date = 9 December 2007 | publisher = Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071214205422/http://www.komagatamaru.ca/foundation.asp?id=3 | archive-date = 14 December 2007}}</ref>

| title = The Taraknath Das Foundation| access-date =21 May 2008 | publisher = Columbia University | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080327045244/http://www.sipa.columbia.edu/sai/tdas.html <!--Added by H3llBot--> | archive-date = 27 March 2008}}</ref> Famous awardees include [[R. K. Narayan]], [[Robert Goheen]], [[Philip Talbot]], [[Anita Desai]] and SAKHI and Joseph Elder.

}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| date=14 April 2005| publisher=Waldorf College| url=http://www.waldorf.edu/news/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=360| archive-url=https://archive.today/20121215115635/http://www.waldorf.edu/news/nm/anmviewer.asp?a=360| url-status=dead| archive-date=15 December 2012| title=Dr. Matt Plowman to have conference paper published| access-date=10 December 2007}}</ref> In British-India, the [[Rowlatt committee]] set up investigate the events referred to them as "The Seditious conspiracy".

}}.

  | title = [https://books.google.ca/books?id=T4U0DwAAQBA Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy]

  | title = [https://books.google.ca/books?id=UKfoHi5412UC Calcutta: A Cultural and Literary History]

  | title = [https://books.google.ca/books?id=x6EYtYMgF4UC Neutral Ground: A Political History of Espionage Fiction]

  | last1 = Yadav

  | first1 = B. D.

  | title = M. P. T. Acharya, [https://books.google.ca/books?id=z0puAAAAMAAJ Reminiscences of an Indian Revolutionary]

  | isbn= 81-7041-470-9