Importance and Insights of Historical Ghadar Movement for Indian Independence

Abstract

Practically all accessible Accounts on the significance of Ghadar Movement in India’s quest for independence are limited to its initial, more spectacular and action-filled period of operations between 1913-18. There is barely any research which extended to its function during the second phase when it was resurrected in 1920. Following the thunderclap message of the Bolshevik revolution, contact with Soviet revolutionary leadership and participation by one of its leaders at the Fourth Congress of the Third International in 1922, the Ghadar Party embraced a radically different political agenda. The rise of Mahatma Gandhi and the anti-imperialist mass movement in India after the slaughter at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, also had significant impact on its political philosophy and actions. Whereas there may be several weighty reasons for scholars to focus mainly on the first phase, the virtual neglect of the party’s contribution during the period 1920-47 inhibited a complete and rounded analysis of the role of this party in the struggle for freedom and contributed to an unintended distortion.