The young men known as “Ghadri Babay” were\u00a0extraordinary individuals. Despite facing exile\u00a0to\u00a0Andaman Jail\u00a0and\u00a0the threat of\u00a0hanging for treason, these young men\u00a0ignited the flames\u00a0of the freedom\u00a0movement\u00a0from North America to\u00a0various cities in India, including\u00a0Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Lahore, Peshawar, and even\u00a0extending\u00a0to Lyallpur and Sargodha’s Check Number Four. This movement was connected to Bhagat Singh’s\u00a0involvement\u00a0with Chauk Bhagat Singh in Lahore, where he declared, “Pakistan is\u00a0divided into two mentalities.”
\nAmong these young men were peasants,\u00a0laborers,\u00a0those who had left their homeland, and highly educated individuals who had graduated from prestigious universities like Columbia and Oxford. They represented\u00a0not only Sikhs and Punjabis but also included Muslims like Barkatullah and Kareem Bakhsh, as well as Bengali Hindus like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Kanshi Ram, and the founder of the\u00a0\u201cGhadar Party\u201d\u00a0in America, Lala Hardayal, and Taraknath Das.\u00a0Additionally, there were numerous\u00a0Sikh youth\u2019s such as\u00a0Visakha Singh, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Kartar Singh Sarabha, and Bhagat Singh.
\nThese individuals were active in gurdwaras,\u00a0railway unions from Peshawar to Calcutta,\u00a0Indian Railways,\u00a0orchards\u00a0in\u00a0Punjab,\u00a0fields\u00a0in\u00a0California, and even in Vancouver, Canada.
\nEven today, in\u00a0San Francisco, California, there\u00a0stands a place known as the Ghadar Party Hall,\u00a0serving\u00a0as a\u00a0poignant\u00a0reminder of the young men who\u00a0initiated a newspaper called “Ghadar” in Urdu and Gurmukhi languages, leading to the\u00a0establishment\u00a0of the Ghadar Party.
\nThe Ghadar Party was\u00a0founded in America on November 1, 1913, and its\u00a0centennial\u00a0celebrations are being\u00a0observed by Ghadri supporters\u00a0worldwide.
\nIt is a remarkable\u00a0tale\u00a0that in the early 20th century, without the\u00a0internet or modern\u00a0communication\u00a0methods, the Ghadar newspaper\u00a0reached various cities in India\u00a0from San Francisco, including\u00a0Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Lahore, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Ferozepur, and even up to Lyallpur and Sargodha’s Chak Number 4, as well as locations in Sindh\u00a0and\u00a0other regions. Historians have found evidence of its clandestine distribution even in
\nmilitary barracks\u00a0in\u00a0Sargodha.
\nIn San Francisco, the Ghadar Party’s\u00a0significant\u00a0documents\u00a0bore\u00a0the slogan “Enemy of British Rule”\u00a0and\u00a0published\u00a0a seven-day newspaper named\u00a0“Ghadar” in Urdu and Gurmukhi languages. It\u00a0featured advertisements recruiting courageous soldiers with terms like\u00a0Salary: Death, Price: Martyrdom, Pension: Freedom, and Battlefield: India.
\nWhile\u00a0the Ghadar Party\u00a0aimed\u00a0to overthrow British rule in India through force,\u00a0their\u00a0ultimate objective\u00a0was to secure independence for India from oppressive\u00a0rulers.
\nThe Ghadar Party was\u00a0established by patriotic Indians in America, including Punjabis and Bengalis who were nationalists. The\u00a0party was\u00a0characterized by its\u00a0non-sectarian\u00a0and\u00a0secular nature. As the prominent Eastern Punjabi farmer leader Sohan Singh Bhakna stated, “Ghadris were not defined by their religion or ethnicity; their only allegiance was to patriotism.”
\nIn a documentary film about the Ghadris, Bhagat Singh Bilga mentioned\u00a0that Punjabi Ghadris had a deep\u00a0affection\u00a0for the Punjabi language and\u00a0advocated for\u00a0every Punjabi\u00a0to\u00a0learn to read and write.
\nIt is remarkable that the Ghadar Party was founded in\u00a0America\u00a0not only to benefit from the freedoms of the world’s oldest democracy but also to spread the message of their freedom struggle among Indians\u00a0across various regions,\u00a0with India being the focal point of their efforts. The youth of the Ghadar Party spent the first decade\u00a0of the 20th century\u00a0in India, influencing a wide range of individuals, although their primary base\u00a0was in North America.
\nEven today, the grave of Kareem Bakhsh, who initiated the Ghadar Party in California,\u00a0remains\u00a0in California.
\nPunjabi poet Onkar Singh Dhami in New York\u00a0remarked, “The mission\u00a0initiated by the Ghadris Babay is still ongoing.”
\nThe interviewer\u00a0noted that instead of\u00a0utilizing\u00a0the youth of Ludhiana and Jalandhar for the freedom movement, the colonels from Jalandhar seized power and failed to honor the legacy\u00a0of the Ghadri Babay\u00a0in Lahore, which is a dishonorable\u00a0reflection on the nation\u00a0of Pakistan.
\nHowever, the legacy of the Ghadri\u00a0Babay continues to inspire freedom movements today from the UNO\u2019s monitory exploitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The young men known as “Ghadri Babay” were\u00a0extraordinary individuals. Despite facing exile\u00a0to\u00a0Andaman Jail\u00a0and\u00a0the threat of\u00a0hanging for treason, these young men\u00a0ignited the flames\u00a0of the freedom\u00a0movement\u00a0from North America to\u00a0various cities in India, including\u00a0Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ferozepur, Lahore, Peshawar, and even\u00a0extending\u00a0to Lyallpur and Sargodha’s Check Number Four. This movement was connected to Bhagat Singh’s\u00a0involvement\u00a0with Chauk Bhagat Singh in Lahore,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-analysis"},"yoast_head":"\n