Ghadari fighters, torchbearers of revolution

A century has passed since Ghadarites, lovingly known as ‘Ghadari Baabe’, left behind an unprecedented legacy of revolutionary life and dynamic anti-British saga. This week, Jalandhar Tribune brings to you from the history files, the saga of Ghadarites from Jalandhar who, with sheer grit and valour, kept aloft the fire and passion for freedom. Although those who laid down their lives during the movement are numerous, history records only five of the Ghadarites from here.

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, April 30

“Although it is too hot in America, it’s too cold in India,” wrote Banta Singh of Sanghwal village to his peers at the Hindi Association of Pacific Coast in America. Banta Singh along with his four compatriots was sent by the Ghadar Party to India to prepare a fertile ground in terms of masses, weapons and other material for armed insurrection on the lines of the 1857 mutiny.

“Known as ‘the terror for Punjab Police’, Banta Singh along with six other Ghadarites from Jalandhar, kissed the gallows at an age when youths dream of marriage and career.

According to his granddaughter Dr Jasbir Kaur Gill, on seeing the lackadaisical approach of the Indians towards British atrocities, Singh built a strong revolutionary centre at his village, Sanghwal, known as the headquarter for Doaba region which was frequently visited by great revolutionaries like Ras Behari Bose, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Bibi Gulab Kaur, Baba Sahib Singh and Bhan Singh Sialkot.

“He was a revolutionary since childhood. He believed that money lending was an act of exploitation of poor people and so he destroyed the ledgers of his father that contained the accounts of money given to indebted farmers and thus he had set them free from the clutches of all burdens,” said Dr Gill.

The famous fountainhead of Ghadar movement, Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, had narrated countless efforts of Banta Singh in stirring the conscience of villagers by creating a panchayat, a library, a veterinary hospital and an autonomous justice delivery system to augment a parallel administrative set-up to reduce the dependence on British structures and to deliver justice quickly to the general masses.

The centre set up by Banta Singh proved to be the backbone of the Ghadar movement in Punjab. The British judicial system geared up to perpetuate the brutal regime of imperialists. It convicted Banta Singh in British army informer Chanda Singh’s murder case and in the murder of two British policemen at Wallah Railway Bridge in Amritsar.

According to Dr Gill, he joyfully kissed the gallows on August 12, 1915. It was his relative Buta Singh (brother in-law) who had informed the Punjab police about his whereabouts to get Rs 5,000 and two ‘murrabas of land’ at Jaura village in Hoshiarpur district. Banta Singh’s followers picked up Buta Singh and his five-year-old son and after killing them buried their body in the land awarded by the British government for his treachery.

Martyr in Kenya

“The Commandant of Fort Jesus jail in Mombasa (Kenya) told my fellow prisoner Bishan Singh that he would be hanged the next morning. Next day, eight cops came to his prison and took him away. Bishan Singh was hanged openly in daylight at the busy Makadara market,” wrote Lal Chand, another Ghadarite from Hoshiarpur, in his autobiography. Although 18-year-old Lal Chand was also given death sentence, it was later turned into 10 years of rigorous imprisonment after the Health team failed to assess his exact age due to his petite figure. Historians also revealed that Lal Chand had applied oil on his hair due to which even the civil surgeon failed to assess his age.

Ironically, Bishan Singh’s family living presently in Gakhal village was, until recently, unaware about the glorious history of their family and the world too was unaware about Bishan Singh’s successors. It was only after eminent researcher Sita Ram Bansal along with his wife Balwinder Kaur visited the village in 2013 that they were located after many efforts.

According to Sita Ram Bansal, the family knew that their great grandfather had left for Kenya, but were not aware of his whereabouts since then. “We thought he may have settled there permanently or might have got married. His wife back here with two children had a tough time in bringing them up,” said Balwinder Kaur, Bishan Singh’s great granddaughter. It was only when Bansal told them that their great grandfather was hanged to death on December 3 in 1915 that the family came to know about the supreme sacrifice made by Singh.

Bishan Singh, along with a large number of “Inquilabis”, had started opposing the British empire in Kenya, where they not only vowed to damage the government property, but also blew up a piece of railway link between Kenya and Tonganika, used for transportation of ration to British soldiers. Five Indian freedom fighters—-Ram Chand, Keshwa Lal, MN Sawle, Bishan Singh and Lal Chand were arrested for this and were made to face a military court martial on December 1, 1915. The trial was conducted barely for two hours and during this, freedom fighters were not allowed to engage a counsel.

On December 2, 1915, Ghadarites were again produced in a court and four of them, except Ram Chand, were awarded death sentence. The very next day, Ghadarites were taken to Mombasa where Bishan Singh was hanged to death.

Later, Bishan Singh’s son Basant Singh too followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Azad Hind Fauj. The family was awarded Tamra Patra in August 1972 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and was also awarded by the Punjab Government.

Tracing the Gakhals

Interestingly, eminent Punjabi Poet Amarjit Chandan was staying in London and was contacted by Kolkata Presidency College professor Benjamin Zakaria who asked him to locate the family of Bishan Singh. According to Sita Ram Bansal, the records mentioned his address as Basti Gujan, but researchers were unable to locate his family as it was then the name of the post office. Later, the Bansals came to know about his surname ‘Gakhal’ and thought of trying luck in Gakhal village which was then under the jurisdiction of Bazti Gujan post office. Although the couple located the family,, they were not sure whether they were the same Ghakals. It was only after they traced his family tree from the village patwari records that the identity of the family was verified.

Gadhri Babe Marg in city

Even though Bishan Singh had played a memorable role in the Ghadar movement, his picture is not available anywhere in history or even with his family members. Members of the Desh Bhagat Yadgaar Hall are now trying to locate his picture from the archives in Berlin. However, a picture of Banta Singh was available and a huge statue is today installed on the Pathankot bypass and the road has been named as ‘Ghadari Babe Marg’.

(To be concluded)