World War I Revolutionaries

The outbreak of World War I (1914–1918) acted as a catalyst for Indian revolutionaries. Recognizing Britain’s preoccupation with the war in Europe, revolutionaries within India and abroad viewed it as a unique geopolitical opportunity—often summarized as “Britain’s peril is India’s opportunity”—to launch an armed rebellion to overthrow British colonial rule.

Ideological Underpinnings and Objectives

During this phase, the revolutionary strategy shifted from isolated individual assassinations to organized, transnational armed conspiracies.

• Securing Foreign Alliances: Leveraging rivalries between European powers to procure arms, ammunition, and financial backing from Germany and Turkey.
• Military Mutiny: Instigating Indian soldiers within the British Indian Army to revolt.
• Pan-Islamic Mobilization: Utilizing the Khilafat sentiment to rally Muslims against British interests globally.

Major Transnational Movements and Conspiracies

The Ghadar Movement

The Ghadar Party was an international political movement founded by expatriate Indians, primarily Punjabi Sikhs, along with Hindus and Muslims, to overthrow British rule in India.

• Foundation: Established in 1913 as the Pacific Coast Hindustan Association in San Francisco, USA, under the leadership of Lala Har Dayal, Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna, and Pandit Kanshi Ram.
• The Journal: The movement derived its name from its weekly newspaper, Ghadar, which carried the masthead: Angrezi Raj ka Dushman (An Enemy of British Rule).
• The Plan: With the onset of WWI, Ghadarites returned to India in large numbers to seduce Indian soldiers into a simultaneous mutiny scheduled for February 21, 1915.
• Suppression: The conspiracy was leaked by an informer, Kirpal Singh. The British government crushed the movement using the Defence of India Act 1915, leading to the Lahore Conspiracy Trials.

Key Leadership of the Ghadar Movement

The Berlin Committee and the Hindu-German Conspiracy

The Hindu-German Conspiracy was a series of plans formulated between 1914 and 1917 to initiate a pan-Indian rebellion backed by the German Empire.

• The Berlin Committee: Founded in 1915 by Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (Chatto), Bhupendranath Dutta, and Lala Har Dayal, with the help of the German Foreign Office under the “Zimmermann Plan.”
• The Strategy: To send arms and funds to Indian revolutionaries via neutral channels (such as the United States) and East Asian networks.
• The Annie Larsen Affair: A prominent attempt where the American ship Annie Larsen was loaded with German arms intended for Indian revolutionaries in Bengal, though the plan failed due to coordination lapses and British intelligence intercepting the cargo.

The Bagha Jatin and the Jugantar Initiative

In Bengal, the revolutionary network Jugantar, under the leadership of Jatindranath Mukherjee (popularly known as Bagha Jatin), attempted to receive German arms shipments in the Bay of Bengal.

• The Plan: German arms were scheduled to land at Rai Mangal in the Sundarbans and Balasore in Odisha. Jatin planned to use these weapons to capture Fort William in Calcutta.
• The Battle of Balasore (1915): British intelligence intercepted the plans. Bagha Jatin and his associates were cornered by British forces on the banks of the Burhabalang River. Jatin died of wounds sustained during the gunfight, ending this phase of Bengal revolutionary activity.

Provisional Government of India in Kabul (1915)

As part of the geopolitical alignment with the Central Powers, Indian revolutionaries set up the first provisional government-in-exile.

• Establishment: Set up on December 1, 1915, in Kabul, Afghanistan, with the support of the Emir of Afghanistan and the German-Turkish mission.
• Structure: Raja Mahendra Pratap served as the President, Maulana Barkatullah as the Prime Minister, and Obaidullah Sindhi as the Home Minister.
• Objective: To secure diplomatic recognition from anti-British international powers and launch military operations from the North-West Frontier.

The Silk Letter Conspiracy (Silk Letter Movement)

Organized primarily by Deobandi leaders, this initiative aimed to overthrow the British Raj by forging an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, Afghanistan, and Imperial Germany.

• Key Proponents: Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Mahmud Hasan (the Principal of Darul Uloom Deoband).
• The Execution: In 1916, plans for a coordinated army uprising were written on pieces of silk cloth and sent from Kabul to Hedjaz (Saudi Arabia).
• Interception: The letters were intercepted by the Punjab Criminal Investigation Department (CID), leading to the arrest and internment of major Deobandi leaders globally.

The Komagata Maru Incident (1914)

While not born out of a wartime conspiracy, this incident served as an immediate trigger for anti-British mobilization during the war.

• The Voyage: Gurdit Singh, a Singapore-based Indian businessman, chartered the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru to transport 376 passengers (mostly Punjabi Sikhs and Muslims) directly from Hong Kong to Vancouver, Canada, challenging Canada’s discriminatory “Continuous Journey” regulation.
• The Rejection: The ship was denied entry by Canadian authorities and forced to return to India after a two-month standoff.
• The Budge Budge Riot: The ship docked at Budge Budge near Calcutta in September 1914. British authorities attempted to force the passengers onto a Punjab-bound train. A riot ensued, resulting in the police shooting and killing 20 passengers, fueling deep resentment that fed directly into Ghadar recruitment.

Legislative and Administrative Countermeasures by the British

To curb the surge of revolutionary networks during World War I, the British colonial government enacted stringent emergency legislation.

Defense of India Act, 1915

This act granted the Governor-General-in-Council extraordinary powers to ensure public safety and internal security. It allowed for special tribunals, exclusion of the right to appeal, detention without trial, and the suppression of political dissent. It served as the direct precursor to the Rowlatt Act of 1919.

Rowlatt Committee (1918)

Chaired by Justice S.A.T. Rowlatt, the Sedition Committee evaluated the links between Indian revolutionaries, German intelligence, and international networks during the war. Its recommendations led to the Anarchical and Revolutionary Crimes Act of 1919 (Rowlatt Act).

Historical Significance and Prelims Trivia

• Bandi Jiwan: Written by Sachindra Nath Sanyal, this book served as the definitive textbook and source of inspiration for the next generation of revolutionaries, including Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad.
• First Indian Flag Abroad: Madam Bhikaji Cama unfurled the first version of the Indian National Flag at the International Socialist Congress in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1907, laying the early groundwork for internationalizing the Indian national movement before WWI.
• Rash Behari Bose’s Escape: Following the failure of the 1915 Ghadar mutiny, Bose escaped to Japan under the alias P.N. Tagore, where he later founded the Indian Independence League, creating the structural precursor to the Indian National Army (INA).