PUNJABIS from the GREAT WAR to WORLD WAR II Rajit K

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

FROM LOYALTY TO DISSENT: PUNJABIS FROM THE GREAT WAR TO WORLD WAR II

Rajit K. Mazumder

Introduction

The following is a study of the unique relationship between commu- nities recruited from Punjab and the colonial state in British India between c.1914 and c.1947. The first sections demonstrate the loyalty of enlisted groups, reciprocating decades of favourable treatment by the governments of Punjab and India. The latter sections of the essay chart how Punjabi ‘martial classes’ responded to the withdrawal of these privileges during World War II, and to the dynamic political environment of the time: by transferring their loyalty from the British and their allies to sundry local dispensations. How had the special relationship between the colonial state and recruited Punjabis developed? More than half the ‘native’ component of the Indian Army was recruited in Punjab by 1911. A significant amount of funds went into its villages as pay and pensions of ser- vicemen, positively affecting militarized peasants. The positive impact of military expenditure and access to military funds created a social and economic base on which a particular loyalist ideology emerged in Punjab.1 However, the British government was aware that Punjab was its Achilles’ heel, vital in its ability to rule India. This consideration, together with the improving zeal of provincial officials, gave rise to the paternalistic ‘Punjab School’ of administration. The result was that the colonial state privileged rural Punjab through economic and legal con- cessions.2 The Punjabis reciprocated by providing increasing revenue and remaining loyal.

1 For the ‘Punjabization’ of the army and the economic impact of military incomes on Punjabis, see Rajit K. Mazumder, The Indian Army and the Making of Punjab (Delhi: 2003), 7–88. Some of the arguments in this essay were first made in this book, and I am grateful for the publisher’s permission to use the material here. 2 Mazumder, Indian Army, 93–138. 462 rajit k. mazumder

‘Outsiders’ and Rural Revolution

Returning emigrants, mainly from North America, disturbed the gen- eral political calm that had prevailed in rural Punjab after the agita- tions of 1905–07.3 Organized by the Stanford Professor Har Dayal, they published the newspaper Ghadar,4 attempted revolution against imperialism in America, and exported it to Punjab to instigate armed revolution and assassination of British officials.5 The first Ghadarite ‘delegation’ arrived in Punjab in the summer of 1913 to tour the major Sikh districts; it was closely watched by the state.6 In May 1914, the Komagata Maru arrived off the coast of Vancouver carrying 376 Punjabis.7 The Canadian authorities refused to allow the passengers to disembark. The Great War broke out during the ship’s return, and it docked in Calcutta in September. The governments of India and Punjab had decided not to allow the passengers free movement. A special contingent of Punjab Police was sent to escort them to Punjab. An altercation led to a shootout in which 18 Sikhs were killed by the police; 202 were jailed and the rest escaped.8 The disgruntled passengers on theKomagata Maru were not revolutionaries, though they had been exposed to their propaganda. The incident proved the need for strict supervision and stern action. On 28 October 1914, the Tasu Maru arrived in Calcutta carrying emigrants from America and the Far East. Everybody was arrested and only 73 were released after ‘investigation’. It was established that the

3 Mazumder, Indian Army, 203–13. 4 The Persian-Urdu word has multiple, flexible meanings: anarchy, rebellion, mutiny, chaos. Its most well known use is in reference to 1857: ‘Ghadar’ has become synonymous with ‘1857’. See Mahmood Farooqui, Besieged: Voices from Delhi, 1857 (Delhi: 2010), 1–10. 5 Mark Juergensmeyer, “Ghadar Sources: Research on Punjabi Revolutionaries in America”, in Parm Bakshsish Singh and Devendra Verma (eds.), Punjab and the Free- dom Struggle (Patiala: 1998), 182. 6 Michael O’Dwyer, India As I Knew It: 1885–1925 (London: 1925), 186–88; M.S. Leigh, The Punjab and the War (Lahore: 1922), 17; Harish K. Puri, Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organization & Strategy (Amritsar: 1983), 38–40, 67–76, 105–16. 7 Of these, the total number of Sikhs was 355, “nearly all veterans of the British Army’s famous Sikh regiments.” Roy Gardner, “Komagata Maru Affair: When Van- couver Turned Back the Sikhs (in 1914)”, Panjab Past & Present, vol. 12 (1978), 142–3. 8 For details see, Gardner, ‘Komagata Maru Affair’, 142–54; Puri, Ghadar, 76–81; D.L. Choudhary, Violence in the Freedom Movement of Punjab (1907–1942) (Delhi: 1986), 43–5.