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WASTED HEROSIM: GHADAR PROPAGANDA and the HUMAN COST of REBELLION

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WASTED HEROSIM: GHADAR PROPAGANDA and the HUMAN COST of REBELLION WASTED HEROSIM: GHADAR PROPAGANDA AND THE HUMAN COST Of REBELLION S. Siddiqui Wanted: Brave soldiers to stir up Ghadar in India. Pay: Death. Prize: Martyrdom. Pension: Liberty. Field of Battle: India.’ ITH these words Lala Har Dayal launched the Hindustan Gadar on WNovemeber 1, 1913 in San Francisco. for the next five years it became the primary organ of the Pacific Coast Hindustani Association, also known as the Ghadar Party. from 1913 to 1917, Indian nationalists promulgated rebellion among the South Asian immigrant community in California, inspiring eight thousand South Asians across the United States to return to India to fight for freedom from the British. However, by 1918, the movement disintegrated, and their various adversaries at home and in the West captured, imprisoned and executed those “brave soldiers.” The Ghadar Movement was almost entirely ineffectual. The eight thousand Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu revolutionaries that returned to India made little impact on the larger Independence movement. It was a futile fight. The Movement was the poorly planned, quixotic fantasy of a few radical Nationalists who advanced their cause through propaganda, allowing Ghadar soldiers to sacrifice their lives in vain. A small group of activists managed to maneuver the uneducated and irresolute Punjabis into fighting for a country that didn’t welcome their zeal for aggression. Ghadar failed to bring autonomy to India, but more importantly, it endangered the political status of South Asians in the United States. The Punjabi story is singular among the various immigration expe riences in the U.S. Situated in the lush agrarian land of Northern India, the Punjab faced numerous foreign threats from inner-Asian nations ‘Hindustan Gadar, November i, 1913. 70 S. Siddiqui seeking the riches of India. Consequently, the Punjabi people developed a ruthless defense against foreigners, giving them bragging rights as one of India’s best armies. They relied heavily on their land not solely to exert political authority, but also as a mean of financial support, and so the advent of British imperialism became the Punjabis’ greatest loss. The British struggled to overcome the Punjabi insurgency but prevailed in the end, disgracing the long-proud warriors of the North.2 The shame and mortification associated with this defeat tarnished the Punjabi legacy for generations to come. Impressed by Punjabi military expertise, the British drafted Punjabi soldiers into the Royal Army.3 With British domination slowly encroach ing on their freedoms, Punjabis had few financial opportunities beyond agrarian pursuits and joining the British military units. Both occupations provided for a modest middle-class life as a second-rate citizen in India. However, fighting for the British oppressor and being forced to fight against one’s own brothers was demoralizing. Having few opportunities for economic advancement at home, several middle-class Punjabis looked abroad. The first vanguard of Indians to immigrate to the United States and Canada were ex-British soldiers from the Punjab. About 90% were Sikhs, and the remainder Muslims and Hindus.4 In British India, most Punjabi families occupied a fixed status in the middle-class, but stories of the great financial opportunities in America, and fewer promising prospects in Asia and Africa, lured them westward.5 The immigrant group was a mixture of Indian British Army veterans and young men seeking financial advancement abroad.6 Harrold A. Gould argues that migrant Punjabis were not wallowing in the depths of poverty, but were merely seeking economic advancement.7 This argument refutes the conventional, but limited, explanation that Punjabis left due to droughts and famines in the early l900s to prevent the impoverishment ofthe family and village.8 However, the most factual conclusion lies in the Punjabi’s deep need for financial advancement and unwillingness to join the British Army. Barbara 0. Metcalfand Thomas R. Metcalf A Concise History ofModern India, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 90. Ibid. L. Gonzales, “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns: The Origins of the Silth Com munity in California,” International Migration Review 20 (1986): 41. Harold A. Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies: The India Lobby in the United States, 1900—1946 (New Delhi: Sage Publications tndia, 2006), 8z. 6 Karen Leonard, “Punjabi Farmers and California’s Mien Land Law,” Agricultural History 59 (ig8): 549. Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies, 82. Joan M. Jensen, Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), 25. Ix PoSr FAcTo WASTED HER05IM 71 Migration proves to be the last resort for the insolvent and rebellious Punjabi.9 Therefore, the Punjabi immigrant sought a definite economic advantage in America which would supplement the family’s income and allow for eventual prosperity at home, while simultaneously escaping the British Raj. Indian Immigrants at Angel Island, 1910. Photo courtesy ofEchoes of freedom Exhibit, University of California Berkeley. Being laborers with a knack for farming, the Punjabis took advantage of the rapid agriculture, mining, and railroad opportunities in Canada and the Pacific Coast states. By 1910, 2,742 South Asians had settled in California.’0 They soon earned themselves a reputation as “hardier than the Chinese, the Japanese, or even the so-called Caucasian races.”0 Some tried to become skilled laborers but were effectively barred from expand ing their scope of employment, due to the labor unions’ discrimination against Asians.’2 They were willing to work for the lowest wages, and saved almost all their money by living with fellow Sikh laborers in the most meager of conditions. They kept some of their earnings for invest ment in agricultural and mercantile enterprises, thus setting the founda tion for what would fund their political ascent.’3 By investing in Amen- Nikky-Gunindev Kaur Singh, trans., The Name ofMy Beloved: Verses ofthe Sikh Gurus (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995), 20. Gonzales, “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns,” 42. “Gould, Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies, 79. ‘Jensen, Passage from India, 28. Gonzales, “Asian Indian Immigration Patterns,” 43. VOLUME XIX 2010 72 S. Siddiqui can ventures, the Punjabis made a definitive shift from their promise to return home to their waiting families. When leaving India, the son was made to swear that he would be have himself and would eventually return to India and resume his familial duties. However, finding life in America more monetarily rewarding, several Punjabi men settled down. California decidedly lacked Punjabi-Indian women, so some Punjabi men married Mexicans or whites, but these exogamous marriages were not the norm as most men chose bachelorhood.14 While inter-marriage provided for an assimilation of sorts, Punjabi men and their multicultural families knew they were unlike any other society in California and often felt the sting of racism. Due to their stubborn adherence to traditional values, Punjabis were reluctant to adapt to American society. White supremacists promoted the idea that Punjabis were “somewhat less than human” and incapable of assimilation or civilized society.’5 History witnessed the fact that every period has victims, and the hairy, rather unkempt “Hindus” were undesirables in a segregated white America.’6 The media popularized phrases like the Hindu Invasion and the Tide of Turbans. Some Indians had difficulty finding jobs in urban areas, and claimed to be Black or Mexican to escape the greater prejudice against South Asians.’8 For the most part, Punjabis were impervious to racism and exclusionary sentiment on the social level, but as the twentieth century wore on the pricks of political racism against Asians became more prevalent. Until 1908, immigration was not a significant issue for South Asians.’9 As indicated in the table below, there is a dramatic fluctuation of South Asian immigrants to the U.S. between 1908 and 1909. Before 1908, only io% of applicants to enter the U.S. were rejected. Loosely regulated immigration laws, because ofthe need for labor, soon resulted in a visibly flourishing Punjabi community in California, as the afore mentioned Punjabi laborers were willing to work for the lowest wages, creating too much competition for union workers. 4lbid.,47. “Ibid.,44. ‘ The term “Hindu” is a misnomer used by Anglos in the twentieth century. Early South Asian immigrants were actually comprised of Sikhs and Muslims, as well as Hindus. The South Asians were perceived as hairy and unkempt by a dominant white society unused to this breed of brown person. ‘7Jensen, Passagefrom India, ‘8lbid.,4i. “The significant increase in 1910 is thus far unaccounted for. Ex PosT FACTO WASmD HEROSIM 73 Asian Indian Immigration to the United States: 1900-1914 Year Number Year Number 1900 9 1908 1,710 1901 20 1909 337 1902 84 1910 1,782 1903 83 1911 517 1904 258 1912 165 1905 145 1913 188 1906 271 1914 172 1907 1,072 1915 82 U.S. Census, 1975: 1O7—1O8. Organizations like the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL) were indefa tigable in their efforts to prevent the further immigrations of Asians. They were mostly concerned with the exclusion of Chinese and Japanese workers, but soon turned their attention towards the Punjabi “dark skinned, alien intruders.”2’ According to the AEL, ten thousand Punjabis occupied the Pacific States in 1910, and they entered the U.S. to “the prejudice ofthe unemployed white citizen.”22 Actually, there were fewer than six thousand South Asians living in the U.S. in 1910.23 In a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor the AEL wrote: “The Asiatic Exclusion League respectfully protests against the wholesale landing of Hindus who are now being admitted ... [theseJ Hindus are no more wanted or needed here.”24 The AEL also wrote to various politicians urging them to pass austere immigration laws against Asians, but they also directly harassed the Asian workers.
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