Kartar Singh Sarabha

Kartar Singh Sarabha

Subject: Modern History

Section: Freedom struggle

Context: The AAP government in Punjab orders its offices to put up photos of its mascot Bhagat Singh and his hero Kartar Singh Sarabha.

Concept:

Kartar Singh Sarabha:

• He was born in a highly educated family. He was brought up by his grandfather Badan Singh Grewal due to his parents’ early demise.
• One of his teachers included the famous nationalist Beni Madhab Das, who inspired Subhas Chandra Bose.
• In 1912, when he reached Berkeley, he came into contact with Lala Hardayal, an acclaimed Sanskrit scholar, Sohan Singh Bhakna, a farmer, and Pandurang Sadashiv Khankhoje, an agricultural scientist who formed the Pacific Coast Hindustan Association in 1913.It was a precursor to the Ghadar Party, that was formed on July 15, 1913, with the express aim of over throwing the British government in India.
• The party set up a printing press in San Francisco, and brought out its first issue of The Ghadar in Urdu on November 1, 1913, followed by the Punjabi edition on December 13.
• Sarabha left his studies and became Ghadr Party’s youngest founding member.
• He was one of the most active fundraisers in the organisation, holding meetings in the rural areas where the farmers donated generously.
• Bhagat Singh’s father Kishan Singh had given Sarabha Rs.1,000 for his movement.
• He worked shoulder to shoulder with the much older Ghadri “babas”, who began to call him ‘BalaJarnail (Boy general)’.
• With World War-I breaking out in July 1914, the Ghadris decided to return to India including Sarabha.
• He was often accompanied by fellow Ghadar party member Vishnu Ganesh Pingle.
• By 1915, the Britishbegan to arrest Ghadar party members and Sarabha was also arrested and put on a trial what came to be called the Lahore conspiracy case which resulted in the execution of 24 Ghadris.
• The British Police said that he had two books, one was Indian Sociologist published by Shyamji Krishna Varma, who had set up “India House” in London, and the second, Speeches from the Dock, featuring Irish freedom fighters who were executed.
• He was hanged to death in Lahore in 1915 (hardly 19 years old).
• Bhagat Singh often says that “Sarabha was his ustad.”

To know about Bhagat Singh, refer: https://optimizeias.com/bhagat-singh-3/

To know about Ghadr movement, refer: https://optimizeias.com/azadi-ka-amrit-mahotsav-series-2/