Ghadr Party’s Lahore Conspiracy Case: 1915 Judgment

Four year before the Russian revolution and eight years before Mahatma Gandhi launched his first Non-Cooperation Movement against the British, a revolutionary party of patriotic Indian living abroad, was born with the sole object of fighting for the complete independence of India.  Inspired by the great intellectual Lala Har Dayal and aided by young dedicated students like Kartar Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, ‘Gadar Party’ was founded in Astroia, Oregon, USA in 1913.  Its aim was to overthrow the Biriths Government in India and establish a Republic based on equality, social and economic justice and totally devoid of all kinds of bigotry.  When the World War I was declared in August 1914, thousands, of Indians, living in the USA and Canada, gave up their jobs, left all their property behind, and returned to India to start an armed revolution for the freedom of their country.  On arrival in India a large number of them were arrested, many were shot dead.  But the movement failed due to the infiltration of the British spies in the midst of the revolutionists.  Prominent leaders were arrested and tried by a Special Tribunal.  Many of them were hanged, their property forefeited and others were mostly sentenced for transportation for life.  This voluminous book is the judgment of the trial of these heroes.  This is one of the most important documents of India’s freedom struggle, but unfortunately it is also the least studied.  It is being published for the first time in book form in full for the general public and the research scholars interested in the study of the history of freedom struggle of India.