 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Mohamed Barakatullah Bhopali" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Mohammed Barkatullah Bhopali | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Prime Minister of theProvisional Government of India | |
| In office 1 December 1915 – 1919 | |
| President | Mahendra Pratap |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1854-07-07)7 July 1854 |
| Died | 20 September 1927(1927-09-20) (aged 73) |
Mohamed Barakatullah Bhopali, known with his honorific asMaulana Barkatullah (7 July 1854 – 20 September 1927), was an Indianrevolutionary from Bhopal. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itawra mohalla,Bhopal in what is todayMadhya Pradesh,India. He fought from outside India, with fiery speeches and revolutionary writings in leading newspapers, for the independence of India. He did not live to see India's independence. He died in San Francisco in 1927 and was buried in the Old City Cemetery in Sacramento,California. In 1988, Bhopal University was renamedBarkatullah University[1] in his honour. He was also Prime Minister of firstProvisional Government of India established in Afghanistan in 1915.
While in England he came in close contact withLala Hardayal andRaja Mahendra Pratap, son of the Raja ofHathras. He became a friend of Afghan Emir and the editor of the Kabul newspaperSiraj-ul-Akbar. He was one of the founders of theGhadar Party in 1913 at San Francisco. Later he became the first prime minister of theProvisional Government of India established on 1 December 1915 inKabul withRaja Mahendra Pratap as its president.[citation needed]
In England, in 1897, Barakatullah was seen attending meetings of the Muslim Patriotic League. Here, he came across other revolutionary compatriots aroundShyamji Krishnavarma. After about a year spent in America, in February 1904 he left for Japan, where he was appointed Professor of Hindustani at theUniversity of Tokyo. In the autumn of 1906, at 1 West 34th Street in New York City, a Pan-Aryan Association was formed by Barakatullah and Samuel Lucas Joshi, a Maratha Christian, son of the late Reverend Lucas Maloba Joshi; it was supported by the Irish revolutionaries ofClan-na-Gael; lawyerMyron H. Phelps; andSwami Abhedananda who continued the work ofSwami Vivekananda.
According to a report in theGaelic American, in June 1907, a meeting of Indians, held in New York, passed resolutions "repudiating the right of any foreigner (Mr. Morley) to dictate the future of the Indian people, urging their countrymen to depend upon themselves alone and especially on boycott andswadeshi, condemning the deportation ofLajpat Rai andAjit Singh, and expressing detestation of the action of the British authorities in openly instigating one class of Indians against another atJamalpur and other places." (Source: Ker, p225).
More vehement was his letter inPersian, which appeared in theUrdu Mualla ofAligarh, U.P., in May 1907, in which Barakatullah strongly advocated the necessity for unity between Hindus and Muslims, and defined the two chief duties of Muslims as patriotism and friendship with all Muslims outside India. This prophetic argument preceded by four years the publication ofGermany and the Coming War, byBernhardi, warning England to be aware of the extreme danger represented by the unity of Hindu and Muslim extremists in Bengal, as reported by theRowlatt Commission (Chapter VII). He thought that the performance of both these duties depended entirely upon one rule of conduct, namely concord and unity with the Hindus of India in all political matters. (Ker, p. 226).
In June or July 1911, he left for istanbul andPetrograd, returned to Tokyo in October and published an article referring to the advent of a great pan-Islamic Alliance includingAfghanistan which he expected to become "the future Japan of Central Asia". In December he converted to Islam three Japanese: his assistant Hassan Hatanao, his wife, and her father, Baron Kentaro Hiki. This is said to be the first conversion to Islam in Japan. In 1912, Barakatullah "became at once more fluent in his use of the English language and more anti-British in his tone", observes Ker (p. 133).
Meanwhile, since September, copies of another paper calledEl Islam appeared in India, continuing Barakatullah's political propaganda. On 22 March 1913, its importation was prohibited in India. In June 1913, copies were received in India of a lithographed Urdu pamphlet, "The Sword is the Last Resort". On 31 March 1914, Barakatullah's teaching appointment was terminated by the Japanese authorities. It was followed by another similar leaflet,Feringhi ka Fareb (The Deceit of the English) : according to Ker (p. 135), "it surpassed in violence Barakatullah's previous productions, and was modelled more on the style of the publications of theGhadar party of San Francisco with whom Barakatullah now threw in his lot".[citation needed]
In May 1913,G. D. Kumar had sailed from San Francisco for thePhilippines and had written from Manila toTarak Nath Das: "I am going to establish base at Manila (P.I.) forwarding Depôt, supervise the work near China, Hong Kong, Shanghai. Professor Barakatullah is all right in Japan". (Ker, p. 237).[citation needed]
On 22 May 1914, Barakatullah returned to San Francisco withBhagwan Singh (alias Natha Singh), thegranthi (priest) of the Sikh temple at Hong Kong and joined theYugantar Ashram and worked with Tarak Nath Das. With the outbreak of the War in August 1914, meetings were held at all the principal centres of the Indian population from Asia in California and Oregon and funds were raised to go back to India and join the insurrection : Barakatullah,Bhagwan Singh andRam Chandra Bharadwaj were among the speakers. (Portland (Oregon) Telegram, 7 August 1914;Fresno Republican, 23 September 1914).
Reaching Berlin on time, Barakatullah met Chatto orVirendranath Chattopadhyaya and sidedRaja Mahendra Pratap in theMission to Kabul. Their role was significant in indoctrinating with anti-British feelings the Indian prisoners of war held by Germany. They arrived atHerat on 24 August 1915 and were given a royal reception by the Governor.[citation needed]
On 1 December 1915, Pratap's 28th birthday, he established the firstProvisional Government of India atKabul inAfghanistan, duringFirst World War. It was agovernment-in-exile ofFree Hindustan withRaja Mahendra Pratap as president, Maulana Barkatullah, Prime Minister,Ubaidullah Sindhi, Home Minister.[2] Anti-British forces supported his movement. But, for some obvious loyalty to the British, the Amir kept on delaying the expedition. Then they attempted to establish relations with foreign powers". (Ker, p. 305).
In Kabul, theSiraj-ul-Akhbar in its issue of 4 May 1916 publishedRaja Mahendra Pratap's version of the Mission and its objective. He stated: "His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser himself granted me an audience. Subsequently, having set right the problem of India and Asia with the Imperial German Government, and having received the necessary credentials, I started towards the East. I had interviews with theKhedive of Egypt and with the Princes and Ministers ofTurkey, as well as with the renowned Enver Pasha and His Imperial Majesty the Holy Khalif, Sultan-ul-Muazzim. I settled the problem of India and the East with the Imperial Ottoman Government, and received the necessary credentials from them as well.German andTurkish officers and Maulvi Barakatullah Sahib were went with me to help me; they are still with me."[This quote needs a citation] Unable to takeRaja Mahendra Pratap seriously,Jawaharlal Nehru later wrote inAn Autobiography (p. 151): "He seemed to be a character out of medieval romance, aDon Quixote who had strayed into the twentieth century."
| Background |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ghadar | ||
| Berlin Committee | ||
| Indian figures | ||
| German figures | ||
| Conspiracy | ||
| Counter-intelligence | ||
| Related topics | ||
