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Guran Ditt Kumar, also known asG.D. Kumar Singh, was an Indian revolutionary associated with the pioneers of theGadhar movement involved in theIndo-German conspiracy during theFirst World War.
Guran Ditt Kumar was a native ofBannu on the North-West Frontier Province, now in Pakistan. "Guran Ditta" is Punjabi for "Given By the Gurus" - a comparatively common name in the Sikh community, so his actual name is more likely to be Guran Ditta Singh. In 1893 the 2,640 km long Durand line was created to separate British India from the rebel tribes in Afghanistan. Kumar began his working life as an apprentice to an Indian photographer at Rawalpindi.
Attracted by the National College at Kolkata withSri Aurobindo as principal, in 1907 he joined it as a teacher of Hindi and Urdu. Earlier he had come to knowTaraknath Das andSurendramohan Bose. Moreover, theMaratha Lodge, where he resided, was a boarding-house frequented by other revolutionary suspects of the time. Arrested in Mumbai, in February 1909,Ganesh Savarkar, brother ofVinayak Savarkar, was found in possession of "60 pages of closely typed matter in English, which proved to be a copy of the same bomb manual (…) found in theManicktolla garden [in Kolkata]. Savarkar's copy was more complete, as it contained 45 sketches of the bombs, mines and buildings to illustrate the text." (Ker, p182).
On 31 October 1907, Kumar landed in Victoria, B.C., and was received by Taraknath Das to look after a grocery store. In February 1908, the Canadian Press accused him of directing a seditious organisation among the Sikh labourers in British Columbia; he repudiated this charge in a letter published in thePunjabee of Lahore on 5 November 1908, claiming himself to be a Sikh, signing himself G.D. Kumar Singh. Constantly visiting Taraknath Das in Seattle, in August 1909, he settled there.In November he opened at 1632, 2nd Avenue West, Fairview, in Vancouver, a hostel called theSwadesh Sewak ('Servant of the Motherland') : in addition to a night school ofShashida type, to teach English and Mathematics, the building was used for the office and the press of the a monthly paper of the same name that he published in Gurumukhi, broadly reflecting the objectives ofFree Hindustan edited byTaraknath Das. "Its tone generally became more and more objectionable, and as it was addressed principally to the Sikhs in the Indian Army in their own language, and was being sent out to India in considerable numbers (…) Its importation into India was prohibited in March 1911, under the Sea Customs Act." (Ker, pp230–231). With a new immigration law passed on 9 May 1910, when the condition of Indians in British Columbia further deteriorated, Kumar as the Secretary of the local Hindustani Association wrote, on 28 June, to the Prime Minister of Canada to protest against the unfair move. Availing of Tarak's return to Vancouver in September, they utilised the temper of the Indians to organise among them a revolutionary movement. (Bose, p53).
These grievances were to bring about much trouble in the future years. For example, reports of two meetings held at Vancouver on 24 April and at Victoria on 15 May 1910, Kumar in the May issue of his paper discussed:
Both Das and Kumar with the help ofSurendramohan Bose andHussain Rahim had set to bring together the various Indian communities in terms of a united action, until it reached the climax in theGadhar organisation. Bose had been sent to Japan by theScientific and Industrial Association of Kolkata in 1906. On reaching Canada at the end of 1907, Bose had informedSri Aurobindo on 26 December, that Bengalis were wrong in hoping for Japanese help in their nationalist movement, although they had some sympathisers. Specialised in chemistry, he also toured as a lecturer on Indian subjects.
In 1913, he became the general secretary of the Hindustan Association of the USA. Shortly before leaving America, in 1913, from Chicago, he sent to Harnam notes and formulae of his own for making bombs. In January 1914, Bose wrote again from Paris along with "a valuable copy of the process used by the Russian Revolutionists..." Having visited revolutionaries in Paris and Geneva, Bose reached India in February 1914. Harnam Singh (of Sahri) was the other important revolutionary who shared with them this patriotic task : a former trooper of the 4th Cavalry in India, he had gone to China in 1904 and, three years later, reached Canada with Kumar. In 1908-09, he attended school at Seattle and went to Vancouver as Kumar's guest. In a letter to Das, in July 1913, Kumar described Harnam as the leader of the revolutionary movement in Vancouver. Owing to his friendship with Harnam, Baba Gurdit Singh of theKomagata Maru affair knew well this zealous group and, prior to his expedition, had received from Das names and addresses of the leadingJugantar figures such as Atulkrishna Ghose and Satish Chakravarti, who worked underJatindranath Mukherjee. Harnam was deported from San Francisco on 26 September 1914.
While the Gadhar ramifications extended widely, in May 1913, Kumar sailed from San Francisco for the Philippine Islands. He plainly expressed the object of this trip when he wroteTaraknath Das : "I am going to establish a base at Manila (P.I.) forwarding Depôt, supervise the work near China, Hongkong, Shanghai. ProfessorBarakatullah is all right in Japan." (Ker, p237). According to Ker's report, "he was engaged in supervising the work of theGhadr Party in the Far East. Amongst the correspondence of Harnam Singh of Sahri were several letters from G.D. Kumar showing that he was working hard on behalf of the cause. He was in constant touch withBhagwan Singh andBarakatullah and was collecting money for the Ghadr campaign and was sending toHar Dayal. He afterwards went to Japan, where he busied himself meeting Ghadr parties passing through Yokohama on the way to India." (p425).
In the Special List of Record Group 118 (Records of the U.S. Attorney) preserved in San Francisco, and in SanFrancisco Chronicle of 19 January 1918, we find report ofTaraknath Das's trial as defendant. Kumar, too, was mentioned during the 1917-18 San Francisco Trial consisting of 'The German Hindu Conspiracy' and 'Violations of U.S. Neutrality 1913-20.' He was accused of having "formed party in Shanghai in 1914. Associate of German agent Mueller and of Scrinivas (sic!) R. Wagel. Sent arms and ammunition to revolutionary agents in India." No further information is available on this rebel's later life.
| Background |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ghadar | ||
| Berlin Committee | ||
| Indian figures | ||
| German figures | ||
| Conspiracy | ||
| Counter-intelligence | ||
| Related topics | ||
