Provisional Government of India
1915–1919
Flag[a]
Territory claimed by the Provisional Government of India shown in dark green
Status	Government in exile
Capital	New Delhi (claimed)
Headquarters	Kabul,Afghanistan
Demonym	Indian
President
• 1915–1919	Mahendra Pratap
Prime Ministerc
• 1915–1919	Maulana Barkatullah
Historical era	World War I · Interwar Period
• Established	1 December 1915
• Disestablished	January 1919
Currency	Afghan rupee (de facto)
ISO 3166 code	IN

TheProvisional Government of India was aprovisionalgovernment-in-exile established inKabul, Afghanistan on 1 December 1915 by theIndian Independence Committee duringWorld War I with support from theCentral Powers. Its purpose was to enrol support from theAfghan Emir as well asTsarist (and laterBolshevik)Russia,China, andJapan for theIndian Movement. Established at the conclusion of theKabul Mission composed of members of theBerlin Committee,German andTurkish delegates, the provisional government was composed ofMahendra Pratap^[1] asPresident,Maulana Barkatullah asPrime Minister,Deobandi MaulaviUbaidullah Sindhi asHome Minister,Deobandi, Maulavi Bashir asWar Minister, andChampakraman Pillai asForeign Affairs Minister. The provisional government found significant support from the internal administration of the Afghan government, although the Emir refused to declare open support, and ultimately, under British pressure it was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1919.

DuringWorld War I, Indian nationalists inGermany andUnited States, as well as the Indian revolutionary underground and Pan-Islamists from India attempted to further the Indian cause with German finance and aid. TheBerlin-Indian committee (which became theIndian Independence Committee after 1915) sent an Indo-German-Turkish mission to the Indo-Iranian border to encourage the tribes to strike against British interests.^[2] The Berlin committee was also at this time in touch with the Khairi brothers (Abdul Jabbar Khairi and Abdul Sattar Khairi), who had at the onset of the war, settled atConstantinople and later in 1917 proposed to theKaiser a plan to lead tribes inKashmir andNorth-West Frontier Province against British interests. Another group led by theDeobandi Maulana Ubaid Allah Sindhi andMahmud al Hasan (principle of theDarul Uloom Deoband) had proceeded to Kabul in October 1915 with plans to initiate a Muslim insurrection in thetribal belt of India. For this purpose, Ubaid Allah was to propose that theAmir of Afghanistan declares war againstBritain while Mahmud al Hasan sought German and Turkish help. Hasan proceeded toHijaz. Ubaid Allah, in the meantime, was able to establish friendly relations with Amir. At Kabul, Ubaid Allah, along with some students who had preceded him to make way toTurkey to join theCaliph's "Jihad" against Britain, decided that the pan-Islamic cause was to be best served by focussing on theIndian Freedom Movement.^[3][4]

Ubaid Allah's group was met by the Indo-German-Turkish mission toKabul in December 1915. Led byOskar von Niedermayer and nominally headed byRaja Mahendra Pratap, it included in its membersWerner Otto von Hentig, the German diplomatic representative to Kabul, as well as,Barkatullah,Chempakaraman Pillai and other prominent nationalists from the Berlin group. The mission, along with bringing members of the Indian movement right to India's border, also brought messages from theKaiser,Enver Pasha and the displacedKhedive ofEgypt,Abbas Hilmi expressing support for Pratap's mission and inviting the Amir to move against India^[5][6] The mission's immediate aim was to rally the Amir againstBritish India^[5] and to obtain from the Afghan Government a right of free passage.^[7]

Although the Amir refused to commit for or against the proposals at the time, it found support amongst the Amir's immediate and close political and religious advisory group, including his brotherNasrullah Khan, his sonsInayatullah Khan andAmanullah Khan, religious leaders and tribesmen.^[5] It also found support in one of Afghanistan's then most influential newspaper, theSiraj al-Akhbar, whose editorMahmud Tarzi took Barkatullah as an officiating editor in early 1916. In a series of articles, Tarzi published a number of inflammatory articles byRaja Mahendra Pratap, as well as publishing increasingly anti-British and pro-Central articles and propaganda. By May 1916 the tone in the paper was deemed serious enough for theRaj to intercept the copies.^[5] A further effort resulted in the establishment in 1916 of the Provisional Government of India in Kabul.

Although hopes of the Amir's support were more or less non-existent, the Provisional Government of India was formed in early 1916 to emphasise the seriousness of intention and purpose. The government hadRaja Mahendra Pratap asPresident,Barkatullah asPrime Minister andSibnath Banerjee,Ubaidullah Sindhi as the Ministers for India,Maulavi Bashir as War Minister andChampakaran Pillai as Foreign Minister. It attempted to obtain support fromTsaristRussia,Republican China,Japan. Support was also obtained fromGalib Pasha, proclaimingJihad against Britain.^[7]

Following theFebruary Revolution in Russia in 1917, Pratap's Government is known to have corresponded with the nascent Soviet Government. In 1918, Mahendra Pratap had metTrotsky inPetrograd before meeting the Kaiser in Berlin, urging both to mobilise against British India.^[8] Under pressure from the British, Afghan cooperation was withdrawn and the mission closed down. However, themission, and the offers and liaisons of the German mission at the time had profound impact on the political and social situation in the country, starting a process of political change that ended with the assassination of Habibullah in 1919 and the transfer of power to Nasrullah and subsequently Amanullah and precipitating theThird Anglo-Afghan War that led to Afghan Independence.^[8]

They attempted to establish relations with foreign powers." (Ker, p305). In Kabul, theSiraj-ul-Akhbar in its issue of 4 May 1916 publishedRaja Mahendra Pratap’s version of the Mission and its objective. He mentioned : "…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 the Khedive of Egypt and with the Princes and Ministers of Turkey, 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 and Turkish officers and Maulvi Barakatullah Sahib were went with me to help me; they are still with me." Under pressure from the British, the Afghan Government withdrew its help. The Mission was closed down.

It has been suggested by a number of historians that the threat posed by theHindu–German Conspiracy itself was the key spurring political progression in India. Especially, the presence of Pratap's enterprise in Afghanistan, next to India, and the perceived threats ofBolshevik Russia together with the overtures of Pratap's provisional government seeking Bolshevik help were judged significant threats to stability in British India.^[9]

While theMontagu–Chelmsford Reforms in 1917 initiated the first rounds of political reform in the Indian subcontinent, a "Sedition Committee" called theRowlatt Committee (chaired by Sydney Rowlatt, an English judge) was instituted in 1918 which evaluated the links between Germany, the Berlin Committee, Pratap's enterprise (termed German agents in Afghanistan) and the militant movement in India, especially inPunjab andBengal. The committee did not find any evidence of Bolshevik involvement, but concluded that the German link was definite. On the recommendations of the committee, theRowlatt Act, an extension of theDefence of India Act 1915, was enforced in response to the threat in Punjab and Bengal.^[9]

In Afghanistan itself, the mission was the catalyst to a rapid radical and progressive political process and reform movement that is culminated in the assassinations of the EmirHabibullah Khan in 1919 and his succession byAmanullah Khan that subsequently precipitated theThird Anglo-Afghan War.

• Ansari, K.H. (1986), "Pan-Islam and the Making of the Early Indian Muslim Socialist",Modern Asian Studies, vol. 20, no. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 509–537
• Seidt, Hans-Ulrich (2001), "From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918",German Studies Review,24 (1 (Feb 2001)), German Studies Association:1–18,doi:10.2307/1433153,JSTOR 1433153
• Sims-Williams, Ursula (1980), "The Afghan Newspaper Siraj al-Akhbar",Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, London, Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp. 118–122,doi:10.1080/13530198008705294,ISSN 0305-6139
• Hughes, Thomas L (October 2002), "The German Mission to Afghanistan, 1915–1916",German Studies Review,25 (3), German Studies Association:447–476,doi:10.2307/1432596,JSTOR 1432596
• Tinker, Hugh (October 1968), "India in the First World War and after",Journal of Contemporary History,3 (4, 1918-19: From War to Peace), Sage Publications:89–107,doi:10.1177/002200946800300407,S2CID 150456443

• Provisional governments
• Indian independence movement
• Hindu–German Conspiracy
• Afghanistan–India relations

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