Martyrs of Punjab: Jawala Singh ( Baba) |
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Jawala Singh ( Baba) |
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He was born in village Thatian, District Amritsar,
sometime during the sixties of the nineteenth cenhuy, His father was
a small land-owner
and the family eked out their living with great difficulty. Like many
other daT°ng Punjabi peasants of those days, Jawala Singh proceeded
abroad in search of better ocooomic prospects. He left India in 1905
and went to California via Chivy Panama and Mexico. Reaching there
he purchased a Piece of land and started farming in collaboration with
Baba Wasakha Sam. After he had been in California for a few years be
realized together with some other Sikh settlers the urgent need of
having a cultural centre where they could moat occasionally and discuss
matters of common interest. For this purpose a guadwara was built in
Stockton. which subsequently became a centre of revolutionary activities.
The freedom and liberty that people enjoyed in America created a deep
impression upon his young mind and with a view to making his own countrymen
imbibe that spirit, he invited four students from India to study there
and all their expenses were net by hum His patriotic spirit canted
him great popularity and he was elected President of the California
Branch of the Indian Association, the fast organization that had been
set up by the Indian settlers over there to guard their mteredts.'Ihe
inhuman and discriminatory treatment meted out to them by the natives
and the unsympathetic attitude adopted by the British Indian Government
in the matter created a powerful feeling in the minds of Jawala Singh
and his friends that the root cause of all their troubles and hardships.
was their political subjection. Once this feeling was born, the timely
outbreak of the First World War created the necessary opportunities
to strike a blow for the attainment of their objective. Taking advantage
of the favourable turn in the situation. Dabs Jawala Singh, Baba Wasakha
Singh, Baba Sohan Singh tmakns and Lala Hardyal toured the Pacific
Coast impressing upon their people the urgent need of a powerful political
organ to bring about a revolution in India. The new organ that thus
came into being was the famous Ghadr Party with the Gha& paper
as its vehicle of political propaganda.
The main aim of the party being to organize at armed rebellion in India,
several batches of revolutionaries were sent to India. Baba Jawala
Singh was one of the principal leaders of the first big batch which
left San Francisco for India on August 29, 1914 by the ship called
Korea. From Hong Kong a new ship Tosha Mans was hired for the onward
journey to India. At Singapore Jawala Singh and sonic other leaders
tried to win over the loyalty of Indian regiments and to incite them
for a national revolt against the British, but not much success was
achieved.
As soon as they landed at Calcutta, most of them were arrested including
Baba Jawala Singh and all their plans were frustrated. In 1915 the
Baba was tried in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced
to life imprisonment Ile remained in Jail for 18 years and was released
in 1933. When he was serving his term in the Andaman islands, he went
on hunger-strike against the in human treatment of prisoners by the
authorities.
After 1933 he identified himself with the cause of peasants and workers
and worked for the Punjabi paper Kirti which voiced their grievances.
For his new activities he was rearrested in 1935 and sentenced to one
year's imprisonment. But this did not affect his veal and he continued
his work as usual When he was on his way to Bengal to attend a session
of the All-India Kisan Conference, he met an mysterious accident on
the way and died in 1938. His whole life was a life of dedicatton to
the
national cause
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