Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from withinLajpat Rai, Lala
History
Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from within
Lajpat Rai, Lala
India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
There was a serious rising in Singapore, which was eventually put down
with the help of the Japanese and French troops, and in connection with
which a good many European lives were lost. Similarly, men smuggling
arms and seditious literature, or attempting to smuggle arms, or
otherwise carrying on anti-British propaganda, have been discovered,
arrested and held in Burma, Singapore, Hongkong, Shanghai and Ceylon. A
large number of Indians are in internment in Hongkong. Two Indian
revolutionaries were deported from Japan, at the instance of the British
Government, and several have been, I hear, interned in Java by the
orders of the Dutch Government. Har Dayal and several others have been
active in Europe and Asia Minor. The Hindu revolutionaries in the United
States have also been busy in their propaganda. It is said that the
Germans have been helping the Indians with funds and arms. How far they
did render any substantial help in this matter is not known, but the
conclusion of the Lahore Special Tribunal, that it was known to the
leaders of the “Gadar” party in San Francisco in 1914, that a war
between the British and Germans was on the _tapis_ in August of that
year, appears to be without foundation. The Indians who left the United
States in 1914 to organise a rebellion in India, were neither financed
nor otherwise inspired by the Germans. They went of their own accord,
with their own money and on their own hook. Some of them were men of
means. It may be true, however, that the Germans have helped the Indian
revolutionaries with money and arms since. So much about the
revolutionaries.
IV
Now something about the activity of the other wing of the Indian
nationalists. When the war started, all of them declared for England,
some sincerely, others for reasons of expediency. All were influenced by
hopes of advancing their cause. For a time the appreciation in
England--in and out of Parliament--amply justified their expectations.
The first shock came when the British War Office refused to accept the
offers of the Indian students in British universities to enlist in the
army or as volunteers. The same fate met the offers of educated Indians
in India. The offers made by some native princes and in a few cases by
other members of the aristocracy for personal service were accepted,
otherwise no relaxation in favour of any Indian was made in the rules
for enlistment in the regular army or in the volunteers. The following
extracts from the two leading Indian dailies of Calcutta and Allahabad
will explain what I mean. The _Bengalee_ of Calcutta said:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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