ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>HARN&#256M SI&#7748GH &#7788U&#7750&#7692&#298L&#256&#7788 (1882-1962)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="HARNM,SIDGH,lUF *Ll,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279HARN&#256M SI&#7748GH &#7788U&#7750&#7692&#298L&#256&#7788 (1882-1962), a <u>Gh</u>adr revolutionary, was born, in March 1882, the son of Gurdit Si&#7749gh a farmer of modest means, of Ko&#7789l&#257 Naudh Si&#7749gh, in Hoshi&#257rpur district of the Punjab. He learnt to read Gurmukh&#299 in the village <i>dharams&#257l&#257</i> and joined the Indian army as he grew up. On 12 July 1906, he emigrated to Canada and thence to California in the United States of America in December 1909. There he worked in a lumber mill at Bridalville, Oregon. He attended a meeting of Indian immigrants at Portland in the beginning of 1912 which led to the formation of Hindust&#257n&#299 Workers of the Pacific Coast, later renamed Hind&#299 Association of the Pacific Coast, but popularly known as the <u>Gh</u>adr Party. The first meeting of the Association was held on 31 March 1913 at Bridalville, where Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh was elected secretary of the local branch. In a party meeting at Sacramento on 31 December 1913, he was made a member of the central executive. Meanwhile, it had been decided to launch a weekly paper, <i><u>Gh</u>adr</i> (literally rebellion), to be published in Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and other Indian languages. The first issue of the <i><u>Gh</u>adr</i> in Urdu appeared on 1 November 1913, and its Punjabi edition followed in January 1914. To begin with, L&#257l&#257 Harday&#257l was its editor, with Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh Sar&#257bh&#257 and Raghub&#299r Day&#257l as assistant editors. Later, Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh, with a few others, was also invited to join the editorial board. He wrote verse in Punjabi and contributed to the paper poems burning with patriotic fervour. He also acted as a bodyguard to L&#257l&#257 Harday&#257l, the party general secretary.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; With the expulsion of L&#257l&#257 Harday&#257l from America in April 1914, party work at the Yug&#257ntar &#256shram, its headquarters in San Francisco, was redistributed. Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh was made editor of the <i><u>Gh</u>adr</i>, with four others to assist him. Talk of an impending war between Great Britain and Germany was in the air, and the programme of the <u>Gh</u>adr Party was directed towards a planned rebellion in India as the British got involved in Europe. While &#362dham Si&#7749gh Kasel started imparting military training to party volunteers and Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh Sar&#257bh&#257 went to the eastern coast to train as a flier-cum-aircraft mechanic, Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh learnt bomb-making from an American friend. During an experiment, on 5 July 1914, his left hand was blown off as a result of which his left arm had to be amputated well above the wrist. He was given by his comrades the new name of <i>&#7788u&#7751&#7693&#299l&#257&#7789</i>, the armless Lord. The epithet contained an ironic allusion to Sir Henry Hardinge, governor-general of India (1844-48) at the time of the first Anglo-Sikh war, who was called by the Punjabis &#7788u&#7751&#7693&#257 L&#257&#7789 because of his having lost a limb during the Napoleonic Wars. Upon the outbreak of World War I on 25 July 1914, the <u>Gh</u>adr Party directed its members and sympathizers to return to India forthwith. Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh came via Colombo and arrived in the Punjab on 24 December 1914. Disguised as a holy man in ochre robes, he roamed the Do&#257b&#257 villages preaching the message of <u>Gh</u>adr. He also contacted, at the behest of the party, troops in R&#257w&#257lpi&#7751&#7693&#299, Bann&#363, Nowsher&#257 and Pesh&#257war cantonments. The plan for a military and general rising on 21 February 1915, later advanced to 19 February 1915, having failed owing to betrayal by a police agent smuggled into the party cadre, Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh &#7788u&#7751&#7693&#299l&#257&#7789 along with Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh Sar&#257bh&#257 and Jagat Si&#7749gh of Sursi&#7749gh escaped to the North-West Frontier Province to seek temporary refuge in Afghanistan and plan afresh. But receiving no support from that government, they turned back and arrived, on 2 March 1915, at Wilsonpur, a remount farm in Chakk No. 5 in Sh&#257hpur (Sargodh&#257) district, to stay with one R&#257jindar Si&#7749gh, a military pensioner and an acquaintance of Jagat Si&#7749gh, himself an ex-soldier. R&#257jindar Si&#7749gh, however, betrayed them to the police through Ris&#257ld&#257r Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh of Ga&#7751&#7693&#299vi&#7751&#7693, who held charge of a remount farm. All the three were arrested and taken to Lahore Central Jail, where they were tried in what is known as the First Lahore Conspiracy case. The trial by a special tribunal under the Defence of India Act 1914 began on 26 April 1915 and the judgement was delivered on 13 September 1915. Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh &#7788u&#7751&#7693&#299l&#257&#7789 was one of the twenty-four sentenced to death with forfeiture of property. The <u>Gh</u>adr leaders refused to file an appeal, but the Viceroy on his own commuted the death penalty into life imprisonment in the case of seventeen of them, including Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh. He served six years in the A&#7751&#7693amans and nine years in other jails in Madr&#257s, Pu&#7751e, Bombay and Montgomery. On 15 September 1930, he was released on medical grounds. He served another term in jail from 1941 to 1945. At the time of inter-communal turbulence in 1947, he helped Muslim residents of his village and the surrounding area to evacuate to refugee camps.He died on 18 September 1962 after a brief illness.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh was a revolutionary poet and a writer of prose of considerable merit. Three collections of his poems have been published <i>Harn&#257m Lahir&#257&#7749, Kur&#299t&#299 Sudh&#257r</i> and <i>Harn&#257m Sandesh</i>. His prose works include <i>Sachch&#257 Saud&#257, A<u>Kh</u>l&#257q te Mazhab</i>, both in Punjabi, and <i>Mazhab aur Ins&#257n&#299at</i>, in Urdu.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Jas, Jaswant Si&#7749gh, <i>Desh Bhagat B&#257be</i>. Jalandhar, 1975<BR> <li class="C1"> Deol, Gurdev Si&#7749gh, <i>Ghadr P&#257r&#7789&#299 ate Bh&#257rat d&#257 Qaum&#299 Andolan</i>. Amritsar, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Jagj&#299t Si&#7749gh, <i>Ghadr P&#257r&#7789&#299 Lahir</i>. Delhi, 1979<BR> <li class="C1"> Puri, Harish K., <i>Ghadr Movement</i>. Amritsar, 1983<BR> <li class="C1"> Mohan, Kamlesh, <i>Militant Nationalism in the Punjab. 1919-35</i>. Delhi, 1985<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurmukh Si&#7749gh Mus&#257fir<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>