ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>JAV&#256L&#256 SI&#7748GH (1866-1938)</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="JAVL,SIDGH,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">&#65279JAV&#256L&#256 SI&#7748GH (1866-1938), one of the pioneers of the <u>Gh</u>adr movement of 1914-15, was born about the year 1966 at &#7788ha&#7789&#7789&#299&#257&#7749, a village in Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father, Kanhaiy&#257 Si&#7749gh, was a farmer of limited means. Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh was an ambitious youth and left home in 1905 to seek his fortune abroad. Visiting China, Panama and Mexico, he reached California in the United States of America in 1908. He soon came in contact with B&#257b&#257 Vas&#257kh&#257 Si&#7749gh of Dadehar, an old acquaintance of his, and they took on lease a farm of 500 acres of land near Sacramento, the capital of the state of California. Their hard work was rewarded and they made a reputation for themselves as growers of potatoes. The farm served as a meeting-place for Indian immigrants and all newcomers received here a warm welcome as well as hospitality. This led Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh and his colleagues to plan for the establishment of a permanent centre to provide for the religious, cultural and social needs of the growing Sikh community. The centre appeared in the form of a <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> at Stockton which became in course of time a centre of revolutionary activity.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh was deeply impressed by the freedom and liberty the people of America enjoyed. With a view to spreading this spirit among his own countrymen, Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh and Vas&#257kh&#257 Si&#7749gh set-up Gur&#363 N&#257nak Educational Society and invited four students from India to come and study at American universities and offered to underwrite their expenses. His patriotic fervour earned him great popularity and he was elected vice-president of the California branch of the Hindi Association at its meeting held on 31 December 1913 at Sacramento. As the First World War broke out, Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh along with some of his friends, toured the Pacific Coast telling their countrymen that the ill-treatment they met with in America was the direct outcome of their inferior political status and that they must rise against the British and free their motherland from their control. An organization, the <u>Gh</u>adr Party, was established to bring about an armed rebellion in India. The <i><u>Gh</u>adr</i> newspaper which, besides English, was published in Punjabi and several other Indian languages, was the mouthpiece of its revolutionary ideology. Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh was amongst the leaders of the first large group of <u>Gh</u>adrites which left San Francisco for India on 29 August 1914. At Yokohama, he visited Japanese traders and secretly secured from them some pistols. He attended a meeting in Hong Kong Gurdw&#257r&#257 where he was elected a member of the central committee finally to work out the details of the rising. At Singapore, Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh and some other leaders tried to win over the Indian regiments to join the national revolt against the British. As soon as Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh landed at Calcutta on 29 October 1914, he was taken into custody along with several others. He was tried in the first Lahore Conspiracy Case and was sentenced, on 13 September 1915, to transportation for life with forfeiture of property. According to the trial court, Jav&#257l&#257 Si&#7749gh was one of the brains of the party. He remained in Jail for 18 years. After his release in 1933, he identified himself with the cause of Punjab peasantry and worked for the Punjabi paper, <i>Kirt&#299</i> which voiced their grievances. One of the founders of the Punjab Kis&#257n Sabh&#257, he was elected its first president. He was again arrested in 1935 and sentenced to one year's imprisonment for his work in the Punjab peasants' movement. While he was on his way to Bengal to attend a session of the All-India-Kis&#257n Conference, he met with a fatal accident and died on 9 May 1938.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Puri, Harish K., <i>Ghadr Movement</i>. Amritsar, 1983<BR> <li class="C1"> Jagj&#299t Si&#7749gh,<i><u>Gh</u>adr P&#257r&#7789&#299 Lahir</i>. Delhi, 1979<BR> <li class="C1"> Sainsar&#257, Gurcharan Si&#7749gh, <i><u>Gh</u>adr P&#257r&#7789&#299 d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>. Jalandhar, 1969<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurdev Si&#7749gh Deol<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>