ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>KART&#256R SI&#7748GH SAR&#256BH&#256 (1896-1915)</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="KARTR,SIDGH,SARBH,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">&#65279KART&#256R SI&#7748GH SAR&#256BH&#256 (1896-1915), <u>Gh</u>adr revolutionary, was born in 1896 in the village of Sar&#257bh&#257, in Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district of the Punjab, the only son of Ma&#7749gal Si&#7749gh, a well-to-do farmer. After receiving his primary education in his own village, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh entered the M&#257lv&#257 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 High School at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 for his matriculation. He was in his tenth class when he went to live with his uncle in O&#7771&#299ss&#257 where, after finishing high school, he joined college. In 1912, when he was barely 16 years old he sailed for San Fransisco, California (U.S.A.), and joined the University of California at Berkeley, enrolling for a degree in chemistry. His association with the N&#257land&#257 Club of Indian Students at Berkeley aroused his Patriotic sentiment and he felt agitated about the treatment immigrants from India, especially manual workers, received in the United States. When the <u>Gh</u>adr Party was founded in mid-1913 with Sohan Si&#7749gh, a Sikh peasant from Bhakn&#257 in Amritsar district, as president and Har Day&#257l as secretary, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh stopped his university work, moved in with Har Day&#257l and became his helpmate in running the revolutionary newspaper <i><u>Gh</u>adr</i> (Revolt). He undertook the responsibility for the printing of the Gurmukh&#299 edition of the paper. He composed patriotic poetry for it and wrote articles. He also went out among the Sikh farmers and arranged meetings at which he and other <u>Gh</u>adr leaders made speeches urging them to united action against the British. At a meeting at Sacramento, California, on 31 October 1913, he jumped to the stage and began to sing: "<i>Chalo chal&#299ye desh n&#363 yuddha karan, eho &#257khir&#299 vachan te farm&#257n ho gaye</i>" (Come! let us go and join the battle of freedom; the final call has come, let us go!" Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh was one of the first to follow his own call.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As World War I broke out, members of the <u>Gh</u>adr Party were openly exhorted to return to India to make armed revolt against the British. Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh left the United States on 15 September 1914, nearly a month ahead of the main body of Sikhs who were to follow. He returned to India, via Colombo, resolved to set up in his village a centre on the model of the <u>Gh</u>adr Party's Yug&#257ntar &#256shram in San Francisco. When Bh&#257&#299 Parmanand arrived in India in December 1914 to lead the movement, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh was charged with spreading the network in Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district. In this connection he went to Bengal to secure firearms, and made contacts with revolutionaries such as Vi&#7779&#7751u Ganesh Pi&#7749gley, Sachindra N&#257th S&#257ny&#257l and R&#257sh Beh&#257r&#299 Bose. With Pi&#7749gley, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh visited the cantonments at Meerut, &#256gr&#257, Ban&#257ras, All&#257h&#257b&#257d, Amb&#257l&#257, Lahore and R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 with a view to inciting the soldiers to revolt.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As for armaments, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh and his associates succeeded in manufacturing bombs on a small scale at Jh&#257bev&#257l and later at Loha&#7789ba&#7693&#7693&#299, both in Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 district. Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh organized and participated in raids on the villages of S&#257hnev&#257l and Mans&#363r&#257n in January 1915, in order to procure funds for the party.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In February 1915, just before the planned revolt was to erupt, there was a massive roundup of the <u>Gh</u>adr leaders, following the disclosures made by a police informer, Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh, who had surreptitiously gained admittance into the Party. Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh, Jagat Si&#7749gh of Sursi&#7749gh and Harn&#257m Si&#7749gh &#7788u&#7751&#7693&#299l&#257&#7789 escaped to K&#257bul. All three however came back to continue their campaign in the Punjab and were seized on 2 March 1915 at Wilsonpur, in Sh&#257hpur district, where they had gone to seduce the troops of the 22nd Cavalry.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The trial of arrested leaders in the Lahore conspiracy cases of 1915-16 highlighted the central role of Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh Sar&#257bh&#257 in the movement. His defence was just one more eloquent statement of his revolutionary creed. He was sentenced to death on 13 September 1915 and he received the hangman's noose on 16 November 1915 singing his favourite patriotic song. A statue of Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh, erected in the city of Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 commemorates his legendary heroism. He has also been immortalized in a fictional account <i>Ikk Mi&#257n Do Talv&#257r&#257&#7749</i> by the famous Punjabi novelist, N&#257nak Si&#7749gh.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Jagj&#299t Si&#7749gh, <i><u>Gh</u>adar P&#257r&#7789&#299 Lahir</i>. Delhi, 1979<BR> <li class="C1"> M&#257n Si&#7749gh, <i>Az&#257d&#299 d&#299 Shamh&#257 de Sikh Parw&#257ne</i>. Delhi, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> N&#257har Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Az&#257d&#299 d&#299&#257&#7749 Lahir&#257&#7749</i>. Ludhiana, 1960<BR> <li class="C1"> Sainsar&#257, G.S., <i><u>Gh</u>adar P&#257r&#7789&#299 d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>.Jalandhar, n.d.<BR> <li class="C1"> Fauja Singh, ed., <i>Who's Who., Punjab Freedom Fighters</i>, vol I. Patiala, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Mathur, J.P., <i>Indian Revolutionary Movement in the United States of America</i>. Delhi, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Grewal, J.S., "Kartar Singh Sarabha" <i>in Dictionary of National Biography</i>, vol. IV. Calcutta, 1974<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Mark Juergensmeyer<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>