ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>SOHAN SI&#7748GH BHAKN&#256 B&#256B&#256 (1870-1968)</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="SOHAN,SIDGH,BHAKN,BB,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">&#65279SOHAN SI&#7748GH BHAKN&#256, B&#256B&#256 (1870-1968), founder president of the <u>Gh</u>adr party in the U.S.A., was the only son of Bh&#257&#299 Karam Si&#7749gh, a Shergill Ja&#7789&#7789 of the village of Bhakn&#257, 16 km southwest of Amritsar. He was born in January 1870 at Khutr&#257i <u>Kh</u>urd, parental home of his mother, R&#257m Kaur, 3 km northeast of Gur&#363 k&#257 Ba<u>gh</u> in Amritsar district. He learnt reading and writing Punjabi and the rudiments of Sikh faith in the village <i>gurdw&#257r&#257</i> and passed the fifth primary class in Urdu and Persian at the age of 16. He had been married when he was ten to Bishan Kaur, daughter of <u>Kh</u>ush&#257l Si&#7749gh, a landlord of Ja&#7751&#7693i&#257l&#257 in Lahore district, but the couple remained childless. Sohan Si&#7749gh took part in the anti-Colonization Bill agitation of 1906-07. Two years later (3 February 1909) he left home to go to the United States, reaching Seattle on the West Coast on 4 April 1909. He soon found work as a labourer in a timber mill, under construction near Seattle. In those days, Indians in the United States and the neighbouring Canada, most of them Sikhs from the Punjab, suffered severe discrimination, protest against which had been simmering. In the summer of 1913, representatives of Indians living in Canada and the United States, meeting at Stockton, decided to set up an organization, Hindust&#257n&#299 Workers of the Pacific Coast (Hindi Pacific Association, for short). Sohan Si&#7749gh Bhakn&#257 was elected its president and L&#257l&#257 Harday&#257l, intellectual and revolutionary, its general secretary. A weekly paper <u>Gh</u>adr (lit. rebellion, revolt) was launched on 1 November 1913 to propagate the objective of the Association, which plainly was to make an armed rebellion against the British in India. The journal <u>Gh</u>adr imparted its name to the organization as well as to the movement itself. The United States government, at the instance of the British, issued arrest warrants against L&#257l&#257 Harday&#257l, but the party succeeded in smuggling him out of the country in April 1914. The <u>Gh</u>adr party, under Sohan Si&#7749gh Bhakn&#257, planned an uprising against the British for 1917, but rumours of a war in Europe between England and Germany and the <i>Komagata Maru</i> episode hastened events. Sohan Si&#7749gh himself contacted the returning <i>Komagata Maru</i> at Yokohama and delivered to B&#257b&#257 Gurdit Si&#7749gh a consignment of arms. As he learnt there that hostilities had actually broken out on 28 July 1914, he took a boat to India. As soon as the ship reached Calcutta on 13 October 1914, Sohan Si&#7749gh was arrested and, after a few days' interrogation at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257, was sent to Central Jail, Mult&#257n. He was tried in what is known as the first Lahore conspiracy case and was sentenced to death with forfeiture of property. The death penalty was later commuted to life imprisonment in Andamans, where he reached on 10 December 1915 and where he undertook several hunger strikes successively to secure the detenues better treatment. In 1921 he was transferred to Coimbatore jail and then to Yervad&#257. Here he left off eating food again to register his protest against Sikh prisoners not being allowed to wear turbans and their <i>kachhahir&#257s</i> or knickers which were their religious obligations. In 1927, lie was shifted to Central Jail, Lahore, where he again went on hunger strike in June 1928 to protest against the segregation of the so-called low-caste Mazhab&#299 Sikhs from other 'high-caste' Sikhs at mealtimes. He was released early in July 1930, but he continued to work for the freedom of the country. He devoted most of his time to organizing Kis&#257n Sabh&#257s (peasants' societies). During World War II he was interned in Deol&#299 Camp Jail (R&#257jasth&#257n) for nearly three years. After Independence he veered decisively towards the Communist Party of India. He was arrested on 31 March 1948, but released on 8 May 1948. However, he was seized again, but jail-going ended for him finally at the intervention of Independent India's first Prime Minister, Jaw&#257harl&#257l Nehr&#363.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bent with age and ravaged by pneumonia, B&#257b&#257 Sohan Si&#7749gh Bhakn&#257 died, at Amritsar, on 21 December 1968.</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> Ghadar Par&#7789&#299 ate Bh&#257rat d&#257 Qaum&#299 Andolan</i>. Amritsar, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Sai&#7749sar&#257, Gurcharan Si&#7749gh, <i>Ghadar Par&#7789&#299 d&#257 Itih&#257s</i>. Jalandhar, 1969<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Sohan Si&#7749gh Josh<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>