About Ghadar Party

The Ghadar Movement was born out of the realization by Indian-born immigrants to North America that they were not only the victims of colonial oppression in their homeland, but also of racism and exclusion here and in other countries. The majority of these pioneers were Sikhs, though the community also included Hindus and Muslims. Despite their diverse religious identities, they were all indiscriminately labeled “Hindu” by prejudiced Americans—a term used not as a descriptor, but as a racial slur, erasing their distinct cultures and faiths in a demeaning and derogatory manner.

These pioneers came to North America in search of opportunity and freedom, only to be met with exclusionary acts and racial discrimination. A well-known incident was one in which various white working-class men attacked the Bellingham East Indian millworker community on September 4, 1907. According to the Bellingham Reveille, “The Hindu riots were orchestrated with the intention of forcibly removing Indian workers from the town and instilling fear in them to prevent them from competing with white workers in the mills.”¹ To combat the Hindu immigration “problem,” both the U.S. and Canada passed several laws to hinder immigration from South Asia. The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act, also known as the Asiatic Barred Zone Act, intended to exclude such “undesirables.”² In 1908, Canada implemented the “continuous journey” law that barred immigrants who did not travel directly from their home country to Canada.³

Thousands of South Asian American pioneers were victims of discrimination, racism, and exclusion in the United States and Canada. They banded together to fight for equality in North America and for the freedom of those who were unable to defend themselves under British rule in India. Thanks to their hard work and persistence, they were able to nurture the cause and spur the formation of the Ghadar Party in Astoria, Oregon. Shortly afterward, the party established its headquarters in San Francisco. The party began to publish a powerful weekly paper called The Hindustan Ghadar (Indian Revolt) to propagate the cause of Indian independence. The British Colonial government, alarmed at the sudden popularity of the Ghadar Movement, conspired to infiltrate the party and began to monitor its activities with the help of spies such as Bela Singh, Vaishno Das Bagai, etc to undermine this glorious movement.