Barkatullah Bhopali: Great revolutionary who formed Govt of India in exile

Shams Ur Rehman Alavi

Pay: DEATH, Reward: MARTYRDOM, Pension: LIBERTY

Field of battle: British India

This was the call given by the Ghadar Party, the band of revolutionaries, for the cause of India’s freedom.

Barkatullah, who was born in Bhopal, was among those revolutionaries who dedicated their entire lives for the country.

The fiery leader of Ghadar Party had made the cause of India’s independence as his motto from the beginning. 

This was the era when political leaders were not even demanding complete freedom. The ill treatment with Indians and the discrimination, apart from harsh laws, had made lives difficult for the Indian citizens.

Even though major political leaders were reluctant to speak for freedom, and were content with a space for dissent and demand for dominion status, Barkatullah and the revolutionaries were planning to overthrow the British government and establish self rule.

A companion of Lala Hardayal, another leading revolutionary, Barkatullah Bhopali felt that India needed to drive imperialistic forces out, and hence the revolutionaries must seek help from other nations. Apart from organizing revolutionaries in US, Japan, Afghanistan, he met leaders of Russian revolution.

Barkatullah Bhopali visited dozens of countries where roused passions among Indians to join hands for the cause of Indian independence.The scholar whose figure, wearing a red Turkish cap, has inspired generations, had made it a mission to liberate motherland from the British rule.

When the revolutionaries were able to form the Government of India in Exile, Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was made the President while Barkatullah Bhopali was the Prime Minister of this government. The aim of revolutionaries was to launch an attack against British and free the country from the foreign rule. 

It caused alarm among the British who used their global power and influence to tackle the revolutionaries. The prevailing international politics, the post-WW I scenario and world powers' change of attitude, affected the plans. However, the revolutionary leaders were not the ones to sit down.

From America to Japan and United Kingdom to Germany, Barkatullah visited countries that supported Indian citizens' right to self-govern, trying to seek help to form grand alliance agains the British imperialists. Throughout his life, he was followed by British intelligence. 

It was the role of Gadar Party and its leaders that lit the fire of freedom in hearts of Indians living across the world, and from USA to Malaya, the revolutionaries came forward, and later this network proved immensely helpful and advantageous when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army.

Barkatullah was born on July 7, 1854. He had a cardiac arrest while delivering a passionate speech, urging the Indian expatriates to join hands for the country's freedom, during his visit to USA and passed away in 1927. He is buried in San Francisco. Barkatullah didn’t live to see India attain freedom, but it was the efforts of these revolutionaries that gave impetus to Indian freedom struggle within and outside the country.