Indian Independence Committee was also known as Berlin committee and was formed in Germany in 1914 during world war I by Indian students and political activists. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence.⁣
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India House was constantly in the news from 1906 to 1910. After suppression of India house and arrest of Veer Savarkar, other leaders, including Krishna Varma, were forced to flee to Europe. Some, including Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, moved to Germany, while a number of the leadership moved to Paris.⁣
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During the First World War, Berlin became an organisational hub for Indian nationalist and revolutionary activities. They looked for ways to use the enmities to support their goals.⁣
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In September 1914, the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, was authorised by the Kaiser to sanction German activity against British India. The German effort was headed by Max von Oppenheim, an archaeologist and the head of the newly formed Intelligence Bureau for the East.⁣
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He was to organize the Indian student groups into a cohesive group. Among those who joined the organisation at the time were Dr. Dhiren Sarkar, Chanji Kersasp, N. S. Marathe, Dr. J. N. Dasgupta, and C. Padmanabhan Pillai, quickly joined by his brother, Champak Raman Pillai. The ‘Champak-Chatto’ Berlin Committee was founded.⁣
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In 1915, Har Dayal and Barkatullah became actively involved in the Berlin Committee and its goals. ⁣
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The committee planned to bring about a general insurrection in India and for this purpose foreign arms were to be sent to India from abroad; expatriated Indians were to return to mother country, where they were to be joined by Indian soldiers and by the waiting revolutionaries.⁣
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The committee is known to have sent missions to the Middle Eastern cities of Istanbul and Baghdad, and Kabul, Afghanistan. It has also played important part in the Provisional Government of established in Kabul.⁣
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The Committee was formally disbanded in November 1918, with most of the members shifting their attention to the developing Soviet Russia. Between 1917 and 1920, most of the members became active in communism.⁣
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