Between 1903 and 1913 approximately 10,000 South Asians emigres entered North America, mostly from the rural regions of central Punjab. About half the Punjabis had served in the British military.
Many migrants came to work in the fields, factories, and logging camps of Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, where they were exposed to labor unions and the ideas of the radical Industrial Workers of the World. The migrants of the Pacific Northwest banded together in Sikh gurdwaras and formed political Hindustani Associations for mutual aid.
When Vishnu Ganesh Pingle met Ras Bihari Bose, he requested him to take up the leadership of the coming revolution. But before accepting the responsibility, he sent Sachin Sanyal (a close associate of Bose) to the Punjab to assess the situation.
Sachin returned very optimistic, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule. The movement began with a group of immigrants known as the Hindustani Workers of the Pacific Coast.
After 1910, when the activities of India House had declined, the cradle of activities shifted from Europe to America. Lal Hardayal was In India till 1909. He moved to the United States in 1911, where he became involved in industrial unionism.
In 1913, Pacific Coast Hindustan Association was founded by Lala Hardayal with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president, which was called Ghadar Party.
Before a decision to create headquarter at Yugantar Ashram in San Francisco. A meeting was taken at a town of Astoria in the state of Oregon in USA.
The party was built around the weekly paper The Ghadar, which carried the caption on the masthead: Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman (an enemy of the British rule). “Wanted brave soldiers”, the Ghadar declared, “to stir up rebellion in India. The first issue of The Ghadar, was published from San Francisco on November 1, 1913.
The members of the party were Indian immigrants, largely from Punjab. Many of its members were students at University of California at Berkeley including Dayal, Tarak Nath Das, Maulavi Barkatullah, Harnam Singh Tundilat, Kartar Singh Sarabha and V.G. Pingle.
201. Foundation of Ghadar Party 1913
