The Provisional Government of India was a provisional government-in-exile established in Kabul, Afghanistan on December 1, 1915 by Indian nationalists, during World War I with support from the Central Powers (Germany, Austria- Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria).⁣⁣
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Formally it known as the ”Hukumat-i-Moktar-i-Hind” in Kabul. The prime mover of this (forgotten) enterprise was Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh.⁣⁣
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He met the German Kaiser Wilhelm II in Berlin, travelled to Istanbul to contact the Ottomans and had discussions with both Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin in Moscow.⁣⁣
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In Afghanistan, he negotiated the support of the anti-British sections of Afghan elite who helped in recruiting an Afridi tribe-based force that hoped to attack British India from the North-West. ⁣⁣
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It was established at the conclusion of the Kabul Mission, composed of members of the Berlin Committee, German and Turkish delegates and the provisional⁣ government was composed of Mahendra Pratap as President Maulana Barkatullah as Prime Minister, Deobandi Maulavi Ubaidullah Sindhi as Home Minister, Deoband Maulavi Bashir as War Minister, and Champakraman Pillai as Foreign Affairs Minister. ⁣⁣
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Its purpose was to enrol support from the Afghan Emir as well as Tsarist (and later Bolshevik) Russia, China and Japan for the Indian Movement. ⁣⁣
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The provisional government found significant support from the internal administration of the Afghan government, although the Emir refused to declare open support, and ultimately, under British pressure it was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1919.⁣⁣
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When Rowlatt committee (for political reforms in india) was instituted in 1918, they evaluated the links between Germany, the Berlin Committee, Pratap’s enterprise and the militant movement in India, especially in Punjab and Bengal. ⁣⁣
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On the recommendations of the committee, the Rowlatt act 1919, an indefinite extension of the Defence of India act of 1915, was enforced in response to the threat in Punjab and Bengal.⁣⁣