Baba Sohan Singh Bhakna was an Indian revolutionary, the founding president of the Ghadar Party, and a leading member of the party involved in the Ghadar Conspiracy of 1915.⁣
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Sohan Singh was born in January 1870 at the village of Khutrai Khurd, north of Amritsar. He started primary school at age eleven by which time he was also proficient in Urdu and Persian. He was married at the age of ten to Bishan Kaur.⁣
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Sohan Singh became involved in the nationalist movement and the agrarian unrest that emerged in Punjab in the 1900s. He participated in the protests against the anti-Colonization Bill in 1906-07. Two years later, in February 1909, he left home to sail for the United States. ⁣
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He soon found work as a labourer in a timber mill being constructed near the city. A large number of Punjabis also moved to the United States, but they encountered similar political and social problems. Sohan Singh at this time came to be strongly associated with political movement taking shape among Indian immigrants.⁣
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In 1913, with Lala hardayal and other leader he founded Gadar party. He was it’s first president. The party quickly gained support from Indian expatriates, especially in the United States, Canada and Asia.⁣
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The first world war in Europe accelerated Ghadar’s plans. He got involved in Hindu German conspiracy. They planned mutiny in India sometime in late 1914 or early 1915 (which came to known as Gadar conspiracy). ⁣
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When returning to India British intelligence traced sohan singh and arrested him at Calcutta on 13 October 1914 and sent to Ludhiana for⁣ interrogation. He was transferred to Coimbatore jail and then to Yervada. There, he did hunger strike in protest against Sikh prisoners not being allowed wear turbans and their Kacchera, amongst their religious obligations. ⁣
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He again went on a hunger strike in support of Bhagat Singh. He ultimately served sixteen years before he was released early in July 1930.⁣
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After his release, he continued working in the nationalist movement and labour politics. After Independence he veered decisively towards the Communist Party of India. He was arrested on 31 March 1948, but released soon.