Friday, January 20, 2012

Revolutionary activity in Paris and America -- Indian Independence Movement

Bhikaiji Rustom Cama (24 September 1861 – 13 August 1936) was a prominent figure in the Indian independence movement.
The revolutionary activities of the Indian Nationalist in Paris centred round the figure of Madam Vikaji Rustamji Cama, a Parsee lady of Bombay who had previously been associated with the India House of London, but who settled down in Paris in the spring of 1909. Madam Cama attended the International Socialist Congress which met at Stittgart in August, 1909, and moved a resolution there in favour of India's Freedom.She also unfurled the Indian National Flag designed by herself.
With the assistance of Lala Hardayal and Thirumal Achari, Cama edited a monthly paper, the Bandemataram which was published from Geneva, Virendra Chattopadhyay, another eminent revolutionary, joined Cama in paris in the summer of 1910.  Cama tried her best to secure the release of Savarkar after he had been re-arrested by the French harbour police at Marseilles (1910), but in vain.Her properties in Bombay, worth about a lakh of rupees, were attached by the Government of India in 1910. She returned to India in 193, and died in Bombay two years later.Chattopadhyay also left for Germany in April, 1914, and the Bande Mataram   was suppressed by order of the French Government in June, 1914.
Activity In America:
Taraknath Das (or Tarak Nath Das) (Bengali: তারকনাথ দাস) (15 June 1884 – 22 December 1958) was an anti-British Bengali Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America and discussed his plans with Tolstoy, while organizing the Asian Indian immigrants in favor of the Indian freedom movement. He was a professor of political science at Columbia University and a visiting faculty in several other universities.
In the American continent Taraknath Das started the Indo-American Association in British Columbia early in 1908, with the bi-monthly English paper Free Hindusthan as its organ. Das moved to Seattle in 1908.
Another revolutionary organisation of the Indians in the United States was the Hindusthan Association of Portlandwhich was moulded into a definite political body by Sohan Singh and his associates by 1910. The most important revolutionary organisation in the United States, the Ghadar party was set up by Lala Hardayal in 1913 on the eve of First World War.
In Japan:
Many Indian revolutionaries were scattered during this period in Malaya, Thailand, and other countries of East and South-East Asia, but they failed to acieve any significant before the 1st World War.The Indian revolutionaries also expected some assistance and guidance from Japan, particularly after Okakura's visit to India.