British counter-intelligence against the Indian revolutionary movement during World War I
British counter-intelligence against the Indian revolutionary movement during World War I began from its initial roots in the late-19th century and ultimately came to span in extent from Asia through Europe to the West Coast of the United States and Canada. It was effective in thwarting
Background
During
Counter-intelligence
Beginnings
Outlines and nascent ideas of the conspiracy began to be noted and tracked by British intelligence as early as 1911.
In Asia
At the outbreak of the war, Punjab CID sent teams to Hong Kong to intercept and infiltrate the returning Ghadarites, who often made little efforts to hide their plans and objectives.[9] These teams were successful in uncovering details of the full scale of the conspiracy, as well as discovering Har Dayal's whereabouts. Immigrants returning to India were double checked against a list of revolutionaries.[11]
In Punjab, the CID, although aware of possible plans for unrest, was not successful in infiltrating the conspiracy for the mutiny until February 1915. A dedicated force was formed, headed by the Chief of Punjab CID, and including amongst its members Liaqat Hayat Khan (later head of Punjab CID himself). In February that year, the CID was successful in recruiting the services of one Kirpal Singh to infiltrate the plan. Singh, who had a Ghadarite cousin serving in the 23rd Cavalry, was able to infiltrate the leadership, being assigned to work in his cousin's regiment. Singh was soon under suspicion of being a spy, but was able to pass on the information regarding the date and scale of the uprising to British Indian intelligence.[12] As the date for the mutiny approached, a desperate Rash Behari Bose brought forward the D-day to the evening of 19 February, which was discovered by Kirpal Singh on the very day. No attempts were made by the Ghadarites to restrain him, and he rushed to inform Liaqat Khan of the change of plans. Ordered back to his station to signal when the revolutionaries had assembled, Singh was detained by the would-be mutineers, but managed to make good his escape under the cover of answering the call of nature.[12]
In Bengal, counter-intelligence, especially against the activities of Jugantar was led by Charles Tegart while the role of German or Baltic-German double-agents, especially the agent named Oren, was also important in infiltrating and preempting the plans for Autumn rebellions in Bengal in 1915 as well as scuttling Bagha Jatin's plans in winter that year. Jatin is believed to be personally shot by Tegart in his final battle on the banks of the river Burha Balang. Another source was the German double agent Vincent Kraft, a planter from Batavia, who passed information about arms shipments from Shanghai to British agents after being captured. Kraft later fled through Mexico to Japan where he was last known to be at the end of the war.[13] Also arrested in November was a Javanese revolutionary by the name of Dekker while he travelled under the directions of the Berlin committee from Europe to Siam. He intended to work on publishing German war news and Indian revolutionary material to be smuggled into India via Burma.[14] Later efforts by Mahendra Pratap's Provisional Government in Kabul were also compromised by Herambalal Gupta after he defected in 1918 and passed on information to Indian intelligence.[6]
In Europe
British efforts against the Indian revolutionary movement and against German spy networks involved both the
By the time the war broke out an Indian Intelligence office, headed by John Wallinger, had been opened in Europe. In scale this office was larger than those operated by the British War Office, approaching the European intelligence network of the
Nathan's efforts, along with those of John Wallinger's Indian Political Intelligence Office (who Nathan worked closely with), were key in the British counter-espionage work.[18] Nathan's work at the time identified the plans by Ghadar Party and the Berlin Committee to assassinate Lord Kitchener in 1915 through an associate of Har Dayal, Gobind Behari Lal.[21] He was also responsible at this time, along with Basil Thomson, to turn Harish Chandra (who was associated with the Berlin Committee) into a double agent.[22] Among other works, Nathan was responsible for the plans made by British intelligence in late 1915 to assassinate Virendranath Chattopadhyaya through an agent by the name of Donald Gullick.[23]
Middle East
In the Middle East, British counter-intelligence was directed at preserving the loyalty of the Indian sepoy in the face of Turkish propaganda and the concept of The Caliph's Jihad, while a particularly significant effort was directed at intercepting the
In the United States
In the United States, the conspiracy was successfully infiltrated by British intelligence through both Irish as well as Indian channels. The activities of
Later, on instructions from British secret service, Robert Nathan transferred his work to the Pacific coast North America where the Ghadar Party worked closely with the German consulate at San Francisco to obtain arms and men for what came to be known as the
The
Impact
The British counter-intelligence operations effectively thwarted attempts within and from outside India, and ultimately was able to bring the
Notes
- ^ Gupta 1997, p. 12
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 201
- ^ Strachan 2001, p. 798
- ^ Hoover 1985, p. 252
- ^ Brown 1948, p. 300
- ^ a b Strachan 2001, p. 788
- ^ a b Hopkirk 2001, p. 41
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 234
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 168
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 200
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 194
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 173
- ^ Strachan 2001, p. 802
- ^ McKale 1998, p. 125
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 219
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 218
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 232
- ^ a b c Popplewell 1995, p. 220
- ^ Popplewell 1995, pp. 216, 217
- ^ Barooah 2004
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 224
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 227
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 229
- ^ Collett 2006, p. 144
- ^ Popplewell 1995, pp. 182, 183, 187
- ^ Seidt 2001, p. 4
- ^ "Echoes of Freedom:South Asian pioneers in California 1899-1965". UC, Berkeley, Bancroft Library. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 147
- ^ a b Popplewell 1995, p. 148
- ^ Radhan 2002, p. 259
- ^ Radhan 2002, p. 261
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 236
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 250
- ^ Plowman 2003, p. 93
- ^ Voska & Irwin 1940, pp. 98, 108, 120, 122, 123
- ^ a b Masaryk 1970, pp. 50, 221, 242
- ^ Bose 1971, pp. 233, 233
- ^ Popplewell 1995, p. 237
References
- Barooah, N. K. (2004), Chatto: The Life and Times of an Anti-Imperialist in Europe, Oxford University Press, USA, ISBN 0-19-566547-3
- Bose, A. C. (1971), Indian Revolutionaries Abroad, 1905–1927, Patna: Bharati Bhawan, ISBN 81-7211-123-1
- Brown, Giles (August 1948), "The Hindu Conspiracy, 1914–1917.", The Pacific Historical Review, 17 (3), University of California Press: 299–310, JSTOR 3634258
- Collett, Nigel (2006), The Butcher of Amritsar: General Reginald Dyer, Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 1-85285-575-4
- Dignan, Don (1983), The Indian revolutionary problem in British Diplomacy,1914-1919, New Delhi, Allied publishers
- Gupta, Amit K (1997), "Defying Death: Nationalist Revolutionism in India, 1897-1938.Social Scientist, Vol. 25, No. 9/10. (Sep. - Oct., 1997), pp. 3-27", Social Scientist, JSTOR 3517678
- Hoover, Karl (May 1985), "The Hindu Conspiracy in California, 1913–1918.", German Studies Review, 8 (2), German Studies Association: 245–261, JSTOR 1428642
- ISBN 0-19-280230-5
- Masaryk, T. (1970), Making of a State, Howard Fertig, ISBN 0-685-09575-4
- McKale, Donald M (1998), War by Revolution: Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I, Kent State University Press, ISBN 0-87338-602-7
- Plowman, Matthew (2003), "Irish Republicans and the Indo-German Conspiracy of World War I", New Hibernia Review, Center for Irish Studies at the University of St. Thomas: 81–105, ISSN 1092-3977
- Popplewell, Richard J (1995), Intelligence and Imperial Defence: British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904-1924., Routledge, ISBN 0-7146-4580-X, archived from the originalon 26 March 2009, retrieved 21 January 2008
- Radhan, O. P. (2002), Encyclopaedia of Political Parties, Anmol Publications Pvt ltd, ISBN 81-7488-865-9
- Seidt, Hans-Ulrich (February 2001), "From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918.German Studies Review", German Studies Review, 24 (1), German Studies Association: 1–18, JSTOR 1433153
- Strachan, Hew (2001), The First World War. Volume I: To Arms, Oxford University Press. USA, ISBN 0-19-926191-1
- Voska, E. V.; Irwin, W. (1940), Spy and Counterspy, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co