Provisional Government of India

The Provisional Government of India was a

Ubaid Allah's group was met by the Indo-German-Turkish mission to

Although the Amir refused to commit for or against the proposals at the time, it found support amongst the Amir's immediate and close political and religious advisory group, including his brother Nasrullah Khan, his sons Inayatullah Khan and Amanullah Khan, religious leaders and tribesmen.^[5] It also found support in one of Afghanistan's then most influential newspaper, the Siraj al-Akhbar, whose editor Mahmud Tarzi took Barkatullah as an officiating editor in early 1916. In a series of articles, Tarzi published a number of inflammatory articles by Raja Mahendra Pratap, as well as publishing increasingly anti-British and pro-Central articles and propaganda. By May 1916 the tone in the paper was deemed serious enough for the Raj to intercept the copies.^[5] A further effort resulted in the establishment in 1916 of the Provisional Government of India in Kabul.

Formation of Provisional Government

Although hopes of the Amir's support were more or less non-existent, the Provisional Government of India was formed in early 1916 to emphasise the seriousness of intention and purpose. The government had

They attempted to establish relations with foreign powers.” (Ker, p305). In Kabul, the Siraj-ul-Akhbar in its issue of 4 May 1916 published Raja Mahendra Pratap’s version of the Mission and its objective. He mentioned : “…His Imperial Majesty the Kaiser himself granted me an audience. Subsequently, having set right the problem of India and Asia with the Imperial German Government, and having received the necessary credentials, I started towards the East. I had interviews with the Khedive of Egypt and with the Princes and Ministers of Turkey, as well as with the renowned Enver Pasha and His Imperial Majesty the Holy Khalif, Sultan-ul-Muazzim. I settled the problem of India and the East with the Imperial Ottoman Government, and received the necessary credentials from them as well. German and Turkish officers and Maulvi Barakatullah Sahib were went with me to help me; they are still with me.” Under pressure from the British, the Afghan Government withdrew its help. The Mission was closed down.

Impact

It has been suggested by a number of historians that the threat posed by the

While the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms in 1917 initiated the first rounds of political reform in the Indian subcontinent, a "Sedition Committee" called the Rowlatt Committee (chaired by Sydney Rowlatt, an English judge) was instituted in 1918 which evaluated the links between Germany, the Berlin Committee, Pratap's enterprise (termed German agents in Afghanistan) and the militant movement in India, especially in Punjab and Bengal. The committee did not find any evidence of Bolshevik involvement, but concluded that the German link was definite. On the recommendations of the committee, the Rowlatt Act, an extension of the Defence of India Act 1915, was enforced in response to the threat in Punjab and Bengal.^[9]

In Afghanistan itself, the mission was the catalyst to a rapid radical and progressive political process and reform movement that is culminated in the assassinations of the Emir Habibullah Khan in 1919 and his succession by Amanullah Khan that subsequently precipitated the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

References

Notes

• Ansari, K.H. (1986), "Pan-Islam and the Making of the Early Indian Muslim Socialist", Modern Asian Studies, vol. 20, no. 3, Cambridge University Press, pp. 509–537
• Seidt, Hans-Ulrich (2001), "From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918", German Studies Review, 24 (1 (Feb 2001)), German Studies Association: 1–18,
  JSTOR 1433153
• Sims-Williams, Ursula (1980), "The Afghan Newspaper Siraj al-Akhbar", Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 7, no. 2, London, Taylor & Francis Ltd, pp. 118–122,
  ISSN 0305-6139
• Hughes, Thomas L (Oct 2002), "The German Mission to Afghanistan, 1915–1916", German Studies Review, 25 (3), German Studies Association: 447–476,
  JSTOR 1432596{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
  )
• Tinker, Hugh (Oct 1968), "India in the First World War and after", Journal of Contemporary History, 3 (4, 1918-19: From War to Peace), Sage Publications: 89–107,
  S2CID 150456443{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link
  )