IDEOLOGY AND PERSONALITY

As a founder of the Ghadar Party, Sohan Singh Bhakna deserves a conspicuous place in the history of Indian freedom struggle. Singh’s long association with revolutionary movements developed in him a sense of political sagaciousness, and he looked upon political, social or economic happenings with an analytical bent and tried to explain their perceived causes in a historical perspective. All his views had not been fit to the ideas and beliefs advocated by ideologues and intellectuals, but in substance, his approach was candid in all matters. He had a quality to be open to self-criticism. Prem Singh Bajaj carried out an extensive interview with him at his residence and found him ‘a logical, rational and assimilative person’. Bajaj observed Sohan Singh as a great freedom fighter, a staunch revolutionary, an adherent socialist, an incorrigible rationalist, an empathetic and radical humanist – all at the same time. His contribution in the freedom movement was as important as that of any other well-known freedom fighter. He was a veritable renaissance man, a product of political freedom that he got in America. His commitment to rationality, secularism and socialism was a qualified one. Sohan Singh was not only one of the founding leaders of the Ghadar Party but also a great political thinker. The national and international events which influenced the foundation and growth of the Ghadar Party had equally affected him to evolve his ideas and political values. Although, Har Dayal had been regarded as the brain of the Ghadar weekly, Bhakna too played an important role in the organisation and expansion of the Ghadar Party. In fact, it was he, who laid down the ground for the formation of the Ghadar Party and the publication of the Ghadar. H...

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...British consuls in America and Canada, and due to this indifferent attitude, they squarely turned to be the bitter foes of the British rule. Sohan Singh Bhakna described quite a few incidents in his autobiography, which bred hate in his heart for British imperialism. His ideological formulations linked the personal dignity of an individual with the national goal of complete independence.

Works Cited

Khushwant Singh, A History of the Sikhs, Vol. II, Oxford University Press, second edition, Delhi, 2004, p. 191.

Prem Singh Bajaj, ‘Sohan Singh Bhakna’, in Alochna, (in Punjabi), April-May-June, 1967, p.7.

Interview with Prem Singh Bajaj on 18 June 2009, at Punjabi Bhawan, Ludhiana.

Interview with Prem Singh Bajaj on 18 June, 2009.

M.S. Waraich, (ed.), Sohan Singh Bhakna, Jeewan Sangram - Atamkatha, (in Punjabi), Tarak Bharti Prakashan, Barnala, 1967, p.16.