Tarak Nath Das
Encyclopedia
Taraknath Das (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 24 Parganas
district of West Bengal
. Coming from a lower middle-class family, his father Kalimohan was a clerk at the Central Telegraph Office in Calcutta. Noticing the flair of this brilliant student with the pen, his headmaster encouraged him to appear in an essay contest on the theme of patriotism. Impressed by the quality of the paper by a school boy of sixteen years, one of the judges, the Barrister P. Mitter, founder of the Anushilan Samiti
, asked his associate Satish Chandra Basu to recruit the boy. On passing his Entrance Examination with very high marks, in 1901, Tarak went to Calcutta and got himself admitted to the well-known General Assembly’s Institution (now Scottish Church College) for university studies. In his secret patriotic activity, he found full support from his elder sister Girija.
, one of the greatest Bengali Hindu heroes, was introduced as a festival, in addition to Shivaji. In the early months of 1906, Bagha Jatin
or Jatindra Nath Mukherjee was accompanied by Tarak when the former was invited to preside over the Sitaram Festival at Mohammadpur in Jessore, the ancient capital of Bengal
. On this occasion, during a closeted meeting around Jatin were present, in addition to Tarak, Shrish Chandra Sen, Satyendra Sen and Adhar Chandra Laskar: all the four, one after the other, were to leave for higher studies abroad. Nothing was known about the object of this meeting till in 1952 when, during a conversation, Tarak spoke of it. Along with specific higher education, they were to acquire military training and knowledge of explosives. They were especially urged to create a climate of sympathy among people of the free Western countries in favor of India’s decision to win freedom.
and Bipin Chandra Pal
he was the first person in the region who raised such a passion by his patriotic speeches. Among young revolutionaries he particularly inspired Nilakantha Brahmachari, Subrahmania Shiva and Chidambaram Pillai. On 16 July 1907, via Japan
, Tarak reached Seattle. After earning his livelihood as a farm-worker, he was appointed at the laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley
, before enrolling himself as a student. Simultaneously, qualifying as translator and interpreter of the American Civil Administration, he entered the Department of Immigration, Vancouver
, in January 1908. There he witnessed the arrival of William C. Hopkinson
(1878-1914) of the Calcutta Police Information Service, appointed as Immigration Inspector and interpreter for Hindi, Punjabi and Gurumukhi. During seven long years, until his assassination (by a Sikh
), Hopkinson was required to send detailed and regular reports to the Government of India
about the presence of such student radicals as Tarak, and monitor a group of pro-British Sikh informants headed by Bela Singh.
With Panduranga Khankoje (B.G. Tilak's emissary), Tarak founded the Indian Independence League. Adhar Laskar arrived from Calcutta with funds sent by Jatin Mukherjee (also known as Bagha Jatin
), permitting Tarak to start his journal Free Hindustan in English, as well as its Gurumukhi edition, Swadesh Sevak (‘Servants of the Motherland’) by Guran Ditt Kumar
who came from Calcutta on 31 October 1907. Free Hindustan has been claimed by Constance Brissenden as "the first South Asian publication in Canada
, and one of the first in North America
." They were assisted by Professor Surendra Mohan Bose, who was an expert in explosives. Through regular correspondence, personalities like Tolstoy
, Hyndman
, Shyamji Krishnavarma, Madame Cama, encouraged Tarak in his venture. Described as "community spokesman", he had established Hindustani Association in Vancouver
in 1907.
Fully conversant with existing laws, Tarak served the needs of his compatriots, most of whom were illiterate migrants from the Punjab region. In Millside, near New Westminster, he founded the Swadesh Sevak Home, a boarding school for the children of the Asian Indian immigrants. Apart from that, this school also held evening classes on English and mathematics, and thus helped the immigrants to write letters to their families or to their employers. This also helped them in fostering greater awareness of their duties towards India and their rights in their adopted homeland. There were about two thousand Indians, mostly Sikh, on the west coast of Canada and North America. The majority worked in agriculture and construction. After an initial setbacks, these Indian farmers succeeded in obtaining a bumper crop of rice in California
in the early 1910s, and a good number of them worked on the building of the Western Pacific Railway in California, along with indentured immigrants from China
, Japan
, Korea
, Norway
and Italy
. Radicals like Tarak mobilized the Indian community to retaliate against anti-Indian violence and politics of exclusion.
Being a suspect of extracting bribes from the Asian Indian immigrants, Hopkinson utilized his influence to make Tarak a scapegoat and eventually got him expelled from Canada by the middle of 1908. Leaving Bose, Kumar and Chagan Khairaj Varma (also known as Husain Rahim) in charge of the compatriots’ fate, Tarak left Vancouver to better concentrate on the areas from Seattle to San Francisco. On reaching Seattle, since its July 1908 issue, Free Hindustan became a more overtly anti-British organ, with a motto from Tarak: “To protest against all tyranny is a service to humanity and the duty of civilization.” The Irish revolutionary George Freeman
of the NYC-based Gaelic American newspaper was looked upon as the real leader of the anti-British movement, closely connected with two Indians, Samuel L. Joshi and Barakatullah
. Invited by Fitzgerald, Tarak issued the August and the succeeding numbers of Free Hindustan from New York
. In 1908, Tarak joined the Norwich University
, Northfield
, Vermont
, “a high-class engineering and military establishment, in order to receive military training. He also applied for enlistment (…) in the Vermont National Guard
…” Despite his popularity among the students of all ethnic origins, he was rusticated from that institution due to his anti-British activities (such as editing Free Hindustan). By the end of 1909, he returned to Seattle.
. However when Tarak arrived he suggested inviting the Aryan
Anarchist Lala Hardayal, whom he knew from his days at Stanford University
. Hardayal agreed to work with him setting up the Hindi Association of the Pacific Ocean, which provided the first basis for the Ghadar Party
. “Many of the leaders were of other parties and from different parts of India, Hardayal, Ras Bihari Bose, Barakatulah, Seth Husain Rahim, Tarak Nath Das and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley… The Ghadar was the first organized violent bid for freedom after the rising of 1857. Many hundreds paid the price with their lives,” wrote Khushwant Singh
.
in political science
. In order to have a greater freedom of action, in that year he also acquired American citizenship. With the help of professors like Robert Morss Lovett
, Upham Pope, Arthur Rider at UC Berkeley and David Starr Jordan
and Stuart of Palo Alto (of Stanford University
), Tarak established the East India Association. He was invited by the International Students’ Association as a delegate of the American universities. He had already been informed about the Indo-German Plan and in January 1915, met Virendranath Chattopadhyay in Berlin. For that meeting, Barakatullah
and Hardayal also arrived in Berlin. They all formed a close group to accompany Raja Mahendra Pratap
in his Kabul expedition.
In April 1916 the Shiraz-ul-Akhbar of Kabul
reproduced a speech by Tarak from a Constantinople
paper : it praised the work of the German officers busy training the Ottoman army and the intrepidity and bravery of the Turks. He pointed out that it was Germany and Austria who declared war and not the Allies, and that their reason for doing so was to purify the earth of the brutal atrocities practised on mankind by their enemies, and to save the unfortunate inhabitants of India
, Egypt
, Persia, Morocco
and Africa
from the English, French and Russians who had forcibly seized their countries and had reduced them to slavery. Tarak stressed the point that Turkey
entered the war not only to defend her own country and to maintain her liberty, but also to put new life into 300 million Muslims, and to establish the Afghan state on a firmer basis, one that would act as a link with 350 million Indians, both Hindus and Muslims, as its supporters and helpers. (Political, p. 304)
Tarak returned to California
in July 1916. After that he set out for Japan
with the project of a vast study on Japanese Expansion and its Significance in World Politics. This study appeared as a book in 1917 with the title, Is Japan a menace to Asia ?. The foreword of this book was written by the former Chinese Prime Minister Shao-I Hong Tong. In collaboration with Rash Behari Bose
and Herambalal Gupta, he was about to leave on a mission to Moscow
, when Tarak was called back to appear in the infamous Hindu German Conspiracy Trial
. The all-white jury accused him as “the most dangerous criminal” and it was proposed to withdraw his American citizenship and surrender him to the British police. On 30 April 1918, he was sentenced to twenty-two months in Leavenworth federal prison
.
and the National Woman's Party
. With her, he went on an extended tour of Europe
. He made Munich
his headquarters for his activities. It was there that he founded the India Institute, that awarded scholarships to meritorious Indian students who pursued higher studies in Germany. He maintained a close contact with Sri Aurobindo
, and pursued inner spiritual discipline. On his return to the United States, Tarak was jointly appointed as the professor of political science
at the Columbia University
and a Fellow of the Georgetown University
. With his wife, he opened the resourceful Taraknath Das Foundation in 1935, in order to promote educational activities and to foster cultural relations between the U.S. and Asian countries.
, called the Mary Keatinge Das Fund, has a fairly significant amount of money in it and the income is used to fund lectures and conferences on India. Other participatory universities are the University of Pittsburgh
, New York University
, the University of Washington
, the University of Virginia
, Howard University
, Yale University
, the University of Chicago
, the University of Michigan
, the University of Wisconsin–Madison
, American University
, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa
.
in 1947 and vehemently opposed the process of balkanisation of South Asia
till his last day. After forty-six years in exile, he revisited his motherland in 1952, as a Visiting Professor of the Watumull Foundation. He founded the Vivekananda Society in Calcutta. On 9 September 1952, he presided over the public meeting to celebrate the 37th anniversary of Bagha Jatin
’s heroic martyrdom, urging the youth to revive the values upheld by his mentor, Jatindâ. He died upon return to the United States on 22 December 1958, aged 74.
Bengali people
The Bengali people are an ethnic community native to the historic region of Bengal in South Asia. They speak Bengali , which is an Indo-Aryan language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In their native language, they are referred to as বাঙালী...
Indian revolutionary and internationalist scholar. He was a pioneering immigrant in the west coast of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and discussed his plans with Tolstoy
Tolstoy
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
, while organizing the Asian Indian immigrants in favor of the Indian freedom movement. He was a professor of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and a visiting faculty in several other universities.
Early life
Tarak was born at Majupara, near KanchraparaKanchrapara
Kanchrapara is a city and a municipality under Bijpur police station of Barrackpore subdivision. in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.-Geography:...
, in the 24 Parganas
24 Parganas
24 Parganas district is a former district of the Indian state of West Bengal. The district was split into two districts — North 24 Parganas district and South 24 Parganas district, with effect from 1 March 1986....
district of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. Coming from a lower middle-class family, his father Kalimohan was a clerk at the Central Telegraph Office in Calcutta. Noticing the flair of this brilliant student with the pen, his headmaster encouraged him to appear in an essay contest on the theme of patriotism. Impressed by the quality of the paper by a school boy of sixteen years, one of the judges, the Barrister P. Mitter, founder of the Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti
Anushilan Samiti was an armed anti-British organisation in Bengal and the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in the region in the opening years of the 20th century. This association, like its offshoot the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club...
, asked his associate Satish Chandra Basu to recruit the boy. On passing his Entrance Examination with very high marks, in 1901, Tarak went to Calcutta and got himself admitted to the well-known General Assembly’s Institution (now Scottish Church College) for university studies. In his secret patriotic activity, he found full support from his elder sister Girija.
Genesis of a mission
In order to stir Bengali enthusiasm, commemoration of the achievements of Raja Sitaram RayRaja Sitaram Ray
Raja Sitaram Ray was an autonomous king, vassal to the Mughal Empire, who revolted against the Empire and established a short lived sovereign Hindu dominion in Bengal.-Ancestry:...
, one of the greatest Bengali Hindu heroes, was introduced as a festival, in addition to Shivaji. In the early months of 1906, Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
or Jatindra Nath Mukherjee was accompanied by Tarak when the former was invited to preside over the Sitaram Festival at Mohammadpur in Jessore, the ancient capital of Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
. On this occasion, during a closeted meeting around Jatin were present, in addition to Tarak, Shrish Chandra Sen, Satyendra Sen and Adhar Chandra Laskar: all the four, one after the other, were to leave for higher studies abroad. Nothing was known about the object of this meeting till in 1952 when, during a conversation, Tarak spoke of it. Along with specific higher education, they were to acquire military training and knowledge of explosives. They were especially urged to create a climate of sympathy among people of the free Western countries in favor of India’s decision to win freedom.
Life in North America
Disguised as a monk under the name of Tarak Brahmachari, he left for Madras on a lecture tour. After Swami VivekanandaSwami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda , born Narendranath Dutta , was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission...
and Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal
Bipin Chandra Pal was an Indian nationalist. He was among the triumvirate of Lal Bal Pal.-Early life and background:...
he was the first person in the region who raised such a passion by his patriotic speeches. Among young revolutionaries he particularly inspired Nilakantha Brahmachari, Subrahmania Shiva and Chidambaram Pillai. On 16 July 1907, via Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Tarak reached Seattle. After earning his livelihood as a farm-worker, he was appointed at the laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, before enrolling himself as a student. Simultaneously, qualifying as translator and interpreter of the American Civil Administration, he entered the Department of Immigration, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, in January 1908. There he witnessed the arrival of William C. Hopkinson
W. C. Hopkinson
William Charles Hopkinson was an Indian Police officer and later an immigration inspector in the Canadian Immigration Branch in Vancouver, B.C., who is noted for his role in infiltration and intelligence on the Ghadarite movement in North America in the early 1900s.-Early life:Hopkinson was born...
(1878-1914) of the Calcutta Police Information Service, appointed as Immigration Inspector and interpreter for Hindi, Punjabi and Gurumukhi. During seven long years, until his assassination (by a Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
), Hopkinson was required to send detailed and regular reports to the Government of India
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
about the presence of such student radicals as Tarak, and monitor a group of pro-British Sikh informants headed by Bela Singh.
With Panduranga Khankoje (B.G. Tilak's emissary), Tarak founded the Indian Independence League. Adhar Laskar arrived from Calcutta with funds sent by Jatin Mukherjee (also known as Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
), permitting Tarak to start his journal Free Hindustan in English, as well as its Gurumukhi edition, Swadesh Sevak (‘Servants of the Motherland’) by Guran Ditt Kumar
Guran Ditt Kumar
Guran Ditt Kumar, also known as G.D. Kumar Singh, was an Indian revolutionary, associated with the pioneers of the Gadhar movement, involved in the Indo-German conspiracy during the First World War.-Beginning in the North-West of India:...
who came from Calcutta on 31 October 1907. Free Hindustan has been claimed by Constance Brissenden as "the first South Asian publication in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and one of the first in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
." They were assisted by Professor Surendra Mohan Bose, who was an expert in explosives. Through regular correspondence, personalities like Tolstoy
Tolstoy
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
, Hyndman
Hyndman
Hyndman is a surname and may refer to:* Chris Hyndman* Clint Hyndman* George Crawford Hyndman* Henry Mayers Hyndman , socialist theoretician* Rob J. Hyndman , statistician* Robert Stewart Hyndman , painter...
, Shyamji Krishnavarma, Madame Cama, encouraged Tarak in his venture. Described as "community spokesman", he had established Hindustani Association in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
in 1907.
Fully conversant with existing laws, Tarak served the needs of his compatriots, most of whom were illiterate migrants from the Punjab region. In Millside, near New Westminster, he founded the Swadesh Sevak Home, a boarding school for the children of the Asian Indian immigrants. Apart from that, this school also held evening classes on English and mathematics, and thus helped the immigrants to write letters to their families or to their employers. This also helped them in fostering greater awareness of their duties towards India and their rights in their adopted homeland. There were about two thousand Indians, mostly Sikh, on the west coast of Canada and North America. The majority worked in agriculture and construction. After an initial setbacks, these Indian farmers succeeded in obtaining a bumper crop of rice in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the early 1910s, and a good number of them worked on the building of the Western Pacific Railway in California, along with indentured immigrants from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. Radicals like Tarak mobilized the Indian community to retaliate against anti-Indian violence and politics of exclusion.
Being a suspect of extracting bribes from the Asian Indian immigrants, Hopkinson utilized his influence to make Tarak a scapegoat and eventually got him expelled from Canada by the middle of 1908. Leaving Bose, Kumar and Chagan Khairaj Varma (also known as Husain Rahim) in charge of the compatriots’ fate, Tarak left Vancouver to better concentrate on the areas from Seattle to San Francisco. On reaching Seattle, since its July 1908 issue, Free Hindustan became a more overtly anti-British organ, with a motto from Tarak: “To protest against all tyranny is a service to humanity and the duty of civilization.” The Irish revolutionary George Freeman
George Freeman (newspaper editor)
George Freeman, an Irish-American, was editor of the Gaelic American newspaper.. He also worked for the Free Hindustan newspaper and was involved in attempts to incite a revolt in British-ruled India....
of the NYC-based Gaelic American newspaper was looked upon as the real leader of the anti-British movement, closely connected with two Indians, Samuel L. Joshi and Barakatullah
Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah or Maulana Barkatullah was a staunch anti-British Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohalla Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India...
. Invited by Fitzgerald, Tarak issued the August and the succeeding numbers of Free Hindustan from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. In 1908, Tarak joined the Norwich University
Norwich University
Norwich University is a private university located in Northfield, Vermont . The university was founded in 1819 at Norwich, Vermont, as the American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy. It is the oldest of six Senior Military Colleges, and is recognized by the United States Department of...
, Northfield
Northfield, Vermont
Northfield is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. It lies in a valley within the Green Mountains, and has been the home of Norwich University since 1866. The town contains the village of Northfield, where over half of its population lives. The population was 6,207 at the 2010...
, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, “a high-class engineering and military establishment, in order to receive military training. He also applied for enlistment (…) in the Vermont National Guard
Vermont National Guard
The Vermont National Guard is composed of the Vermont Army National Guard and the Vermont Air National Guard. Green Mountain Boys, despite the inclusion of women in both branches since the mid-twentieth century. Flag of the Green Mountain Boys as their banner...
…” Despite his popularity among the students of all ethnic origins, he was rusticated from that institution due to his anti-British activities (such as editing Free Hindustan). By the end of 1909, he returned to Seattle.
Founding the Ghadar Party
"A direct appeal to the Sikhs" appeared in the September-October 1909 issue of the Free Hindustan, reproduced by the Swadesh Sevak; the article ended with : “Coming in contact with free people and institutions of free nations, some of the Sikhs, though laborers in the North American Continent, have assimilated the idea of liberty and trampled the medals of slavery…” In March 1912 a letter published in The Punjabee asked for a leader to come and help organize Indians in the area in view of the rising revolutionary spirit. Originally they discussed inviting Kumar and then Sardar Ajit SinghSardar Ajit Singh
Sardar Ajit Singh Sindhu was an Indian dissident and nationalist during the time of British rule in India. He was an early protester in the Punjab region of India who challenged British rule, and openly criticized the Indian colonial government...
. However when Tarak arrived he suggested inviting the Aryan
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj is a Hindu reform movement founded by Swami Dayananda on 10 April 1875. He was a sannyasi who believed in the infallible authority of the Vedas. Dayananda emphasized the ideals of brahmacharya...
Anarchist Lala Hardayal, whom he knew from his days at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Hardayal agreed to work with him setting up the Hindi Association of the Pacific Ocean, which provided the first basis for the Ghadar Party
Ghadar Party
The Ghadar Party was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians, in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule...
. “Many of the leaders were of other parties and from different parts of India, Hardayal, Ras Bihari Bose, Barakatulah, Seth Husain Rahim, Tarak Nath Das and Vishnu Ganesh Pingley… The Ghadar was the first organized violent bid for freedom after the rising of 1857. Many hundreds paid the price with their lives,” wrote Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh
Khushwant Singh is a prominent Indian novelist and journalist. Singh's weekly column, "With Malice towards One and All", carried by several Indian newspapers, is among the most widely-read columns in the country....
.
From Berlin to Kabul
In 1914, he was admitted as a Research Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley. Tarak passed his M.A. examination and started his PhD dissertation on International Relationship and International Law, while joining the teaching staff of that university. He later earned his PhD degree from the University of WashingtonUniversity of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
. In order to have a greater freedom of action, in that year he also acquired American citizenship. With the help of professors like Robert Morss Lovett
Robert Morss Lovett
Robert Morss Lovett was an American academic, writer, editor, political activist, and government official....
, Upham Pope, Arthur Rider at UC Berkeley and David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan, Ph.D., LL.D. was a leading eugenicist, ichthyologist, educator and peace activist. He was president of Indiana University and Stanford University.-Early life and education:...
and Stuart of Palo Alto (of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
), Tarak established the East India Association. He was invited by the International Students’ Association as a delegate of the American universities. He had already been informed about the Indo-German Plan and in January 1915, met Virendranath Chattopadhyay in Berlin. For that meeting, Barakatullah
Maulavi Barkatullah
Maulavi Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah or Maulana Barkatullah was a staunch anti-British Indian revolutionary with sympathy for the Pan-Islamic movement. Barkatullah was born on 7 July 1854 at Itwra Mohalla Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India...
and Hardayal also arrived in Berlin. They all formed a close group to accompany Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap
Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh was a freedom fighter, journalist, writer and revolutionary social reformist of India. He was popularly known as the Aryan Peshwa. He was born in Thenua gotra Jat Hindu princely family of state of Mursan in Hathras District of Uttar Pradesh on 1 December 1886. He was...
in his Kabul expedition.
In April 1916 the Shiraz-ul-Akhbar of Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
reproduced a speech by Tarak from a Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
paper : it praised the work of the German officers busy training the Ottoman army and the intrepidity and bravery of the Turks. He pointed out that it was Germany and Austria who declared war and not the Allies, and that their reason for doing so was to purify the earth of the brutal atrocities practised on mankind by their enemies, and to save the unfortunate inhabitants of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Persia, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
from the English, French and Russians who had forcibly seized their countries and had reduced them to slavery. Tarak stressed the point that Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
entered the war not only to defend her own country and to maintain her liberty, but also to put new life into 300 million Muslims, and to establish the Afghan state on a firmer basis, one that would act as a link with 350 million Indians, both Hindus and Muslims, as its supporters and helpers. (Political, p. 304)
Tarak returned to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in July 1916. After that he set out for Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
with the project of a vast study on Japanese Expansion and its Significance in World Politics. This study appeared as a book in 1917 with the title, Is Japan a menace to Asia ?. The foreword of this book was written by the former Chinese Prime Minister Shao-I Hong Tong. In collaboration with Rash Behari Bose
Rash Behari Bose
Rashbehari Bose was a revolutionary leader against the British Raj in India and was one of the key organisers of the Ghadar conspiracy and later, the Indian National Army.-Early life:...
and Herambalal Gupta, he was about to leave on a mission to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, when Tarak was called back to appear in the infamous Hindu German Conspiracy Trial
Hindu German Conspiracy Trial
The Hindu–German Conspiracy Trial commenced in the District Court in San Francisco, California on November 12, 1917 following the uncovering of the Indo German plot for initiating a revolt in India...
. The all-white jury accused him as “the most dangerous criminal” and it was proposed to withdraw his American citizenship and surrender him to the British police. On 30 April 1918, he was sentenced to twenty-two months in Leavenworth federal prison
United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
The United States Penitentiary , Leavenworth was the largest maximum security federal prison in the United States from 1903 until 2005. It became a medium security prison in 2005.It is located in Leavenworth, Kansas...
.
Academic career
After his release in 1924, Tarak married his long-time friend and benefactress Mary Keatinge Morse. She was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleNational Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
and the National Woman's Party
National Woman's Party
The National Woman's Party , was a women's organization founded by Alice Paul in 1915 that fought for women's rights during the early 20th century in the United States, particularly for the right to vote on the same terms as men...
. With her, he went on an extended tour of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. He made Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
his headquarters for his activities. It was there that he founded the India Institute, that awarded scholarships to meritorious Indian students who pursued higher studies in Germany. He maintained a close contact with Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo
Sri Aurobindo , born Aurobindo Ghosh or Ghose , was an Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru, and poet. He joined the Indian movement for freedom from British rule and for a duration became one of its most important leaders, before developing his own vision of human progress...
, and pursued inner spiritual discipline. On his return to the United States, Tarak was jointly appointed as the professor of political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at the Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
and a Fellow of the Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
. With his wife, he opened the resourceful Taraknath Das Foundation in 1935, in order to promote educational activities and to foster cultural relations between the U.S. and Asian countries.
The Tarak Nath Das Foundation
Currently, this foundation awards grant money to Indian graduate students studying in the United States, who have completed or are about to complete one year of graduate work, and are working towards a degree. There are Tarak Nath Das funds at about a dozen universities in the States. Only the fund at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, called the Mary Keatinge Das Fund, has a fairly significant amount of money in it and the income is used to fund lectures and conferences on India. Other participatory universities are the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...
, New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
, the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa
University of Hawaii at Manoa
The University of Hawaii at Mānoa is a public, co-educational university and is the flagship campus of the greater University of Hawaii system...
.
Later life
Tarak was among those who suffered emotionally from the Partition of IndiaPartition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
in 1947 and vehemently opposed the process of balkanisation of South Asia
South Asia
South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...
till his last day. After forty-six years in exile, he revisited his motherland in 1952, as a Visiting Professor of the Watumull Foundation. He founded the Vivekananda Society in Calcutta. On 9 September 1952, he presided over the public meeting to celebrate the 37th anniversary of Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin
Bagha Jatin , born Jatindranath Mukherjee was an Bengali revolutionary philosopher against British rule....
’s heroic martyrdom, urging the youth to revive the values upheld by his mentor, Jatindâ. He died upon return to the United States on 22 December 1958, aged 74.
Sources
- “Das, Taraknath (Dr.)” in Dictionary of National Biography, (ed.) S.P. Sen, 1972, Vol I, pp363–4
- Political Trouble in India: A Confidential Report, by James Campbell Ker, 1917, reprinted 1973
- Sadhak biplabi jatindranath, by Prithwindra Mukherjee, West Bengal State Book Board, 1990, pp441–469
- San Francisco Trial Report, 75 Volumes; Record Groups 49, 60, 85 & 118 (U.S. National Archives, Washington D.C. & Federal Archives, San Bruno)
- M.N. Roy Library & Gadhar Collection (South/Southeast Library, University of California, Berkeley)
- “Taraknath Das” by William A. Ellis, in Norwich University 1819-1911, Vol. III, 1911
- “Deportation of Hindu Politics” by Sailendra Nath Ghose, in The Dial, 23 August 1919, pp145–7
- “The Vermont Education of Taraknath Das: An Episode In British-American-Indian Relations” by Ronald Spector, in Vermont History, Vol.48, No.2, 1980 (illustrated), pp88–95
- “Taraknath in Madras” by Akoor Anantachari, in Sunday Standard, Chennai, 31 May 1964
- Taraknath Das: Life and Letters of a Revolutionary in Exile, by Tapan K. Mukherjee, National Council of Education, Kolkata, 1998, 304pp
- Op. cit.: a review by Santosh Saha, in Journal of 3rd World Studies, Spring, 2000
- About The Tarak Nath Das Foundation by Leonard A. Gordon
- “Hindu” students at the University of Washington, 1908-1915