A DIFFERENT KIND OF DISSIDENCE: THE GHADAR PARTY, SIKH HISTORY AND THE POLITICS OF ANTICOLONIAL MOBILIZATION

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between Sikhi and anticolonialism in the writings and activities of the Ghadar Party. Since the 1960s, historical studies of Ghadar have understood its politics as variously liberal-nationalist, proto-communist or anarchist. On the question of religion, however, such diversity gives way to a near-consensus of the Party's avowed secularism. I seek to challenge this latter genre of interpretation by tracing the currents of religiosity which pervade not only the Party's newspaper, but also the actions of its non-writing mass base. Through its mobilization I argue that Ghadar implicated Sikhi as both a force and a stake in the struggle to overthrow British rule in India. The kind of politics generated by this engagement stands outside secular-religious frames, gesturing instead towards a new imaginary which mainstream conceptual vocabularies strain to capture, but which remains worthwhile to pursue in the present.