Abstract
No close examination of Hindustani Ghadar Party literature has been completed in order to ascertain the Ghadar Party view of the political relationship between British-controlled India and America. This thesis will provide an analysis of their newsletters and other correspondence in order to understand how their ideological perception evolved in relation to the United States and British India. Specifically, the Hindustani Ghadar Party's view of the political relationship between Indian freedom and American freedom will be studied I willfocus on three distinct time periods: from the beginning of the Ghadar Party movement up until the end of the quixotic revolution to invade India; during the federal trial of 191 7-1918; and finally, the time period between 1918 and the 1920 's where the political perceptions of the Ghadar Party diversified The timeframe of this study is 1913-1928. My examination shows that the political ideology changed significantly during the years 1913-1925. Notably, the federal trial acted as a milestone for the group 's ideology-the pre-war ideas expressing similarities between America and India changed to an idea that America had lost its way and that the Indian expatriates were the true holders ofAmerican virtues of freedom. The sources usedfor this thesis include Hindustani Ghadar Party newsletters, autobiographies of members and leaders, political writing of the leaders, newspaper excerpts from the New York Times and Berkeley 's Daily Californian, trial transcript from the neutrality trial U.S. v. Franz Bopp, San rancisco Chronicle coverage of the federal criminal trial brought against Hindustani Ghadar Party members, general files from the Department of Justice related to the conspiracy case, records from the Immigration and Naturalization service, and post-trial telegrams to ffiliates in New York City. This thesis references a large number of primary sources, several translated specifically for this thesis, in addition to numerous secondary sources as well as the Foreign Relations of the United States, Lansing Papers.