War by Revolution. Germany and Great Britain in the Middle East in the Era of World War I

122 WARBYREVOLUTION

Butfromitsinception,theIndiancommitteeinBerlinsuffered
froma lackofprestigiousmembersoftheIndianrevolutionarymove-
ment.Thecommitteecountedas itsonlymembersofanystaturethe
Ghadrleaders,BarkatullahandHarDayal,andtheBengaliactivist,
Chattopadhyaya.ItwasfromthesepersonsthatOppenheimand
Wesendonk,whomtheforeignministryassignedas itsliaisonwith
theIndians,acquiredtheirknowledgeofIndianpolitics.Both
BarkatullahandHarDayalhadbeenrefugeeslivingoutsideIndia
foratleastsevenyears.'
Nevertheless,thetwoIndianssetmuchoftheagendaforGermany's
Indiapolicy.HarDayal,whoarrivedinBerlinon 26 january,ordered
theprincipalIndianrevolutionaryleadersintheUnitedStates,Ram
Chandra(theeditorofGhadrpublicationsandagentforIndianaf-
fairsattheGermanconsulateinSanFrancisco)andHerambaLal
Gupta,tosendIndianexiles inAmericathroughBritishEastAfrica
toIndia.TheGermans,whobelievedthatwidespreadanti-British
unrestexistedinIndia,feltcertaintheexileswouldreachtheirdesti-
nation.'
SomeoftheGermanconfidenceresultedfromamutinyin the
BritishIndiangarrisoninSingaporeonISFebruaryandanabortive
uprisingofIndianrevolutionariesinthePunjabfourdayslater.The
outbreakinSingaporewasnotdirectlyconnectedwiththeinsurrec-
tioninIndia,althoughGhadragentshadpreviouslymadecontact
withthedisaffectedsoldiers.ButtheBritishsooncrushedbothre-
bellionsandlearnedfromtheconspiracytrialsofthePunjabidefen-
dantsabouttheGermanrole inIndianrevolutionaryactivities.'
DespitethemutinyinSingapore,Indiansinlargenumberscon-
tinuedtovolunteertoassistBritaininthewar byservinginIndian
armyunitsfightinginFrance,Egypt,Mesopotamia,atGallipoli,and
elsewhere.Britain'sdependenceinthewaronsuchtroopsweakened
itsholdoverIndiaandpromptedBritishwartimepromisesthatwould
leadlatertodominionstatusforIndia."
Furthermore,effortsbytherevolutionariestosmuggletheirfol-
lowersintoIndia,bothfromtheUnitedStatesandFar East,gener-
ally failed.Thelackofsuccessresultedfromacombinationoffac-
tors,includingtheincompetence,naivete,anddifferentcultural
backgroundsoftheIndiansandGermanofficials. Conflictsoften