The Ghadar Movement and the Indian Diaspora in Thailand, 1914–1917 | Pimmanus Wibulsilp

Watch Pimmanus Wibulsilp, lecturer, Chulalongkorn University, in the second iteration of Indian Ocean and Beyond: Outward Bound From Gujarat. The Ghadar Movement of 1913–18 was one of the early but ultimately unsuccessful attempts of a group of Indians to overthrow the British Raj. What makes this movement particularly outstanding among Indian freedom struggles was its extensive “transregional” terrain of operation across the Indo-Pacific region. The United States, Japan, China, the Philippines, Singapore, British Malaya, and Burma were among the major sites where their networks and activities existed. Thailand is also often referred to as one crucial location. However, there is still no comprehensive study about this country related to the issue. With the help of a set of rarely used Thai documents titled “The Indians who are planning to cause mutiny against the British” kept in the Thai National Archives, Wibulsilp mainly argues that Thailand was not merely functioning as a passage of the Ghadarites from abroad to return to India through its borders, but instead that different parts of the country were harbouring their various seditious missions. These activities were carried out not only by the overseas Indians travelling from abroad, but also by many “local Indians” in Thailand who turned themselves into active underground revolutionaries, as well as “allies” from diverse Asian nations.