Gulab Kaur, also known as Bibi Gulab Kaur, was an Indian freedom fighter. She is known for her revolutionary activities which significantly contributed to India’s independence from British rule. Gulab Kaur is counted among those women revolutionaries who played an important role in addressing many prevalent social evils like gender inequality and Sati. He died in 1941.
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Wiki/Biography
Gulab Kaur was born in 1890 (51 years old at the time of death) in Bakshiwala village, Sangrur district of Punjab, British India (now, India). She belonged to a poor Sikh family and was very young when she got married to a boy named Maan Singh. During that time, workers and people with agricultural background in Punjab were migrating to foreign countries in search of employment. For this reason, the couple moved to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, in hopes of a better future as a family, but their final destination was to settle in the United States. Reportedly, during her stay in the Philippines, she came in contact with the Ghadar Party, which sowed the seeds of revolutionary ideas in Gulab Kaur.
Family
She belonged to a poor Sikh farming family in Punjab, India.
Guardian
His father was a farmer.
Husband
She got married at a very young age to a man named Man Singh.
Ghadar movement
When the lower class people and poor farmers got tired of the violence and cruelty of the British, they decided to leave India and go to other countries for a better life. Most Sikhs migrated to America, where they faced inequality, racism, and humiliation. These circumstances turned most of them into revolutionaries. Gadar Party was established on 15 July 1930. The Ghadar Party was an international political movement founded by expatriate citizens of India to defeat the rule of the East India Company in India. The early members of the party were mostly Punjabi Indians working on the west coast of the United States and Canada, but as more and more people became aware of the party, the movement spread among Indian communities in India and around the world. .
A group photo of Ghadar Party members
Journey from Gulab Kaur to ‘Ghadri Gulab Kaur’
After meeting members of the Ghadar Party, he researched more about the party by listening to their sermons. She was so impressed by the party’s work and its intentions that she decided to join the party. In Manila, she met Indians and promoted the party to include more people. She often encouraged people to join India’s freedom movement through her motivational speeches.
She separated from her husband and came to India
Reportedly, Gulab Kaur and her husband Maan Singh parted ways when Gulab Kaur decided to return to India with Hafiz Abdullah of Jagraon, who was the president of the local branch of the Ghadar Party in Manila, and a group of 50 Ghadaris. Did. While her husband wanted her to come with him to the United States. Gulab Kaur rejected her husband’s offer to settle in the United States because, by that time, she had become a staunch revolutionary under the wave of the Ghadar movement, after which Gulab, along with 50 other revolutionaries from the Philippines, fled to India. Went towards. He left for India after joining the SS Korea batch, changing from SS Korea to Tosha Maru in Singapore.
Served restlessly day and night!
After returning to India with other Ghadars, she started working in the villages of Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar, where she held secret meetings and distributed weapons, arms and ammunition with the help of other Ghadar Party leaders like Banta Singh. Were. Sanghwal, Piara Singh Langeri, and Harnam Singh Tundilat. She was known for her bravery as she dodged the British authorities several times. In the guise of a journalist, she closely monitored the party printing press and kept the leaders informed about every activity of the British. She gave powerful speeches to unite more people with the Ghadar Party and inspired many women to come forward and participate in the war against injustice. Women looked up to her and followed her because she played a huge role in empowering women and speaking against the social evils that existed at that time.
Blood, sweat and tears for freedom
One day, she received news that her husband had returned to India to participate in the movement, and she decided to meet him along with some other Ghadaris. British officials caught her when she was on her way to meet her husband. Subsequently, in 1929, the British authorities captured him, and he was sent to the prison (Shahi Qila) in Lahore, British India (now Pakistan) for 2 years for his rebellious actions, where he was tortured in ways that , which no one could even imagine. , Even after this type of behavior, the patriot did not stop speaking out against immorality, which made it even more difficult for him to stay in jail and he was mistreated by the people there. After 2 years, when she came out of the jail, she became very weak and sick due to all the hardships and sorrows she had gone through. Even after being released from jail, he kept his revolutionary activities alive.
Death
Some sources say he died of some illness in 1941 (aged 50 at the time of death), while others say he died in 1931 at the age of 40.
Facts/General Knowledge
- Due to her revolutionary activities, she earned the famous title of “Ghadari Gulab Kaur”.
- In 2014, a writer named Kesar Singh wrote a novel about Gulab Kaur in Punjabi named ‘Gadar Di Dhi Gulab Kaur’.
Book named ‘Gadar Di Dhee Gulab Kaur’
- On January 10, 2021, amid the farmers’ protests in Delhi, a book named ‘Gulab Kaur Gaddaar Lahar Di Daler Yoddha’, written by Rakesh Kumar, was released.
Release program of Rakesh Kumar’s book ‘Gulab Kaur Lahar Di Daler Yoddha’
- State Culture and External Affairs Minister Meenakshi Lekhi launched an illustrated book titled ‘India’s Women Unsung Heroes: The Brave Women of Our Freedom Struggle’ in Delhi to commemorate the 75th anniversary as part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) on January 27, 2022. Released. Years of India’s Independence; Bibi Gulab Kaur was mentioned as one of the heroes in the book.
A book named Unsung Women Heroes of India was released by the Government of India.
- Every year ‘Mela Ghadari Babiyan Da’ fair is organized in Jalandhar, Punjab from 30 October to 1 November. Many cultural programs like folk dances and dramas (skits) take place in this fair to pay tribute to Gulab Kaur and other freedom fighters.
Celebration of ‘Mela Gadri Babian Da’ in Jalandhar, Punjab
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn