Ram Nath Puri

Ram Nath Puri (or Ramnath Puri) was an Indian-American freedom fighter best known as the editor of Circular-i-Azadi, a publication critical of the British Raj, often linked to the early history of the Ghadar Party.[1]

Ram Nath Puri
Born(1881-09-21)21 September 1881
India
Died1974
Los Angeles
NationalityAmerican
Known forEditor of Indian revolutionary magazine Circular-i-Azadi

Early life

Puri was born to a Punjabi[2] family on 21 September 1881.[3][4][5] His father was Jawala Mul Puri from the village of Khem Karan, in what was then the Lahore District of British India.[1]

He started his career as a bank clerk in Lahore,[1] when he published two anti-colonial pamphlets and a political cartoon of an emaciated "Father India" bound in chains.[6] He attracted the attention of British authorities for having published what they termed "objectionable pamphlets" and a "seditious cartoon."[7] The British confiscated Puri's pamphlets, arrested his agent, and harassed him directly. He decided to leave India.[6]

In late 1906,[2][8] he migrated to the United States, as a political exile, according to historian Bipan Chandra.[9]

Activism in the United States

In 1907, he founded the Hindustan Association. According to his own description in Circular-i-Azadi, the association was based in San Francisco, California, and had branches in Astoria, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia.[7] Lalkar describes "the principal condition for membership of the HA was that the members would rid themselves of prejudice based on caste, colour and creed."[2]

Between 1907 and 1908, he launched and published three issues of Circular-i-Azadi (also transliterated as Circular-e-Azadi), an Urdu language paper critical of British rule in India and focused on political education, published out of San Francisco and Oakland, California.[1][8][10] The first issue was printed using lithography.[11]

Historian Maia Ramnath described Circular-i-Azadi as "one of the first significant pieces of anticolonial propaganda circulated on the West Coast."[7] It included original writing, as well as extracts from other publications, including the Gaelic American, and according to Ramnath, most likely the Indian Sociologist and Bande Mataram.[7] Chandra describes Puri as pledging support to the Swadeshi movement in the publication;[9] Ramnath quotes a 1908 issue that reads, in part, "The king is no longer to us the representative of God in the country. We have come to know that people possess the right of appointing and dethroning kings…Swadeshi is for Indians what Sinn Fein is for Ireland."[7]

Circular-i-Azadi came to the attention of the British Director of Criminal Intelligence, and was prohibited from shipment to India due to its allegedly "seditious" content. In January 1908, a Director of Criminal Intelligence report described the report, which had appeared in India, as having as "frankly revolutionary," working "to organise an Indian national party among Indians who go to America for employment," and "capable of working a great mischief."[7][8]

Life in the United States

In the United States, Ramnath Puri worked as a hospital watchman, interpreter, mining college student, fruit picker, waiter, entrepreneur, and postal worker.[7][12]

According to Karen Leonard, Puri "returned for his wife in 1906 and brought her to San Francisco, where he had become a U.S. citizen…the three Puri children were born in the first two decades of the century."[13]

In 1908, the Overland Monthly described Puri as a student of English.[14]

In 1910, he acquired land in Oakland, California.[7]

As of 1917, he was described as a naturalized United States citizen, an alumnus of the University of California, a well-known author, and a San Francisco area resident of ten years.[15]

In 1917, he launched a new publication called Rafiq-i-Hind (or "Friend of India") from Stockton, California, with news of interest to the "Hindu" (Indian) community.[15]

In 1947, he published How to Conquer Poverty & Famine in India by American Methods. In it, he describes his choice to leave the United States, and his Californian family, including a son "who is engaged in a business of his own, and a daughter "who is in the Civil Service of the California State Government."[16]

He died in Los Angeles, California in 1974.[5]

References
  1. Tatla, Darshan Singh (1 January 2003). A guide to sources, Ghadar movement. Guru Nanak Dev University. p. 98. ISBN 9788177700565.
  2. "100th Anniversary of the Ghadar movement – a salute to the forerunners of the Indian liberation struggle". Lalkar. 1 July 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
  3. "United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KZKQ-ZTV  : accessed 28 February 2016), Ram Nath Puri, 1917-1918; citing San Joaquin County, California, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,544,322.
  4. "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V48D-LVY  : accessed 28 February 2016), Ram Nath Puri, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
  5. "California Death Index, 1940-1997," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VPHG-MHJ  : accessed 28 February 2016), Ram N Puri, 21 Sep 1974; Department of Public Health Services, Sacramento.
  6. Ganguly, Anil Baran (1 January 1980). Ghadar Revolution in America. Metropolitan. pp. 31–32.
  7. Ramnath, Maia (1 December 2011). Haj to Utopia: How the Ghadar Movement Charted Global Radicalism and Attempted to Overthrow the British Empire. University of California Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780520950399.
  8. Sohi, Seema (1 January 2014). Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North America. Oxford University Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 9780199376254.
  9. Chandra, Bipan (14 October 2000). "World War I and Nationalism: The Ghadar". India's Struggle for Independence. Penguin UK. p. 176. ISBN 9788184751833.
  10. Singh, Inder (2013). "Gadar Centennial Commemoration 2013" (PDF). Global Organization of People of Indian Origin.
  11. Puri, Harish K. (1 January 1983). Ghadar movement: ideology, organisation & strategy. Guru Nanak Dev University Press. p. 40. ISBN 9780836411133.
  12. "Hindu Resigns From Service". The Union Postal Employee. Washington, DC. February 1918.
  13. Leonard, Karen (17 August 2010). "Male and Female Networks". Making Ethnic Choices: California's Punjabi Mexican Americans. Temple University Press. p. 94. ISBN 9781439903643.
  14. Puri, Ram Nath (July 1908). "A New Light in India". Overland Monthly.
  15. "Rafiq-i-Hind". The Hindustanee Student: 15. March 1917.
  16. Puri, Ram Nath (1 January 1947). How to conquer poverty & famine in India by American methods. Padmaja Publications.
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