Gulab Kaur, also known as Bibi Gulab Kaur, was an Indian freedom fighter. She was famous for her revolutionary activities and contributed significantly to India’s freedom from British rule. Gulab Kaur is considered one of the women revolutionaries who played a vital role in solving many prevalent social evils like gender inequality and sati. She died in 1941.
Wiki/Biography
Gulab Kaur was born in 1890 (51 years old at the time of death) in the village of Bakshwara in Sangrur District, Punjab Province, British India (now India). She was born into a poor Sikh family and married a man named Man Singh at a very young age. During that time, in Punjab, workers and people with agricultural background migrated abroad in search of employment opportunities. For the same reason, the couple immigrated to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, hoping for a better future for their family, but their final destination was to settle in the United States. While in the Philippines, she reportedly came into contact with the Ghadar Party, which sowed the seeds of revolutionary ideas in Gulab Kaur.
family
She was born into a poor Sikh peasant family in Punjab, India.
parents
Her father is a farmer.
husband
She was married at a very young age to a man named Man Singh.
Gadar movement
When the lower classes and poor farmers got tired of the violence and cruelty of the British, they decided to leave India and move to other countries for a better life. Most Sikhs went to the United States, where they had to face inequality, racism, and humiliation. These circumstances turned most of them into revolutionaries. On July 15, 1930, the Gadar Party was established. The Gadar Party was an international political movement founded by Indian overseas citizens that aimed to overthrow the East India Company’s rule in India. The party’s initial members were mostly Punjabi Indians working on the West Coast of the United States and Canada, but as more people learned about the party, the movement spread among Indian and global Indian communities.
Group photo of members of the Gadar Party
The journey from Gulab Kaur to “Ghadri Gulab Kaur”
After meeting members of the Gadar Party, she learned more about the party by listening to their sermons. Deeply influenced by the party’s work and its purpose, she decided to join the party. In Manila, she often met with Indians and promoted the party, getting more people to join. She often encouraged people to join the Indian independence movement through motivational speeches.
Parted ways with her husband and came to India
According to reports, Gulab Kaur and her husband Man Singh decided to meet with Hafiz Abdullah of Jagraon, chairman of the local branch of the Gadaar Party in Manila, and a group of 50 Gadda Gulab Kaur and her husband Man Singh parted ways after a group of Delhiites returned to India together. Her husband wanted her to go to the United States with him. Gulab Kaul rejected her husband’s offer to settle in the United States because by this time she had become a die-hard revolutionary in the Ghadar movement, and Gulab Kaur traveled to India with 50 other Filipino revolutionaries. They joined the SS Korea batch and sailed for India, transferring from SS Korea to Tosha Maru in Singapore.
Non-stop service day and night!
After returning to India along with other Gadars, she started working in the villages of Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar where she would take the help of other Gadar leaders like Banta Singh Conclave meetings were held and arms, arms and ammunition were distributed under the Sanghwal, Piyala Singh Rangali and Harnam Singh Tondirat. She gained a reputation for bravery by repeatedly deceiving the British authorities. Disguised as a journalist, she closely monitored the party’s print media and informed the leadership of the British’s every move. She delivered powerful speeches that united more people with the Gadar Party and influenced many women to come forward and join the war against injustice. Women respected her and followed her as she played a huge role in empowering women and fighting against the social evils that existed at that time.
Blood, sweat and tears for freedom
One day she learned that her husband had returned to India to join the movement and she decided to meet some other Gadris. She was captured by British authorities while on her way to meet her husband. Subsequently, in 1929, she was captured by the British authorities and sent to Lahore Prison (Shahi Qila) in British India (now Pakistan) for two years for her rebellious behavior, where she suffered unimaginable torture and torture . . Even after this behavior, the patriot did not stop speaking out against immoral behavior, which made her time in prison even more difficult and she was molested by people in prison. When she was released from prison two years later, she was very weak and sick from all the pain and suffering she had experienced. Even after her release from prison, she continued her revolutionary activities.
die
Some sources claim that she died of illness in 1941 (at the age of 50), while a few sources claim that she died in 1931 at the age of 40.
Facts/Trivia
- Due to her revolutionary activities, she earned the famous title of “Ghadri Gulab Kaur”.
- In 2014, a writer named Kesar Singh wrote a novel about Gulab Kaur in Punjabi titled “Gadar Di Dhee Gulab Kaur”.
The book is titled “Gadar Di Dhee Gulaab Kaur”
- On January 10, 2021, amidst the farmers’ protests in Delhi, a book titled “Gulab Kaur Gaddar Lehar Di Daler Yodha” written by Rakesh Kumar was released.
Launch event of the book “Gulab Kaur Lehar Di Daler Yodha” by Rakesh Kumar
- As part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), State Minister for Culture and External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi launched a photo album titled ‘Indian Women Unsung Heroes: Brave Women of Our Freedom Struggle’ in Delhi on January 27, 2022 to commemorate 75th anniversary of India’s independence. The year of Indian Independence; Bibi Gulab Kaur is mentioned as one of the heroes in the book.
The book published by the Indian government is titled “India’s Unsung Women Heroes”
- The ‘Mela Ghadari Babian Da’ fair is held every year from October 30 to November 1 in Jalandhar, Punjab. At this fair, various cultural programs such as folk dances and plays (short plays) are organized to pay tribute to Gulab Kaur and other freedom fighters.
‘Mela Gadri Babian Da’ celebrated in Jalandhar, Punjab
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education