The headquarters of Ghadar Movement/Party were at

(a). San Francisco

(b). Stanford University

(c). Portland

(d). Florida

Answer: (a)

Explanation:

THE GHADAR PARTY

The Ghadr Party was a revolutionary group organised around a weekly newspaper 

The Ghadr with its headquarters at San Francisco and branches along the US coast and in the Far East.

These revolutionaries included mainly ex-soldiers and peasants who had migrated from the Punjab to the USA and Canada in search of better employment opportunities.

Pre-Ghadr revolutionary activity had been carried on by Ramdas Puri, G.D. Kumar, Taraknath Das, Sohan Singh Bhakna and Lala Hardayal who reached there in 1911.

To carry out revolutionary activities, the earlier activists had set up a „Swadesh Sevak Home‟ at Vancouver and „United India House‟ at Seattle. Finally, in 1913, the Ghadr was established.

The Ghadr programme was to organise assassinations of officials, publish revolutionary and anti- imperialist literature, work among Indian troops stationed abroad, procure arms and bring about a simultaneous revolt in all British colonies.

The moving spirits behind the Ghadr Party were Lala Hardayal, Ramchandra, Bhagwan Singh, Kartar Singh Saraba, Barkatullah, and Bhai Parmanand.

The Ghadrites intended to bring about a revolt in India. Their plans were encouraged by two events in 1914 the Komagata Maru incident and the outbreak of the First World War.

Komagata Maru Incident (1914)

Komagata Maru - a ship chartered from Singapore carrying Sikh and Punjabi Muslims were denied entry into Canada and forced to return to India.

The British Government tried to detain the immigrants at Calcutta, in order to transport them to Punjab. The immigrants refused to give in. A tussle ensued in which 22 immigrants lost lives.

The Ghadr leaders were inflamed by this incident. 

They planned to launch a violent attack to expel the British. Kartar Singh Saraba, Raghubar Dayal Gupta, Rashbehari Bose, and Sachin Sanyal were the prominent leaders involved.

February 21, 1915 was fixed as the date of attack.                  

However, the British got to know about the attack, made preemptive arrests, and suppressed the movement.

Defence of India Act, 1915 was the primary and most draconian tool used by the British to counter the Ghadr movement.