Pandit Kanshi Ram Biography 
Pandit Kanshi Ram was an Indian revolutionary during British rule in India, and one of the founding members of Ghadar Party, an organisation founded by Punjabis, principally Sikhs in the United States and Canada to fight against British for Indian independence. It was founded in the year 1913, and resolved six years later. Kanshi Ram also served as treasurer of the party from its foundation to next one year. After the failed February plot he got arrested, and later tried in the Lahore conspiracy trial. He was charged along with his friends on 27 March 1915. He was one of the associates of Kartar Singh Sarabha and Vishnu Ganesh Pingle, the young revolutionaries who fought for India’s freedom.
He was born in Ambala, Punjab in 1883 at village Maroli Kalan in the house of Pandit Ganga Ram. He passed his Matriculation examination from Patiala. Later he learnt telegraphy worked at the District Office, Ambala City on Rs. 30 per month. At the age of 20, Kanshi Ram embarked on a revolutionary career. While in America, he witnessed the humiliations faced by Indians in the hands of countrymen there. He worked as a labour contractor in a timber factory then. He was a great admirer of Sufi Amba Prasad and Lala Hardyal, and joined hands with many revolutionaries who also faced same issues.
Ghadar Party was an organisation founded by Punjabis in the year 1913 in US to fight against British. Most of its members were Punjabis who lived in US then. Yet a small fraction included Indian Hindus too. With headquarters at San Francisco, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Har Dayal, Kartar Singh Sarabha, Abdul Hafiz Mohamed Barakatullah, Sulaman Choudhary, Aamir Choudhary,Rashbehari Bose and Gulab Kaur were among its key members. Kanshi served as its treasurer since it was founded.
In 1914 when the party sent batches to India for freedom struggle, he joined Ludhiana team. Kanshi Ram visited several army cantonments, met Indian soldiers who worked with British and explained the aims and objectives of his Party. He decided to plunder the MOO Government Treasury on November 25 1914 with the help of a bond of 15 revolutionaries, for monetary helps for their tasks in India. Somehow British came to know about the plot, and Kanshl Ram and some others got arrested after a violent clash.
They were tried and sentenced to death with confiscation of property in the First Lahore Conspiracy Case. He was not willing to apologize to secure a release, as he felt his mission was completed. He was hanged on March 27, 1915 and his property worth rupees forty thousand was confiscated.
Published: N/A
Updated: July 04, 2018
