Kabul Provisional Government of India

The Kabul Provisional Government of India, formed on December 1, 1915, was the first Indian government-in-exile. Established in Kabul, Afghanistan, during World War I, this exile government aimed to secure foreign diplomatic and military assistance to overthrow British colonial rule. It served as a strategic milestone in the Indian freedom struggle, demonstrating international anti-colonial collaboration.

Historical Context and Origins

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 opened opportunities for Indian revolutionaries operating abroad. With British forces deployed across European and Middle Eastern battlefields, the Berlin Committee for Indian Independence collaborated with the Imperial German Foreign Office under the Zimmermann Plan to weaken British power from the outside.

The Indo-German-Turkish Mission

In 1915, a joint diplomatic mission traveled through Persia to Kabul. The mission aimed to persuade Emir Habibullah Khan of Afghanistan to abandon his neutrality, declare war against British India, and allow Afghan territory to serve as a launchpad for an armed invasion.

• Key Members: The delegation included Indian revolutionaries Raja Mahendra Pratap and Maulana Barkatullah, alongside German officers Captain Werner Otto von Hentig and Dr. Walter Röhr, and Ottoman representative Kazim Bey.
• Geopolitical Objective: The alliance sought to unify Central Asian powers, the Ottoman Caliphate, and Indian freedom fighters into a single military front.

Structural Setup and Leadership

On December 1, 1915, during the 58th birthday of Raja Mahendra Pratap, the delegates officially proclaimed the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India) in Kabul.

Key Office Bearers and Roles

Major Diplomatic Initiatives and Operations

The Provisional Government operated as an active diplomatic entity, sending emissaries to foreign powers to build an anti-British coalition.

Silk Letters Movement (Reshmi Rumal Tehrik)

To coordinate an internal armed revolt inside India, Ubaidullah Sindhi wrote secret plans on pieces of yellow silk cloth addressed to Mahmud Hasan Deobandi in the Hijaz (Hedjaz).

• The Objective: The letters detailed plans to recruit a revolutionary army named Al-Junud Al-Rabbaniyya (The Army of God) with headquarters in Medina and secondary bases in Kabul and Tehran.
• Interception: A local loyalist turned over the silk letters to the Punjab government in August 1916, exposing the network and leading to mass arrests across northern India.

Outreach to Tsarist Russia and Soviet Union

• Tsarist Diplomatic Mission: In 1916, the Kabul government dispatched a delegation carrying a letter written on a gold leaf plate to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, urging him to end his alliance with Britain.
• Meeting with Lenin: Following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Raja Mahendra Pratap and Maulana Barkatullah traveled to Moscow in May 1919 and met Vladimir Lenin to secure Soviet support for Indian liberation.

Resistance and Dissolution

Despite diplomatic pressure, Emir Habibullah Khan maintained strict official neutrality throughout World War I, refusing to commit Afghan troops to an invasion of British India.

• Treaty of Rawalpindi (1919): Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War and the assassination of Emir Habibullah Khan in 1919, his successor Emir Amanullah Khan signed the Treaty of Rawalpindi, recognizing Afghan independence.
• British Diplomatic Pressure: Under British diplomatic pressure, the Afghan administration required the members of the Provisional Government to leave Kabul.
• Dispersal of Leaders: The government dissolved its Kabul headquarters in the early 1920s. Raja Mahendra Pratap moved to Japan, while Maulana Barkatullah continued anti-colonial propaganda across Europe and America.

Key Facts

Raja Mahendra Pratap established the Prem Mahavidyalaya at Vrindavan in 1909, one of the earliest technical colleges in India, donating his personal estate for its creation. Maulana Barkatullah edited the revolutionary newspaper The Islamic Fraternity from Tokyo in 1912 before joining the Ghadar Party in San Francisco. The Provisional Government issued its own official declarations and attempted to print currency notes to assert administrative legitimacy. The Silk Letters Movement derived its name because the secret communications were stitched inside the lining of coats or written directly on silk cloth to evade British border inspectors. In 2021, the Government of India established the Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh State University in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, to honor his contributions to the freedom struggle.