A Forgotten Ambassador in Cairo by N.S. Vinodh

Author:N.S. Vinodh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: S&S India
Published: 2021-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

23

J.J. Singh and the India League of America

(1937)

LALA LAJPAT RAI was the first Indian nationalist of note who spent a number of years in the United States (1914–19) actively engaging with the American public through his countrywide speaking tours. Though he was seen as an extremist in India vis-à-vis the Moderates, Lajpat Rai’s approach in America was essentially what would be described as Gandhian; he abjured violence, he advocated constitutional methods, he was antagonistic towards fascism, and he abhorred revolutionary intrigues. His aim was to evoke support from the American public towards the campaign for Indian Home Rule, and to win back the sympathy for local Indians that had declined due to the hostile publicity engendered by the Hindu-German Conspiracy Case. With the help of J.T. Sunderland, Dr N.S. Hardikar, and K.D. Shastri, Lajpat Rai established the India Home Rule League of America in October 1917, and started a monthly publication, Young India, in January 1918 with their offices at 1400, Broadway in New York City.1 But with Lajpat Rai returning to India in February 1920, and Hardikar following him in 1921, both the organisation and the publication lost their momentum, and the League gradually degenerated into a forum for desultory India-related conversations at the Ceylon India Inn.

It took another two decades, and a Sikh from North-West Punjab to transform the moribund organisation into an effective lobbying vehicle for the Indians in America. That Sikh was a six-foot, strapping young man with an infectious enthusiasm named Jagjit Singh. Sirdar J.J. Singh or J.J., as he became popularly known, was born on 5 October 1897 at Rawalpindi (in present-day Pakistan) to Sardar Rup Singh, a mid-level bureaucrat of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) in British India who rose to the highest level possible in those days for an Indian, and retired as an Extra-Assistant Commissioner, an executive role with a quasi-judicial function. While studying at the Lahore Commercial College, J.J. came under the influence of Gandhi and took part in demonstrations against British rule. He quit college, joined the INC, became an elected member of the Punjab Provincial Congress, and then, at the age of twenty-four, became the youngest of the three hundred members of the All India Congress Committee (A.I.C.C.). He seems to have met Gandhi briefly at this time.2

J.J.’s activities with the freedom struggle were cut short when Gandhi abruptly called off the non-cooperation movement due to the violence at Chauri Chaura in February 1922, when twenty-two policemen were killed in mob violence. Finding himself with nothing else to do, he went to London in 1924 to study law at the Inner Temple. Coincidentally, at the same time the British Empire Exhibition was being held at Wembley Park (the site of the present Wembley Stadium) between April and October 1924. This was a trade exhibition of Britain and her colonies to stimulate trade amongst and beyond them. J.J. set aside his law career plans and opened a stall at the exhibition displaying Indian silks, handloom cloth, and other Indian wares.

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