Historical Context

At the turn of the twentieth century, an influx of South Asians immigrated to the United States, escaping economic hardship under the British’s tyrannical rule. Many of these migrants were Punjabi-Sikh farmers and landed in San Francisco, becoming a crucial piece of the region’s agricultural industry. As they began to leave India in larger numbers, the US adopted a policy of discrimination against incoming South Asians, excluding them due to anti-Indian prejudice. In official reports, immigration officers cited the Indian population’s likelihood to become “public charges” and lack of employment opportunities. In response, these South Asians established political organizing groups to address the racial conditions of their new homes. One of them, the Ghadar Party established in 1913, would become a critical group in advocating for the rights of South Asians both in the US and India.

However, on the other side of the country, a similar movement had already been brewing for years. While the West Coast was a key landing point for immigrants seeking employment opportunities and economic mobility, the East Coast was a key battleground for Indian intellectuals in their anti-colonial fight against the British Empire. More specifically, these Indians tended to reside in New York City where they shared their plans, ideas, and publications, all with the intent of liberating India from centuries of colonial occupation.

"Our First Invasion by Hindus and Mohammedans" (1906), SAADA. 

Why NYC?

To understand why such an influx of Indian revolutionaries came to New York City, it is necessary to know why they fled India in the first place. Beginning in the 1900s, the British heightened their repression of dissident views, especially those critical to their ruling tactics in India. In 1907, the passage of the Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act facilitated this exodus from India as the new law permitted the British to deport anyone stirring revolutionary sentiments. Many members of the Indian independence movement had already been wary of British crackdowns and fled to Europe, specifically Paris and London. However, in the same year of the act’s passage, a member of the movement, Madan Lal Dhingra, assassinated a political aide to India’s secretary of state, so North America presented itself as a safer and less hostile environment to organize. As a city, New York had a culture of spreading ideas, print publications, and radical political activism.

Establishing a Base

Once in New York, Indians needed hubs to collaborate and communicate their individual ideas for liberation. Recalling their experiences abroad, they decided to emulate Shyamaji Krishnavarma’s London-based India House–a shuttered, but early hub for Indian revolutionaries to exchange ideas. Along with a center akin to India House, three organizations were established to further the broader movement’s objectives: the Pan-Aryan Association, Indo-American National Association in New York, and Society for the Advancement of India. The Indian movement on the East Coast tasked itself with garnering sympathy for the Indian cause from the American people which was a stark contrast from West Coast farmers protesting labor conditions.

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