Jawaharlal Nehru headed the first government of India after the independence is a common knowledge. A little less common knowledge is the fact that two provisional governments in exile were formed before 1947. A more famous one was headed by Subhas Chandra Bose and called Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (Provisional Government of Free India) while less famous one was formed in Kabul in 1915 with Raja Mahendra Pratap as its President, Maulana Barkatullah as Prime Minister and Ubaidullah Sindhi as it Home Minister. The government formed at Kabul was called Hukumat -i-Moogita-i-Hind (The Provisional Government of India).
Barkatullah led Government also planned to have a functional army in somewhat similar fashion as Subhas Chandra Bose later organised as Azad Hind Fauj. The attempt failed. After the First World War was over Barkatullah left Kabul and started a campaign to gain support of the USSR and other anti-British governments.
Barkatullah was a veteran leader by 1926 and was trying to create an alliance between the USSR and the Indian revolutionaries. At that time Jawaharlal Nehru was a young face of the Indian Freedom Struggle full of promise. Another senior leader of Congress and an old friend of Barkatullah, Dr. M. A. Ansari wrote a letter asking Barkatullah to meet young Nehru, who was on a tour of Europe in 1926.
Nehru was promising. Barkatullah wrote to Communist International on 6 May 1926, “Recently I saw in Switzerland the famous Indian revolutionary Jawaharlal Nehru, who was specially deputed to me by India. The point of view of the Indian revolutionaries is necessary for the Comintern to say. If so, Mr. Nehru himself is ready. To come to Berlin and explain to you the whole state of the Comintern’s propaganda in India himself…. The whole thing. This includes, hands of British agents and the result is that real Indian revolutionaries are coming forward. All harassment from the police… Therefore I propose that a meeting be held in Berlin with the participation of Mr. Nehru and representatives of the Comintern Go., with the participation of Mr. Roy and others. Comrades associated with this propaganda. In this case we can find the right way to crush our mutual enemy, which we do not go against each other but hand in hand. This can be done only when you put in the work.”
Barkatullah Bhopali, who formed the ‘Government of India in Exile’ with Raja Mahendra Pratap
Two letters were given to Nehru to handover to the Communist International and he was introduced by Barkatullah as a leading revolutionary from India.
Barkatullah again met Nehru at the International Congress Against Colonial Oppression and Imperialism held in Brussels in February 1927. These two were the only Indian delegates at the Congress. A secret understanding between the Communist International and the Indian revolutionaries was reaching through Barkatullah.
This patriotic revolutionary partnership had to meet an abrupt end. Barkatullah died on 20 September 1927 in the USA. While an alert father in Motilal Nehru took Jawaharlal away from the revolutionary stream. B. R. Nanda recorded how Motilal got worried when he saw photographs of the Congress at Brussels published in a German journal. The photograph had the caption, “Barkatullah of Ghadr Party”. Of course, the man with Jawaharlal was Barkatullah, one of the most wanted Indian revolutionaries.
Motilal did not want trouble for his son. He argued that the caption was a case of ‘mistaken’ identity. I know,’ Motilal added, ‘that Barkatullah is wanted by the police of various countries and am living in hopes that we shall not hear of a case of mistaken identity in the near future.’
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai: Who was next to Prime Minister Nehru?
Motilal wrote to Mahatma Gandhi on 6 May 1927, “…I am afraid he has attracted too much attention of the India Office and things may not prove to be quite pleasant to him and to us. (Sir Alexander) Muddiman has already hinted at it. He said: “Jawahar was sailing too near the wind”. I replied that there was nothing strange in it- and in fact it was the business of both father and son to do so. We laughed it away, but he added significantly: “He has been to Berlin and met some people who are not of the right sort.” “How can you help meeting people of all sorts when they come your way?” was my answer.
‘He [Jawaharlal] says he has himself noticed that he has of late been the object of attention on the part of the British Secret Service which, he says, is the most perfect on the continent. One of the reasons for my intended trip to Europe is to escort the young gentleman safely home.’
In August 1927, Motilal reached Europe to ‘escort’ Jawaharlal back to India away from the people who were ‘not of the right sort’.
For briefly though, the First Prime Minister of India and the First Prime Minister of free India were allies of a sort.
