“From a perusal of the papers in the ‘Silk Letter Case’ it seems clear that Abul Kalam Azad has been from the start one of the principle conspirators.”
- Assistant Director, Central Intelligence in October 1916
‘Silk Letter Conspiracy Case’ was an unsuccessful revolutionary plan by the Indian Freedom Fighters during the First World War to overthrow the colonial Government with the help of Germany and Turkey. The revolutionary plan was extensive and encompassed Islamic clerics, Sikhs, Arya Samajis, Bengali Hindu revolutionaries and other streams of the Indian Freedom Struggle. A Provisional Government of India (PGoI) was formed in Kabul with Raja Mahendra Pratap as its President as Germany agreed upon supplying arms to Indian revolutionaries. The case came to light when the Intelligence Department got hold of a few letters written on silk cloths discussing the plans, thus named Silk Letter Conspiracy.
Maulana Mahmud Hasan Deobandi and Maulana Husain Ahmad Madni were arrested as Prisoners of War in Saudi Arabia in connection with this plot. Several in India were arrested or interned, including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. Commonly it is believed that Maulana Azad was not an important leader of this revolutionary plot. But, the colonial records show otherwise. He seems to be one of the most important revolutionaries. Another notion is that the plot was led by Muslims for a Islamic state. Which is again wrong.
C. R. Cleveland, the Intelligence officer investigating the Silk Letter Case noted, “I look upon Abul Kalam Azad as probably the most remarkable figure in the Indian Muhammadan world of today. I do not think there is any other personality that could arouse the same personal sympathy and fanaticism in the general Muhammadan community.”
The intelligence reports said that most of the youngsters recruited by Obaidullah Sindhi, the Home Minister in PGoI headed by Pratap, were made fanatics by Maulana Azad’s teachings. The Additional Secretary of the Bengal Government wrote to the Secretary of the Government of India,
“The Maulana also established a theological institution in Calcutta under the title of “Darul Irshad.” This institution had for its ostensible object the training of number of Maulvis in the correct interpretation of the Koran; it proved on enquiry, however, to be training the Maulvis to preach Pan-Islamic and anti-British views, and to be disseminating seditious and revolutionary ideas under the cloak of religious instruction.”
Cleveland reported that the Maulana with Obaidullah Sindhi was one of the main leader of the plot,
“This was the time at which the Silk Letter conspirators in India had decided to throw in their lot with the Afghans and Turks against the British Government, and a good deal of work in this connection was done at this very time by Abul Kalam Azad and Maulvi Obedulla (Sindhi).”
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad with Dr. M. A. Ansari
The intelligence reported on the role of Maulana Azad in the Silk Letter Conspiracy,
“One of the first practical steps in the conspiracy was the despatch in February 1915 of a party of Lahore students to Kabul. It was Abul Kalam Azad who in company with M. Obeidullah (Sindhi) met Abdulla, the representative of the students’ party, in Delhi in January 1915, and set the seal of final encouragement on the venture.
At the interview Abul Kalam Azad is reported to have said that it was imperative to reach Turkey somehow and to have advised that the route via the frontier should be adopted; on arrival in Turkey the party would take up either army or naval service or would receive education and serve as spies or in some other capacity by which the Musalman world and the Turkish Government would benefit.
Abul Kalam’s advice seems to have decided the students to leave India.
Again later in the year (about August 1915) Abul Kalam Azad was specially consulted by M. Mahmud Hasan of Deoband on the advisability of going to Arabia. Abul Kalam is believed to have discouraged Mahmud Hassan’s expedition on the grounds that as the Turkish and German armies would soon be advancing upon India through Persia, men of the Maulana’s type were needed in India to encourage a rising.
Obeidullah left India for Kabul in August 1915. Before doing so he left a message with Ahmad Ali, his trusted messenger for Abul Kalam Azad. The message was to the effect that Obeidullah after reaching Kabul would endeavour to persuade the Amir to send for Abul Kalam. Meanwhile Abdul Kalam was to approach Hakim Ajmal Khan with a view of the latter’s getting the Amir’s newswriter in Rawalpindi (Nazir Mohomed Ilam Khan) to recommend Obeidullah to the Amir in order to procure for him a good reception.
Ahmad Ali states that he delivered the message in full in November 1915. An order of exclusion from the United Provinces and Delhi, had evidently already been passed against Abul Kalam when the message was delivered, for Abul Kalam is stated to have expressed his willingness to go to Kabul, but, pleading the orders passed against him, got Ahmad Ali to approach Hakim Ajmal Khan in his stead. This Ahmad Ali did but without success.
Even earlier than this it is evident that Abul Kalam had been in touch with the trans- frontier conspirators, for he told Ahmad Ali at the time that he has received a message from the frontier tribes asking for the despatch of a doctor to treat the Mujahidin wounded and that in compliance he had sent a Bengali doctor, and also a Bengali bomb-maker.
It is a fact that one Sadr-ud-din, a Bihari Sub-Assistant Surgeon, reached Independent Territory about this time, and there is little doubt that Sadr-ud-din was the man sent by Abul Kalam. From other sources we have learned of the presence in Independent Territory of one or more Bengali anarchists. Abul Kalam’s man may be among these.
Ahmad Ali was also entrusted by Abul Kalam at the time with a message relating to the conspiracy for Haji Abdullah Haroun, which was duly delivered by him in Karachi.
Among the letters from the anti-British conspirators in Kabul, brought down to India in February 1916 by Obeidulla’s first emissaries, Abdullah and Fateh Muhammed, were (1) an Urdu letter (presumably from M. Obeiduliah) for Abul Kalam Azad asking the latter to come to Kabul and (2) a copy of a Jihad Fatwa intended for him. M. Abdullah has stated that he handed over these epistles for delivery to the important conspirator, Sheikh Abdur Rahim of Hyderabad, Sind. As the latter is still evading arrest we do not know whether the letters were actually delivered.
There were however other communications for Abul Kalam among the epistles brought from Kabul by these first emissaries and delivered through M. Ahmad Ali. The latter has stated that in March 1916 he took over letters from M. Abdullah including (1) a Persian letter from the arch-conspirator M. Barkatullah to Abul Kalam Azad and (2) a Jihad pamphlet, which he entrusted for delivery to Mohi-ud-din of Kasur, a member of the same conspiracy then working on the staff of the Iqdam in Calcutta. The letters were evidently delivered, for Ahmad Ali was shortly afterwards brought word in Delhi by the same Mohi-ud-din, then on his way from Calcutta to Kasur, that Abul Kalam Azad, was prepared to depart for Kabul after 10th April and that the necessary arrangements for his flight should be made. Abul Kalam Azad must have been visited about the same time by Khwaja Abdul Hai, another member of the conspiracy listed in the “Army of God” as a Colonel for the latter visited Ahmad Ali in Delhi, and told him of a recent interview with Abul Kalam in Ranchi and of Abul Kalam’s readiness for flight to Afghanistan.
According to the Bengal Weekly letter Mohi-ud-din and Khwaja Abdul Hai left Calcutta for Kasur on the 3rd April 1916, so we are enabled to date these visits and messages with approximate correctness.
In June 1916 Ahmad Ali was visited in Delhi by an unknown man bearing a letter from Abul Kalam Azad. The letter was merely to introduce the messenger who would give a verbal message and might be trusted. The messenger turned out to be Abul Kalam’s confidential servant. The message given was to the effect that Abul Kalam Azad had now decided to go to Kabul via Sind and Quetta and that arrangements should be made through the Kandahari Pir of Tando Saindad, one Aga Hussain Jan, whose name has been frequently mentioned in the course of recent enquiries.
Ahmad Ali then consulted Mohi-ud-din Khan of Kasur regarding the necessary arrangements and from the conversation reported by Ahmad Ali to have taken place between them it is clear that Abul Kalam Azad had in the intervening time been in correspondence with Mohi-ud-din regarding the conspiracy. It was finally decided to send word to Abul Kalam that he should make his arrangements direct with Sheikh Abdul Rahim of Sind. Abul Kalam’s servant was therefore sent back with this message.
What direct communication Abul Kalam did have with Sheikh Abdur Rahim subse- quent to this is unknown, since the latter has not yet been captured.
Another member of the “Silk Letters” conspiracy is Fazl-ul-Husan, Hasrat Mohani of Aligarh, the notorious swadeshist and pan-Islamist. This man was interned in April last on reliable information that he was attempting to reach Kabul and was in possession of an invitation to Kabul which has since been recognised as one of the documents brought by Obeidullah’s first emissaries and delivered to him by M. Ahmas Ali.
Abul Kalam Azad was in communication with this man as late as March as is proved by a letter (post-mark 14th March 1916) from Abul Kalam discovered in the recent search of Fazlul-Hassan’s papers.
Abul Kalam Azad was excluded from the United Provinces by an order under the Defence of India Act in November 1915, and shortly afterwards similar orders were passed by the Punjab, Delhi and Bengal. He then went to live at Ranchi in Bihar and Orissa and the Government of India were consulted as to his disposal. It was advised that he should be informally domiciled at Ranchi and this course seems to have been followed as no order of restriction or domiciliation under the Defence of India Act has since been passed in this connection.
From this note it seems clear that Abul Kalam has been, during his stay at Ranchi and before, in constant touch with the members of an anti-British conspiracy in India and beyond the border. It is therefore now desirable, if not imperative, to hold him under more formal and vigorous control so that a check may be kept upon his correspondence and visitors, and he himself be prevented from adding his powerful influence and abilities to the anti-British group of Indians in Kabul.”
The above report prepared by the Assistant Director of the Intelligence Department is enough to show that Maulana Azad was one of the leaders of the Silk Letter Conspiracy, second to none.
Several modern historians still believe that the Silk Letter Conspiracy was essentially Pan-Islamist Movement. They are still under a Divide and Rule Policy of the British. For them Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Marathis, Bengalis etc. had separate struggles for freedom.
The above mentioned report pointed out that Maulana Azad had sent Bengali ‘Bomb-makers’ and ‘Bengali anarchists’ to Afghanistan. Those who understand history of that period know that these terms were applied for Jugantar revolutionaries, an essentially Hindu Movement.
The detailed report prepared by the intelligence on the Silk Letter Conspiracy contained names of several Hindus and Sikhs apart from well known Raja Mahendra Pratap. Aya Singh, Bhagwan Singh, Begumar Sahib, Chet Singh, Dat Prasad Singh, Hardayal (Ghadar Party), Hiramba Lal Gupta, Hari Narayan, Jagat Singh, Jigar Singh, Karam Chand, Mathra Singh, Ranbir Singh, Santa Pada Mukherji, Shamsher Singh, etc. were few of the names of Hindus and Sikhs mentioned in the intelligence report on the Silk Letter Conspiracy. Of course, there were many more.
These facts establish that Maulana Azad was an active revolutionary, led Silk Letter Movement during the First World War and the movement was not an Islamic movement and all the Indians were equal partners in this effort.
A similar effort was later made by Subhas Chandra Bose in the Second World War when Maulana Azad was leading the Congress as President.
(The views are personal of the author)
