User:Rueben lys/Subsection on the Hindu-German Conspiracy in Middle East and Afghanistan

The pan-Islamic movement in India (particularly the Darul Uloom Deoband) also made plans for an insurrection in the tribal belt of North-west India with support from the Afghan Amir, the Ottoman Empire and Imperial Germany. When World War I began, the Deobandi principle Mahmud al Hasan left India to seek the help of the Turkish governor of Hijaz, Galib Pasha, while another leader Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi proceeded to Kabul to seek the Amir Habibullah's support. The initial plans were to raise an Islamic army (Hizb Allah) with its headquarters at Medina and an Indian contingent at Kabul. Maulana Hasan was to be the General-in-chief of this army. While at Kabul, Ubaid Ullah came to the conclusion that the pan-Islamic cause would be best served by focussing on the Indian Freedom Movement. Ubaidullah's proposal to the Afghan Amir was to declare war against Britain. This conspiracy later came to be known as the Silk Letter Conspiracy (Tehrek-e-Reshmi Rumal) after the letters written in Silk cloth that were captured by Punjab CID and led to the uncovering of these plans. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad is known to have been involved in the movement prior to his arrest in 1916.

Through German links with Ottoman Turkey, the Berlin Committee at this time also established contact with Mahmud al Hasan. An Indo-German expedition was sent at this time by the Germans to draw the Afghan Amir into the war on the side of the Central Powers. The mission was headed by a Bavarian artillery officer Oskar von Niedermayer and included Werner Otto von Hentig—heading the German diplomatic efforts at Kabul—, as well as Barkatullah and other prominent nationalists from the Berlin Committee. Officially it was headed by the Indian prince Raja Mahendra Pratap who had escaped to Switzerland towards the start of the war. The mission also had representatives the Ottoman Empire, including Kasim Bey (previously resident to Bucharest). During its journey through Persia, the expedition established contacts with the tribes of the Indo-Iranian border and encouraged them to strike against British interests.

This Indo-German expedition was met at Kabul by Ubaidullah Sindhi's group in December 1915. Along with bringing members of the Indian movement right to India's border, it also brought messages from the Kaiser, Enver Pasha and the displaced Khedive of Egypt, Abbas Hilmi, expressing support for Pratap's mission and inviting the Amir to move against India. The immediate aim was to rally the Amir against British India and to obtain from the Afghan government a right of free passage.

Although the Amir refused to commit for or against the German proposals at the time, it found support amongst the Amir's immediate and close political and religious advisory group, including his brother Nasrullah Khan, his sons Inayatullah Khan and Amanullah Khan, as well as religious leaders and tribesmen. It also found support in one of Afghanistan's most influential newspapers, the Siraj al-Akhbar, whose editor Mahmud Tarzi took Barkatullah as an officiating editor in early 1916. Tarzi published a series of inflammatory articles by Raja Mahendra Pratap, as well as increasingly anti-British and pro-Central articles and propaganda. By May 1916, the tone in the paper was deemed serious enough for the Raj to intercept the copies to India.

By the end of 1915, the Amir had still refused to committ himself to the Central war effort. Nonetheless, the Provisional Government of India was formed in Kabul December 1915 to emphasise to the Amir the seriousness of intent and purpose of the Germans and the Indians. The government had Raja Mahendra Pratap as President, Barkatullah as Prime Minister, Ubaid al Sindhi as the Minister for India, Maulavi Bashir as War Minister, and Champakaran Pillai as Foreign Minister. The provisional Government found support from Enver Pasha, proclaiming Jihad against Britain. It also attempted to obtain support from Tsarist Russia, Republican China, and Japan and after the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, Pratap's government corresponded with the nascent Soviet government. In 1918, Mahendra Pratap met Trotsky in Petrograd before meeting the Kaiser in Berlin, urging both to mobilise against British India. Under pressure from the British, Afghan cooperation was withdrawn and the mission closed down. However, the mission, and its offers and liaisons at the time, had profound impact on the political and social situation in the country, starting a process of political change that ended with the assassination of Habibullah in 1919 and the transfer of power to Nasrullah and subsequently Amanullah, precipitating the Third Anglo-Afghan War that led to Afghan Independence.

Nonetheless, members of the Tehrek e Reshmi Rumal are known to have been active amongst Muslim troops along with Ghadarite agents in South Asia, while members of the Berlin Committee including Har Dayal and M. P. T. Acharya also visited Constantinopole and the Middle-Eastern theatre (including Bushire) at different times to try and influence British Indian troops and Prisoners of War. Acharya's efforts were directed at forming the Indian National Volunteer Corps with the help of Indian civilians in Turkey, in addition to recruiting Indian Prisoners of War. He is known to have worked in Bushire amongst Indian troops with Wilhelm Wassmuss,

In culmination of these efforts, Indian prisoners of war from France, Turkey, Germany, and Mesopotamia—especially Basra, Bushehr, and from Kut al Amara—were recruited, raising the Indian Volunteer Corps that fought with Turkish forces in a number of fronts. The Deobandis, led by Amba Prasad Sufi, attempted to organise incursions from the western border of India from Persia, through Baluchistan, to Punjab. Amba Prasad was joined during the war by Kedar Nath Sondhi, Rishikesh Letha and Amin Chaudhry. These Indian troops were involved in the capture of the frontier city of Karman and the detention of the British consul there, and also successfully harassed Percy Sykes' Persian campaign against the Baluchi and Persian tribal chiefs who were aided by the Germans. The Aga Khan's brother was killed while fighting the rebels. The rebels also successfully harassed British Forces in Sistan in Afghanistan, confining them to Karamshir in Baluchistan, and later moving towards Karachi. Some reports indicate they took control of the coastal towns of Gawador and Dawar. The Baluchi chief of Bampur, having declared his independence from British rule, also joined the Ghadarites. It was not before the war in Europe turned for the worse for Turkey and Baghdad was captured by the British forces that the Ghadarite forces, their supply lines starved, were finally dislodged. They retreated to regroup at Shiraz, where they were finally defeated after a bitter fight during the siege of Shiraz. Amba Prasad Sufi was killed in this battle, but the Ghadarites carried on guerrilla warfare along with Iranian partisans until 1919.