Remembering freedom fighter Bibi Gulab Kaur, an active member of the Ghadar Party, on the occasion of Women’s Day.
Bibi Gulab Kaur was a leader of the Ghadar Party in Manila, Philippines. She was born in 1890 in a poor peasant family in a small village of Sangrur, Punjab. She was married at an early age to Man Singh.
They came to Manila in search of livelihood, like many Punjabi peasants dispossessed of their land due to British policies. In Manila she came in contact with Baba Hafiz Abdullah (Fajja), Baba Banta Singh and Baba Harnam Singh (Tundilat), who were leaders of the Ghadar Party branch in Manila.
Freedom fighter Gulab Kaur bakhshiwala.
Gulab Kaur joined the movement to overthrow the British in India and became one of the main organizers of the Ghadar Party. She traveled throughout the Philippines to organize Indian residents. She also collected arms and funds for the party.She returned to India on the call of the Ghadar Party and continued her revolutionary work in Punjab.
She was arrested and kept in the infamous Lahore Fort and tortured for two years. She was not deterred and continued to organize people against the British and their collaborators. She died in 1941. It is the great misfortune of the people of India that historians have ignored the contribution of women like Bibi Gulab Kaur while writing about the collaborators of the British in India.