Yugantar Ashram

Yugantar Ashram was the headquarters of the Ghadar Party in San Francisco, California, in the United States. The UC Berkeley library's guide to South Asian pioneers in California says the party set it up at 436 Hill Street, and translates the name as the Advent of a New Age Ashram. It was also called the Ghadr Ashram.

Key moments

• May 1913: the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says a meeting of the Hindustani Association of the Pacific Coast decided to open a Ghadr Ashram, also known as Yugantar Ashram, and to form a Ghadr party with its headquarters at San Francisco.
• 1 November 1913: the first Urdu issue of the weekly Ghadar appeared, and a Punjabi edition began on 9 December 1913 (UC Berkeley guide; the Encyclopaedia says the Urdu issue came out in November 1913 and the Punjabi one a few weeks later). The guide says the workers at the Ashram had to memorise over a thousand names of subscribers.
• March 1914: Har Dayal was arrested. The Encyclopaedia says the party got him out on bail and sent him away to Switzerland, that Sohan Singh Bhakna then decided to stay at the party headquarters, that Santokh Singh became general secretary, and that Harnam Singh of Kotla Naudh Singh took over the editing of the paper.
• 5 August 1914: after the First World War began in July, the Encyclopaedia says leading members of the party gathered at Yugantar Ashram, discussed the situation, declared war on the British and decided to go to India to carry out an armed revolution.
• 1917: after the trials of that year, the UC Berkeley guide says the party, now more subdued, shifted to 5 Wood Street and survived until August 1947, when it turned all its assets over to the government of independent India.

What it means today. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco says the Ashram and its belongings, including some historical records, were handed to the Government of India in 1949, and the legal transfer was completed in June 1952. The Government approved US$83,000 to restore the deteriorated building, Swaran Singh performed the groundbreaking in September 1974, and T. N. Kaul, India's ambassador to the United States, inaugurated the Gadar Memorial in March 1975. The Consulate gives the memorial hall's address as 5 Wood Street and organises functions there. The UC Davis archive says the Stockton gurdwara also became a centre of Ghadar activity, but the sources above put the party's headquarters in San Francisco.