– Tanya ( Twitter: https://twitter.com/tanyabrahmvadni )
Gulab Kaur was born in Village Bakshiwala, Sangrur, Punjab around 1890.
She was born during a time of immense strife with the British unleashing their wrath in full flow on Indians with British laws being dished out on their whims and fancies.
She was married to Mann Singh and they moved to Philippines in the hope to permanently migrate to USA later.
But life had some other plans for the strong willed, determined and dedicated daughter of Ma Bhārti, Gulab Kaur.
She had the indomitable Punjabi blood stree Shakti running through her veins, who even brought the Mughals to their feet and nourished the great and valiant Gurus of the Sikh faith.
She joined the Ghadar party while in Manila, which was founded by Indian immigrants who kept the fire of revolt burning to liberate their motherland from brutal British Rule.
She overlooked the printing press of the Ghadar Party and in the guise of a journalist distributed arms to the Party leaders and workers at the opportune moment.
She was one of the main recruiters of the Ghadar Party by distributing literature around the Ghadar movement and delivering inspiring speeches to passengers on ships l.
Gulab Kaur along with about fifty other freedom Ghadrites of the Philippines joined the S.S. Korea batch and sailed for India, changing at Singapore from S.S. Korea to Tosha Maru. After reaching India, she with some other revolutionaries were active in the villages of Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Jallandhar to mobilize the masses for armed revolution for the cause of the independence of the country.
She was sentenced to two years in prison in Lahore, then in British-India and now in Pakistan, for seditious acts.
There is a book available about Gulab Kaur titled Gadar Di Dhee Gulaab Kaur in Punjabi written by Kesar Singh published in 2014.
For more reading:
1. https://kaurlife.org/2015/03/27/12-amazing-sikh-women-of-history/
2. https://uddari.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/gulab-kaur-a-great-punjab-woman/
3. https://www.sikhchic.com/article-detail.php?id=5652&cat=23
