radicalism

Maud Gonne

About: 

Maud Gonne was an Irish nationalist who made various links with the Indian independence movement. She had an extremely close relationship with W. B. Yeats throughout her life, was the mother of Iseult Gonne and knew Rabindranath Tagore, but also had a separate public political life. Although she was born in England to English parents, Gonne became a vocal and passionate Irish nationalist. Her father, a Cavalry Major, had been posted to Ireland and Maud Gonne lived there for a number of years in her childhood. When her father was posted to India in 1879, the children moved to the South of France.

Gonne moved between socialist and right-wing sympathies, but was always commited to Irish nationalism. As the Irish and Indian independence movements began to find many areas of common ground, Maud Gonne developed links with Indian nationalists. She became friends with the India House organization, and was featured in Krishnavarma's Indian Sociologist. When Savarkar was imprisoned at Brixton in 1910, Gonne helped David Garnett and Irish radicals co-ordinate a failed attempt to help Savarkar escape. Gonne liaised with other Indian nationalists such as Vithalbhai Patel, and in 1932 put together the Indian-Irish Independence League (IIIL) with Indulal Yajnik. Her son, Seán MacBride held various posts in the IRA and became Chief of Staff in 1936, although he left the Association soon after. Gonne shared a house with her son and his family in Dublin, where she died in 1953.

Published works: 

A Servant of the Queen: Her Own Story (London: Victor Gollancz, 1938)

Date of birth: 
21 Dec 1866
Connections: 

Charlotte Despard, David Garnett, Iseult Gonne (daughter), John MacBride (husband), Seán MacBride (son), Vithalbhai Patel, Rabindranath Tagore, Indulal Yajnik, William Butler Yeats.

Indian-Irish Independence League (IIIL)

Secondary works: 

Levenson, Samuel, Maud Gonne (London: Cassell, 1977)

Londraville, Janis and Richard (eds), Too Long a Sacrifice: The Letters of Maud Gonne and John Quinn (London: Associated University Presses, 1999)

MacBride White, Anna and Jeffares, A. Norman (eds), Always Your Friend: The Gonne-Yeats Letters, 1893-1938 (London: Pimlico, 1992)

O'Malley, Kate, Ireland, India and Empire: Indo-Irish Radical Connections, 1919-64 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2008)

Steele, Karen (ed.), Maud Gonne's Irish Nationalist Writings, 1895-1946 (Dublin: Irish Academi

Toomey, Deirdre, ‘Gonne, (Edith) Maud (1866–1953)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37465]

Ward, Margaret, Maud Gonne: A Life (London: Pandora, 1990)

Archive source: 

MacBride family papers, private collection

Letters, New York Public Library

City of birth: 
Farnham, Surrey
Country of birth: 
England
Other names: 

Maud Edith Gonne

Maud Gonne MacBride

Date of death: 
27 Apr 1953
Location of death: 
Dublin, Ireland
Tags for Making Britain: 

Madan Lal Dhingra

About: 

Madan Lal Dhingra was the sixth of seven children of a civil surgeon. All six sons studied abroad. In June 1906, Dhingra left Amritsar for Britain. He enrolled in University College, London, to study engineering.

Dhingra arrived in London a year after the foundation of Shyamaji Krishnavarma's India House. This organization in Highgate was a meeting place for Indian radicals. They had weekly meetings, which Dhingra would often attend. V. D. Savarkar became manager of India House and inspired Dhingra's admiration in the cult of assassination. However, Dhingra became aloof from India House and was known to undertake shooting practice at a range on Tottenham Court Road. On 1 July 1909, he attended an 'At Home' hosted by the National Indian Association at the Imperial Institute. At the end of the event, as the guests were leaving, Dhingra shot Sir Curzon-Wyllie, an India Office official, at close range. His bullets also hit Dr Lalcaca, a Parsee doctor, who was killed.

Dhingra was immediately arrested. At his trial, Dhingra represented himself, although he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court. He claimed that he had murdered Curzon-Wyllie as a patriotic act and in revenge for the inhumane killings of Indians by the British Government in India. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was executed at Pentonville Prison on 17 August 1909.

Example: 

Daily News, 18 August 1909

Date of birth: 
18 Sep 1883
Content: 

The end of the statement written by Dhingra that was published after his execution.

Connections: 

Curzon-Wyllie, David Garnett (met briefly at India House and arranged publication of Dhingra's statement in Daily News), Shyamaji Krishnavarma, V. D. Savarkar.

Contributions to periodicals: 

Daily News, 18 August 1909

Extract: 

The only lesson required in India today is to learn how to die and the only way to teach it is by dying ourselves, and so, I die and glory in my Martyrdom. Bande Mataram.

Secondary works: 

Datta, V. N., Madan Lal Dhingra and the Revolutionary Movement (New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1978)

Dhingra, Leena, ‘Dhingra, Madan Lal (1883–1909)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2008) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71628]

Garnet, David, The Golden Echo (London: Chatto & Windus, 1953)

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto Press, 2002)

Archive source: 

Criminal Files, National Archives, Kew

L/P&J/6/986, India Office Records, Asian and African Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Involved in events: 

Assassination of Sir William Hutt Curzon-Wyllie at Imperial Institute, South Kensington, 1 July 1909.

City of birth: 
Amritsar
Country of birth: 
India

Locations

Pentonville Prison London, N7 8TT
United Kingdom
51° 32' 52.1304" N, 0° 6' 47.4012" W
108 Ledbury Road Bayswater
London, W11 2AG
United Kingdom
51° 30' 59.8968" N, 0° 11' 59.4528" W
Date of death: 
17 Aug 1909
Location of death: 
Pentonville Prison, London, England
Date of 1st arrival in Britain: 
01 Jan 1906
Precise 1st arrival date unknown: 
Y
Dates of time spent in Britain: 

1906-9

Oriental Press Service

About: 

The Oriental Press Service was established in 1926 by Pulin Behari Seal, a journalist and radical political activist. He was assisted in this venture by M. G. Desai and Gurdit Singh Dara, both of whom had, like Seal, Communist connections. In 1928, there were plans to amalgamate the Service with a similar news service run by Vishnu R. Karandikar, but this did not appear to have come to fruition. The Service’s stated purpose was to supply Indian news to the British, and British news to Indians. However, surveillance reports claim that Seal set up the business mainly for political ends, securing interviews with Indians on official business in London then proceeding to critique them in radical newspapers in both Britain and India. According to reports, the office on the premises of the Oriental Press Service was used mainly for the meetings of Indian ‘extremists’. It was not a lucrative business and was eventually liquidated in 1938.

Example: 

L/PJ/12/186, India Office Records, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras, p. 63

Secondary works: 

Visram, Rozina, Asians in Britain: 400 Years of History (London: Pluto, 2002)

Content: 

This Indian Political Intelligence file contains reports on the movements and activities of the journalist and radical political activist Pulin Behari Seal, who founded the Oriental Press Service. The following extract is from a New Scotland Yard report dated 29 April 1931.

Date began: 
01 Jan 1926
Extract: 

 [Seal] still rents an office at Chronicle House, Fleet Street, E.C., in the name of the 'Orient Press Service'…

...

It would appear that his office is more used as a rendezvous for Indian extremists than a legitimate business address. Almost daily a number of Indians resort there, and as many as seven have been seen to be present and, with Seal, carry on a heated discussion.

Precise date began unknown: 
Y
Key Individuals' Details: 

Gurdit Singh Dara (assistant), M. G. Desai (assistant), Pulin Behari Seal (founder/manager).

Relevance: 

This excerpt, which maintains that the Oriental Press Service combined journalism with politics, is suggestive of the role of journalism, or the dissemination of alternative reportage, as a potentially powerful tool of resistance.

Connections: 

Reginald Bridgeman (supplied Seal with news about China), Vishnu R. Karandikar (head of a rival news service), B. Khalid Sheldrake.

Date ended: 
01 Jan 1938
Archive source: 

L/PJ/12/186, India Office Records, African and Asian Studies Reading Room, British Library, St Pancras

Precise date ended unknown: 
Y

Location

61 Fleet Street
London, EC4Y 1
United Kingdom
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