Hindu-German Conspiracy
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This article was nominated for peer review, and subsequently FAC, where it failed for what I thought was mostly to do with prose and langlit. It was subsequently promoted to GA, but some work has been done subsequently and I would appreciate and welcome some more eyes and opinions before renominate it to FAC again. rueben_lys (talk · contribs) 02:48, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
Comments by Kensplanet edit
This is a Great Article. Deserves to be a FA. I am giving some suggestion.
Whether to implement or not depends on you editors.
Lead
- The conspirators included Indian Nationalists in India, the United States and Germany,(Who were the conspirators in the US and Germany; like you have mentioned Indian Nationalists in India) with the help of the Irish Republicans and the German Foreign Office.
- You havent included any details of Middle-East in the Lead. A short sentence will do.
Background
- In the aftermath of the assassination, the India House was rapidly suppressed.(Rapidly suppressed by whom; The British Govt. or the British Army; good if you mention it)
- The economic scenario in India in the early 1900s was depressing and this led to large scale immigration of Punjabis to Australia, the United States and Canada. The Canadian government decided to curtail this influx with a series of legislations, which were aimed at limiting the entry of South Asians into the country and restricting the political rights of those already in the country. Though the Punjabi community had been an important loyal force for the British Empire, legislations like these led to discontent and protests within the community. Faced with increasingly difficult situations, the community began organising itself into political groups. A large number of Punjabis also moved to the United States, but they encountered similar political and social problems.
I didn't understand this Para. If the The Canadian government decided to curtail the influx of Punjabis, how does this contribute to the Conspiracy. Because you have mentioned the conspiracy was aimed basically at the British, not the Canadians and Americans. Due to discrimination, if they form political groups, they are basically revolting against Americans and Canadians. Where are the British here? Please clarify
Ghadar Party
- Ghadar meetings were held in Los Angeles, Oxford, Vienna, Washington, and Shanghai.(Why not link Shangai if link all other cities)
Indian revolutionary underground
- The Indian revolutionary underground gathered momentum during the first decade of the 1900s, with groups arising in Maharashtra, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madras Presidency.
Did Maharashtra exist during that time. Wasn't it Bombay Presidency since you have mentioned Madras Presidency also
More groups were scattered around India.
Is this sentence reqd. You have already included almost the entire India
Irish involvement
- Irish collaboration with the Ghadarite plans and efforts pre-dated World War I by at least six years.
Could you mention the exact date. Since you have nowhere mentioned the date of WWI.
- The conspiracy, during its planning stages, garnered major support from a network formed by the Ghadarites (Which Network was this?), the Irish and the Irish-American reporters and newspapers.
- Irish Americans were involved in the early but failed attempts to smuggle arms into India, including a failed attempt on-board the SS Moraitis. (Please provide context to SS Moraitis since there is no wikilink to it)
Germany and the Berlin Committee
- Har Dayal had been arrested in the United States in 1914, but he had jumped bail and made his way to Switzerland, leaving the party and publications in the charge of Ram Chandra Bharadwaj. Contact was established with Har Dayal in Switzerland and he was convicned (convinced) of the feasibility of the project.
- Please provide more context to persons.
The German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg authorised German activity against India as World War I broke out in September 1914, and Germany decided to actively support the Ghadarite plans.
The German effort was headed by prominent archaeologist and historian Max von Oppenheim, who was also the head of the newly formed Intelligence Bureau for the east.
But there's no context for Roger Casement, Ram Chandra Bharadwaj and Jatin Mukherjee. Mention atleast whether they were political leaders, historians, rebels, etc...
Conspiracy
Consequently, a reduced force, estimated to have been as lowas 15,000 troops in late 1914, was stationed in India.(Why do you call 15K low. Some may consider it as very very high. POV problem. Just leave it at 15K)
- Singh's (Should it be Singh) reported that the situation in India was favourable for a revolution
- A number of Ghadar leaders, like Barkatullah and Taraknath Das, used the inflammatory passions surrounding the Komagata Maru (repeated wikilinks) event as a rallying point and successfully brought many disaffected Indians in North America into the party's fold.
East Asia
- While the former resource was in plentiful supply (While men were in plentiful) with more and more Indians coming forward to join the Ghadarite cause, obtaining arms for the uprising proved to be more difficult.
- Tarak Nath Das (please provide context for him) urged Japan
eseto align with Germany, on the grounds that American's war preparation could actually be directed against Japan.
- Later, in 1915, Abani Mukherjee (please provide context for him) is also known to have tried unsuccessfully to arrange for arms from Japan.
- The Ascendancy of Li Yuanhong to Chinese Presidency in 1916, led to the negotiations reopening through his former private secretary (name of this secretary) who resided in the United States at the time.
United States
- The Hindu German Conspiracy Trial opened in 1917 in the United States on charges of gun running and at the time was one of the lengthiest and most expensive trials in American legal history.
I tnink this requires a reference.
- Although blamed solely on German agents at the time ,(there should be no space before comma) later investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence in the aftermath of the Annie Larsen incident unearthed links between the Black Tom explosion and Franz von Papen, the Irish movement, the Indian movement as well as Communist elements active in the United States.
February 1945
- In India, unaware of the delayed shipment and confident of being able to rally the Indian sepoy, the plot for the mutiny took its final shape. Under the plans, the 23rd Cavalry in Punjab was to seize weapons and kill their officers while on roll call on 21 February (21 February shouldn't be linked)
- However, Punjab CID successfully infiltrated the conspiracy at the last moment through one Kirpal Singh (Who is this Kirpal Singh; provide context)
- Plans for revolt by the 130th Baluchi Regiment at Rangoon on 21 January (21 January shouldn't be linked) were thwarted.
- Rash Behari Bose escaped from Lahore and in May 1915 fled to Japan. Other leaders, including Giani Pritam Singh, Swami Satyananda Puri and others fled to Thailand or other
sympathetic(POV Problem) nations.
- On February 15 (21 February shouldn't be linked), the 5th Light Infantry stationed at Singapore was among the few units to mutiny successfully.
Bagha Jatin
- In April 1915, unaware of the failure of the Annie Larsen plan, Papen arranged through Hans Tauscher (no context for this man) a second shipment of arms, consisting of 7,300 Springfield rifles, 1,930 pistols, 10 Gatling guns and nearly 3,000,000 cartridges
- From the coast of the Bay of Bengal (needs to be wikilinked), these would be collected by Jatin's group. Jatin estimated that he would be able to win over the 14th Rajput Regiment in Calcutta and cut the line to Madras at Balasore and thus take control of Bengal.
Southeast Asia
- Herambalal Gupta and the German consul at Chicago arranged to have German operatives George Paul Boehm, Henry Schult, and Albert Wehde sent to Siam through Manila with the
express(exaggeration) purpose of training the Indians.
- The Germans, while in Manila, also attempted to transfer the arms cargo of two German ships, the Sachsen and the Suevia, to Siam in a schooner.(, right) seeking refuge at Manila harbour.
- The plan was proposed by Vincent Kraft(,) a German planter in Batavia(,) who had been wounded fighting in France.
- I recommend you to check commas, fullstops and these minor things throughout the article.
Afghanistan and the Middle East
At the time that(When) World War I began(,) Ubaidullah Sindhi proceeded to Kabul to establish contact with the Amir Habibullah of Afghanistan
- I recommend you to shorten the prose as much as possible.
- The mission was headed by Oskar von Niedermayer (Context missing) and included Werner Otto von Hentig, the German diplomatic representative to Kabul, as well as Barkatullah and other prominent nationalists from the Berlin Committee.
- During it('s) journey through Persia, the expedition established contacts with the tribes of the Indo-Iranian border and encouraged them to strike against British interests.
- Please go through the article a few more times and fix these silly minor issues.
Culmination
- AtSolan,(Space between At & Solan') Private James Daly led about 70 Rangers in mutiny and tried to storm the armoury, which the loyal guard successfully defended.
I didn't find any major pproblem anywhere else except commas and minor mistakes. They can be fixed by going through the article again and again. It can easily attain FA status once these issues are resolved.Thankyou, KensplanetTalkE-mailContributions
Reply to Comments edit
Thanks for your very helpful comments. I have implemented all that you have suggested, save for the name of Li YuanHong's secretary's name, since I cant find this. More comments would be very welcome. rueben_lys (talk · contribs) 22:55, 2 July 2008 (UTC)
Ruhrfisch comments: As requested here are a few comments from a quick look at the article. Since Kensplanet has done such a thorough job on the text (and I concur with his recommendations), these will be mostly MOS issues I noticed.
- The lead should have an image in the top right corner - this is usually a very striking image. One possibility would be this Image:Ghadar di gunj.jpg.
- The lead itself might need to be expanded somewhat (not beyond the current four paragraphs, just add some more details). My rule of thumb is to include every header in the lead in some way. The article may need fewer sections / header too. Please see WP:LEAD
- Per WP:MOS#Images, images should be set to thumb to allow reader set preferences to take over. "upright" can be used to make vertical images smaller.
- Refs should be in numerical order, so a Jugantar Party member and at the time one of the leading revolutionary figures in Bengal.[20][15][40][41] needs to be fixed and I am pretty sure that there are others.
- I am not sure about the references in a window at FAC - I have not seen that there before. It might be worth asking at Tall:FAC about.
- References need to be consistent in the information they present. Books typically all need ISBN and place of publication (but the first book listed Ansari, K. H. (1986), Pan-Islam and the Making of the Early Indian Muslim Socialist. Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3. (1986), pp. 509-537, Cambridge University Press. has neither)
- Newpaper refs need date and page number: see Stafford, D. "Men of Secrets. Roosevelt and Churchill.". New York Times. Retrieved on October 24, 2007.
- The article is quite long - 67.5 KB of readable prose according to this link. Is there any way it could be made shorter - better use of WP:Summary style perhaps?
- Since it has a former FAC behind it, you might want to contact the opposers there and ask them to look at it again when you think it is ready for FAC this time.
