Provisional Government of India

This article describes the organisation formed during World War I in Kabul. For the Provisional Government formed by Subash Chandra Bose during World War II, see Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind.

Provisional Government of India was a provisional government-in-exile established by Indian Nationalists in Afghanistan during World War I with support from the Central Powers. Its purpose was to enroll support from both the Afghan Emir, as well as Tsarist (and later Bolshevik) Russia, China and Japan for the Indian Movement. Established at the conclusion of the Kabul Mission composed of members of the Berlin Committee, German and Turkish delegates, the government was established on 1 December 1915 in Kabul it had Raja Mahendra Pratap as President, Maulana Barkatullah as Prime Minister, Maulavi Abaidullah Sindhi as Home Minister and Champakraman Pillai as Minister for foreign affairs. The Mission found significant support from internal administration of the Afghan government, although the Emir refused to declare open support and ultimately, under British Pressure, forced the government to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1919.

Background

During World War I, Indian nationalists in Germany and United States, as well as the Indian revolutionary underground and Pan-Islamists from India attempted to further the Indian cause with German finance and aid. The Berlin-Indian committee (which became the Indian Independence Committee after 1915) sent an Indo-German-Turkish mission to the Indo-Iranian...
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