Jawala Singh, known as ‘Potato King’ in the United States of America, was a prominent member of the Hindustani Association of Pacific Coast of America popularly known as the Ghadar Party. Jawala Singh was born in 1866 at Thathian village of Amritsar district. His father Kanhya Singh was a mediocre farmer. At the beginning of the twentieth century, economic hardships forced many Punjabis to go abroad to earn a better livelihood. Jawala Singh left his village in the year of 1905. He worked in Panama, Mexico before settling in San Francisco in 1908. Here, he met Visakha Singh of Dadehar village in Amritsar. Together, they leased a 500-acre ranch in Holtsville, near Stockton. They became successful potato growers and Jawala Singh came to be known as the Potato King. He founded Guru Gobind Singh Scholarship at the University of Berkley for Indian students of all communities. The scholarship was to cover the cost of two-way transportation from India and meet all the expenses in Berkley.
In 1912, Jawala Singh and Visakha Singh helped to establish the first community gurudwara in Stockton and he also served its granthi (priest) of the gurudwara. He participated in all the activities of the Ghadar Party. The Holtville farm became the centre of activities of the Ghadar Party. Jawala Singh played a key role in organising a conference of the Ghadar Party in Sacramento on December 21, 1913. This meeting was attended by many immigrants. With the outbreak of the WWI on July 28, 1914,
the Ghadar Party appealed to its cadre to visit India to participate in the struggle for freedom. Jawala Singh and Sohan Singh Bhakna, the President of the Ghadar Party, toured western states to recruit volunteers. He and Visakha Singh donated their entire property to the Ghadar Party. Jawala Singh was one of the leaders of the first large group that sailed for India on August 29, 1914, aboard the S.S. Korea. From Hong Kong, he went on another ship, Tosha Maru, which reached Kolkata on Oct. 29, 1914. British intelligence was and on arrival at Calcutta, he and other revolutionaries were arrested. They were taken to Ludhiana by train where police set up an interrogation centre. He was tried in the first Lahore Conspiracy Case. On 13 September 1915, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and forfeiture of property under sections 121, 121 A, 131, and 124 A of the Indian Penal Code. Judges described him as one of the brains of the Ghadar Party.
Jawala Singh spent 18 years in jail. He was released in 1933 and he joined the ranks of Kirtis, a nationalist party of Ghadarites. He worked for the Desh Bhagat Pariwar Sahaik Committee and collected funds to help the families of the freedom fighters. He also elected as president of Punjab Kisan Sabha, a peasants’ union formed to negotiate with the colonial government regarding farm practices and land revenue. For his participation in peasant movements, he was arrested in 1935 and sentenced to another year in prison. After his release, he led the tenant movement of Nili bar, an area of the Montgomery district (now in Pakistan). During his travel to attend the All-India Kisan Conference, at Comilla in Bengal, his bus met with an accident, resulting in serious injuries. It proved fatal and he died on 8 May 1938.