Ajit Singh, alias Mirza Hassan Khan, alias M. Farias, alias Marshall
Antonio Farias, son of Arjan Singh, Jat, Sikh, and uncle of Bhagat Singh,
executed for the murder of a Police Officer, Village Khatkar Kalan,
District Jullundur. He first came to notice as an agitator in 1907 when he
joined Lajpat Rai, Kishan Singh and others and organized a series of
meetings in Lahore at which many seditious speeches were delivered to
protest against the Canal Colonization Bill. Some of Aiit Sineh's sneedm* deported to Mandalay in May. He was released in November and his
return to the Punjab was celebrated with great popular demonstrations.
He soon got into touch with the notorious revolutionary, the late Sufi
Amba Parshad, and published a number of seditious pamphlets through
the medium of the Bharat Mata Book Agency. He later fled with Amba
Parshad and Zia-ul-Haq to Persia to escape prosecution and went to
Europe in 1911 where he was a teacher of Oriental Languages at
Lausanne and afterwards at Geneva under the assumed name of Mirza
Hassan Khan. At the end of 1913 he went to Paris where he got into touch
with the Revolutionary party headed by Madame Cama and
Krishnavarma. In September of the following year he went to Rio de
Janiero with a message to Jodh Singh of Bewal to the effect that
revolutionary work was awaiting him in Berlin. He helped the Ghadr
Party with funds for propaganda against the British. Efforts were made by
the Ghadr Party to get Ajit Singh to visit the United States on a lecturing
tour but without success. In January 1921 he was chicken farming near
Buenos Ayres under the name of Marshall Antonio Farias. In 1929 he was
reported to have settled down in Rio de Janiero. Brazil, and to be working
as a furniture merchant under the name of H. Khan and Co., which failed
subsequently. About the year 1930 the Ghadr Party tried to get him over
to California, principally for the advertisement that they thought an uncle
of the notorious Bhagat Singh would give them, but he was reported to
have postponed his trip apparently to avoid the risks involved. In July
1932 it was reported that Teja Singh Sutantar (T-8) was endeavoring to
secure a monopoly for the sale of Brazilian coffee in Turkey and other
countries and that Ajit Singh was to have similar responsibilities in
respect of Persia, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan and India. In September Ajit
Singh paid a visit to the Argentine from Brazil, where, according to an
article published in the "Hindustan Ghadr" for November 1932, a warm
reception was accorded to him by the local Ghadr Party and an address of
welcome was also presented. In the address references were made to the
sacrifices rendered by Ajit Singh and his nephew Bhagat Singh in the
service of the country and also to the gift of 5,000 books of different
languages and a typewriter .to the library of the Ghadr Party—known as
the Bhagat library—by Ajit Singh. Shortly afterwards Ajit Singh sailed
for Europe, travelling via Lisbon under the name of H. Khan, by which he
is usually known. About the middle of October he arrived in Paris and
was there till December. The negotiations with Turkey which were
conducted through Teja Singh Sutantar having failed. Ajit Singh and his
associates, two of whom are Brazilians and a third a Syrian Jew, were
reported to have been trying to secure contracts for the sale of Brazilian
coffee in Persia and Iraq. Two of his associates left Paris for Basra where
a large quantity of coffee had been shipped from Brazil in September but
Ajit Singh remained behind in order to collect letters of recommendation
to important people in Iraq and Persia. It was further reported that these
negotiations were purely commercial and no political intrigues were
involved therein and it was not considered likely that Ajit Singh would try
and make his way to India, though it was surmised that he might visit
Persia and Iraq, etc., in connection with his business. He left Paris for
Berlin on the 10th January 1933, apparently holding Brazilian passport
No. 1450, date not given, which describes him as having been born in
Brazil. He is at present in Berlin assisting Karta Ram (K-28) in his guttapercha
business.
Description : Age about 52 years; height 5'-6"; thin build; clean shaven;
pale face; wears glasses when reading.