The patriotic and progressive community of Canada gathered at Ghadri Mela 2000 in Toronto on October 8, 2000 and called upon the Ghadris of today to complete the unfulfilled aims for which the Hindustani Ghadar Party was founded in North America in 1913. 

Over a thousand people from all ages and walks of life from across Canada and the US participated in the rally that started in an autumn afternoon and lasted well into the night.  The mela hall was decorated with banners and nishans of the Ghadar Party.  A bright red banner with the call Hum Hai Iske Malik, Hum Hai Hindustan, Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawaan greeted the guests as they arrived. A beautiful souvenir magazine was handed out to all the guests with a front cover reproduction of a painting of Kamagata 
Maru docked in Vancouver Harbor to remind everyone that the Canadian State still practices its racist policy through ghettoization, assimilation and “inclusion”. 

Inside the hall, children, women, singers, dancers, poets and 
actors presented their popular and patriotic culture in colorful dances, skits and  songs amidst reverberating drum beats of Punjab. 

The organizers of the Mela had invited Mr. Chain Singh Chain of Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall in Jalandhar, India to be the chief guest. The veteran revolutionary received sustained applause as he described the work of the Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Committee to solve the problems of restoring the unity of Indian communists to lead the Indian people’s struggle so that the unfinished tasks of the Ghadri Babas can be completed and the workers and peasants of India can become her rulers.  

Another veteran guest speaker, author Keshar Singh of Edmonton, described passionately his experience in the Azaad Hind Fauj in the years before India’s independence.  Through many anecdotes from his revolutionary life, he called upon the youth not to ask who was Mewa Singh, as some toadies in Canada do today but to answer Yes in millions when asked Kaun Banega Mewa Singh?  

A brief outline of the deeds of Mewa Singh was read out following his presentation. A representative of the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups (AIPSG) addressed the Mela and explained the work of the AIPSG to involve people in discussing the call given by Hardial Bains to Break With the Past. The time is for India to renew all the institutions, systems and theories, not to refurbish the past to facilitate its continuation but to make a permanent break so that the ideals of the Ghadrites can be realised, said the AIPSG representative. 

Interspersed with cultural items, the organisers presented a historical outline of the Ghadar movement from the beginning of the 20th century till the present. The founding of the Hindustani Ghadar Party (Organization of Indian Marxist Leninists Abroad) in 1970 in Canada and its 30th anniversary this year were noted. 

Messages of greetings to the Mela from the Communist 
Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), People’s Front of Canada, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Ghadar Party of India, among others,were read out.  In its message, CPC(ML) informed the rally amidst applause that the names of eight south Asian patriots have been engraved in the monument to Modern Communism in Ottawa last August. 

People’s Front highlighted the significance of the struggle for one polity in Canada in its message. The CPI(M) message highlighted the contribution of the Indian patriots resident in Canada in the anti-colonial struggle of the Indian people. The CGPI explained 
the content of the program for democratic renewal of India captured in the slogan Hum Hai iske malik, Hum hai Hindustan! Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawaan! Most of the proceedings of the Mela was conducted in Punjabi language, spoken and understood by a majority of the participants. Non-Punjabi speakers were assisted by volunteer translators, but the revolutionary spirit that permeated the hall needed no interpretation.