Questions about inclusion and belonging led Johanna Ogden, as a self-described “late in life” graduate student at the University of British Columbia, to research a little-known piece of Oregon history.

In “Punjabi Rebels of the Columbia River: The Global Fight for Indian Independence and Citizenship,” which was published in June by Oregon State University Press, she writes about the Ghadar Party: a radical group of mostly Sikh workers who organized at Astoria’s Finnish Socialist Hall in May of 1913 to resist British rule over India. (The Punjabi or Urdu word “ghadar” translates as “mutiny” or “revolution.”)

I recently had the chance to talk with Ogden about the book and her research, which included looking through records kept by archivist Liisa Penner at the Clatsop County Historical Society.

“If it wasn’t for Liisa’s work, people in Astoria would have no idea about it,” she said. “I think it’s been a silenced history. I think most of us didn’t know.”

Ogden had been intrigued by mentions of Punjabi immigrants along the Columbia River from a professor at Reed College, as well as in a book by an Indian scholar.

“From the other side of the world, it kind of blew me away. He was talking about Astoria, Bridal Veil, Wauna, Linnton, and from there, I just started driving to all the cities and looking through records,” she said.

Ogden’s book explains the Ghadar Party’s ideals, contrasts related details of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court citizenship case, and frames how Astoria was positioned as the center of an early 20th century radical movement.

The book expands on an earlier article written for the Oregon Historical Society, and from Ogden’s work as a consulting historian who helped to organize a Ghadar Party Centenary Commemoration in Astoria in 2013.

A monument about the party’s founding now stands at Maritime Memorial Park.