On Friday, the 5th of April 1872, during a sitting of the legislature of Canada’s province of British Columbia, members discussed a new law that would expand the electorate to all adult males who were literate. There was just one problem with the law; in its amended form it also extended the vote to non-whites, or “untutored savages", who could read. One legislator vehemently opposed this move, saying: “We might, after next election, see an Indian occupying the Speaker’s Chair, or have a Chinese majority in the House." (Here, the term “Indian" refers to the native peoples of North America. Calm down please.)

In subsequent decades, with tacit approval from imperial headquarters in London, Canada would pursue a blatantly racial immigration policy.

One hundred and forty years later, almost to the day, British prime minister David Cameron spoke at the 2012 launch of the “Conservative Friends of India" organization. Speaking about the Conservative Party, Cameron said, “When I look at the talent behind me, I think we are going to be the first party to have a British Indian Prime Minister."

It is really quite impossible to explain how dramatically the outlook towards Indian immigrants has changed. Especially in places like Canada, the US and the United Kingdom. Places where early immigrants were treated very poorly indeed.

Today around 17% of the population of British Columbia is Chinese and Indian. Looking at this data, it is tempting to think that all this is inevitable. That racist policies will eventually get their comeuppance.

Perhaps. One only hopes that there is some sort of karma operating in such matters. But most of these countries did not gently let go of their immigration policies.

For instance, it was only in 1965 that the US lifted a racial quota system that was happy to let in over 25,000 Germans each year, but only 100 Indians.

And, in the interim, immigrants had to deal with horrific experiences just to make even a meagre living. Take the case of the Komagata Maru incident.

Earlier this week, Canada Post released a stamp to mark the 100th anniversary of this famous incident that took place in May 1914.

By the early years of the 20th century, Canadian politicians began to worry about the number of Indian immigrants flowing into the country. This number was not particularly large. A 1911 census put the total number of Indians in Canada at 2,342. Still, it was enough to cause alarm.

The Canadians would have been happy to simply bar entry. But London cautioned against any such move. What self-respecting empire didn’t let subjects from one part travel freely to the other?

So the Canadians came up with an ingenious plan. Anyone was free to come to Canada, they said, provided these immigrants had boarded the ship from their home country, travelling continuously without stops, and that they carried $200 each. Making it virtually impossible to travel from India. What is more, pressure was exerted on shipping lines to stop direct India-Canada sailings.

Nonetheless, in May 1914, a Japanese ship carrying 376 Indian passengers—mostly Sikh but also some Muslims and Hindus—set sail from Hong Kong and arrived at Vancouver via Yokohama. It was partly a desperate attempt at migration, and partly a challenge of the law. The chief organizer of the trip, Gurdit Singh Sandhu, told the press who assembled around the ship in boats: “What is done with this shipload of my people will determine whether we shall have peace in all parts of the British Empire."

It didn’t work. The Komagata Maru was not given permission to dock. Two months later the ship was sent back to India. It arrived in Calcutta on 27 September and docked at Budge Budge. There was a prolonged stand-off that ended in a scuffle and then a shootout. Nineteen passengers were killed, several injured and many imprisoned.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the First World War broke out. The Komagatu Maru incident helped energize the Ghadar movement. It helped inspire a network of saboteurs and agitators that became a thorn in the side of the British throughout the war.

Today, at Budge Budge, there is a memorial to the incident. Gurdit Singh Sandhu himself chose the site, and Jawaharlal Nehru unveiled it in 1952.

The Budge Budge memorial reminds us of many things. It reminds us of the incident itself. It reminds us of the fragility of racism and racist policies. And the ultimate futility in trying to control the movements of peoples and cultures.

Who knows? Perhaps one day we will have an Indian politician boasting that his party will be the first to have a prime minister who is Indo-Bangla, Indo-Uzbek, Indo-Chinese, Indo-Emarati, or whatever racial mix it is that a booming economy and a stable democracy will ultimately gift us.

As for the Canadians, they did officially apologize in 2008.

And then there is the new stamp. “Events like Komagata Maru have helped encourage Canadians to make it a priority to build a more free and welcoming society that today doesn’t just tolerate diversity, but thrives by it," said the CEO of Canada Post, a man named Deepak Chopra.

Every week, Déjà View scours historical research and archives to make sense of current news and affairs.

Comments are welcome at views@livemint.com

Read Sidin Vadukut’s previous columns.

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