“On May 17th 1914 the Sikh community in BC(British Columbia) held an emergency meeting in Kitsilano. The meeting was to form a shore committee to plan for the pending arrival in Vancouver of a steamship called the Komagata Maru. The committee was led by Bag Singh, a community leader and activists who lived at 1847,West Second Avenue in Kitsilano. And Husain Rahim , an outspoken businessman and publisher.

One week after the shore committee was formed the Komagata Maru entered Burrard Inlet on May 23rd 1914. On board were 376 passengers(340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, 12 Hindus) from Punjab, British India, including two women and four young children. For days the arrival of the ship had been sensational front-page news as hundreds of Vancouverites watched from shore. The Komagata Maru was ordered to drop anchor and confine all passengers to ship. Prior to 1908 over five thousand South Asians had arrived in British Columbia looking for a chance at a better life. During the settlement of these undesirables the Canadian government created legislation aimed to restrict their entry. A regulation called Continuous Journey stated that all immigrants had to travel to Canada by direct passage from the country of origin. Not possible from British India. The Komagata Maru, having started its voyage in Hong Kong had not made a continuous journey from India. Sikh merchant Gurdit Singh had chartered the Komagata Maru to challenge the Continuous Journey regulation and open immigration from India to Canada. Local politicians urged the government to refuse to allow the ship to dock and worked with immigration officials to detain the passengers except for 24 returning residents. None of the remaining 352 passengers were allowed ashore. Within days stores of food and water were depleted.

In response to the crisis the shore committee raised funds to provision the ship. The committee also hired a lawyer to represent a single passenger, Munshi Singh, as a test case in the BC Court of Appeal. It was argued that as a British subject Mr. Singh could not be denied entry to Canada because of race. But on July 6 1914 judges sided with the Canadian government and ruled that Mr. Singh would not be admitted to Canada. Meaning all passengers on the Kimagure Maru were denied entry. To enforce the ruling the Canadian government ordered an armed takeover of the Komagata Maru. But the defied passengers fought back. And what became known as the Battle of Burrard Inlet in response the Canadian Army was mobilized and a Canadian Navy ship was moved into Burrard Inlet. After 62 days standoff with all options exhausted the Komagata Maru lifted anchor and sailed out of Vancouver harbour. It was a bitter and deeply disappointing defeat for the 352 passengers, for the members of the Shore Committee and for the larger South Asian community in British Columbia.

When the Komagata Maru reached India, police met the ships and attempted to arrest Gurdit Singh and others who they regarded as political agitators.In the riot that followed a few passengers escaped but most were either injured, imprisoned or killed. In 2012 on Seawall in Coal Harbour a memorial was unveiled in remembrance of the Komagata Maru. A powerful reminder of one of the most dramatic challenges to Canada’s exclusion laws. The memorial represents the resilience and fortitude of the South Asian community of the BC and draws our attention to the plight of international migrants today.” – Text is from a video by STORYHIVE (South Asian Stories – Ep3 – Komagata Maru). All the credits are due to the creators/writers of the content.

After I learnt about this incident, I was very heartened to see this video of Justin Trudeau apologizing in the House for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident. Hope you like it as well.

There seems to be more things to reflect on than one usually thinks about this historically significant incident.