The Komagata Maru incident is a different thing but this Komagata Maru was a steamship owned by the Shinyei Goshi Kaisya of Japan. It was basically a cargo ship built in 1890.
In 1914, this Komagata Maru ship started from British Hong Kong and sailed to Shanghai in China, then sailed to Yokohama in Japan, and finally sailed to Vancouver in the British Columbia province of Canada. It was carrying, 376 passengers who belong to Punjab, British India.
Out of 376 passengers, only 24 passengers got entry, but the other 352 passengers were not allowed to disembark in Canada and the ship was forced to return to India. The passengers comprised 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus.
Now, the question arising in your mind that, who were these 24 passengers who got entry pass, and why the remaining passengers were not allowed to disembark in Canada?
First of all, to answer this question, I want to take you to the early 1900 AD. In 1900 AD, around 2000 Indians were living in the North American continent. Most of them were Punjabis who had settled in Canada. They had come with the hope of finding work so that they could improve their economic situation. In Canada, at that time, white people were living. When these people arrived in Canada they faced discrimination based on skin color and contempt towards them as they were seen as a part of the Brown Invasion. Native Canadians also wanted this immigration of Indians to stop as they were afraid that the increasing number of Indians would take over their jobs in factories, mills, and lumberyards. This fear put a lot of pressure on the authorities which led British Columbia to pass stringent laws discouraging the immigration of Indians to Canada.
Now, what these passed laws say - that any Indian entering British Columbia should have a minimum of $200 with him and should have come directly from India.
The requirement of $200 was extremely harsh as at that time, an Indian was normally earning 10 cents a day. Many more such discriminatory things have occurred later on. In 1907, a bill was passed which denied voting rights to Indians. They were not allowed to run for public office, serve on juries, and were not permitted to become accountants, lawyers, or pharmacists. This was specially done to discourage the Indians from coming whereas Japanese and Chinese were immigrating in unlimited numbers. Their main objective was to stop Indian immigration to Canada.
Now to get your rights, you should have to do something innovative. Here comes "The Voyage Of Komagata Maru".
A person responsible for this Voyage of Komagata Maru was Gurdit Singh who was a rich businessman. Gurdit Singh most probably knew about the regulations when he chartered the ship Komagata Maru in January 1914. Despite knowing this, he continued with his enterprise to challenge the continuous journey regulation in the hopes of opening the door for Immigration from India to Canada. The Continuous Passage Act says that anyone coming should directly come from his country of origin and he should have purchased his tickets before the journey started.
Two days before the Voyage of Komagata Maru, Gurdit Singh was arrested by Hong Kong police on the charge of illegally selling tickets for an illegal voyage. Finally, permission for the sailing of the ship was granted on April 4, 1914, and on the same day, the Voyage of Komagata Maru started. On April 8, at Shanghai, 111 emigrants boarded the ship, and on April 14, at the Port of Moji, 86, at the Yokohama Port, 14 more passengers boarded the Komagata Maru totaling 376 passengers. The news of the departure of the ship from Shanghai to Vancouver leaked through German Press to British Press which published it in Canada with full force and provocation. Newspaper headings like "Boat Loads of Hindus on Way to Vancouver & Hindu Invasion of Canada" became the norm. In British Columbia, two groups emerged, one was the group trying to help the passengers enter Canada which included the Indians settled there, the second one was the group of British Columbia authorities and the natives which were fearful of the Brown Invasion. On May 23, 1914, Komagata Maru reached Vancouver. The Indian community was ready with the lawyers and other necessary arrangements whereas the Canadians were hell-bent on sending the ship back. Following a legal battle of two months, only 24 passengers were allowed entry into Canada and the rest 352 passengers were escorted out of the dock by the Canadian military forced to sail back from Canada to India. On September 26, 1914, the Komagata Maru reached near Calcutta, but before reaching there, a European gunboat forced the ship to go to a place named Budge Budge. Budge Budge was around 17 miles away from Calcutta. These people wanted to go to Calcutta, but the authorities were forcing them to take a train to Punjab which many of them didn't want to go. These passengers resisted, in response to which, lead to open fire by British authorities in which 20 passengers died. This led to a wave of anger amongst Punjabis, which outbursts in the form of the Ghadar Movement.
In 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially apologized for the Komagata Maru Incident on behalf of the Canadian government.
A stamp commemorating the Centenary Anniversary of the Steamship was released by Canada Post in May 2014.
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