Passengers on the deck of the Komagata Maru (Vancouver, 1914). On board were 340 Sikhs, 12 Hindus and 24 Muslims.
Gurdit Singh is standing on the left in the light-colored suit. (Courtesy of the Vancouver Public Library, VPL#6231.)
University of California, Berkeley
To admit orientals in large numbers would mean in the end the extinction of the white peoples and we have always in mind the necessity of keeping this a white man's country. -- Sir Richard MacBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia at that time.
I just read the single most important book of my lifetime. Lions of the Sea by Jessi Thind is a book about journeys, lessons, and how a moment, a word, or a story can change you. The novel begins with a Sikh sergeant who believes in British superiority and authority; after reading a journal of one of the “seditionists” (dying passenger of the Komagata Maru) he drops his gun, turns his back on their “superiority” and embarks on a new journey. He sets out to find the protagonist’s son so that he may give the boy the journal his father had written for him aboard the Komagata Maru.
Lions of the Sea is a first person account of the Komagata Maru incident which took place in Vancouver in 1914. The book tells the tragic tale of an East Indian farmer who wishes to escape economic hardships for a more economically viable part of the empire (the Dominion of Canada), but soon discovers that he is not entitled to the same rights as white British subjects. At the time in question, the British had a stranglehold on India. They were depleting India of its human and natural resources, and were able to do this without revolt by offering East Indians the illusion that they were British subjects and that they actually belonged to an empire.
Being called a British subject and “enjoying” the rights that came with it, somehow justified the appalling taxes the British imposed on farmers and landowners. The hard lesson the passengers of the Komagata Mmaru learned in the two cold dismal months they spent in Vancouver was that, in reality, they were not British subjects. It was a lesson they would later pass on to their fellow countrymen. But, as Thind tragically depicts, the passengers were slaughtered, imprisoned, and vilified by the press before they could ever pass on this lesson.
News reporting arrival of Komagata Maru.
There’s so much poetry and philosophy in this superbly written first novel that I would be surprised if it wasn’t awarded the Governor General’s Award. I read a review in which the critic called the book sentimental and depressing, admonishing Thind for having written a dark book. It is dark only because what happened to those passengers was dark. But there is more. Much more.
The book is about hope, endurance, and solidarity. It is a testament to the human spirit and to those who refuse to bow down and give in, so-to-speak, to the night. If this book has done one thing for me, it has shown me how strong and united my ancestors were. It has also opened the eyes of Americans and Canadians about a tragedy they would have otherwise never heard about. Strangely enough it has also started a debate on whether Canada should formally apologize for this incident. American Journalist B. Jonjak in his review of Lions of the Sea writes:
I think that people too often fall into the habit of thinking that once evil has been identified, it has been defeated. America, for example, constantly, and justly, vilifies the Nazis. However, the institution of slavery is such a black mark on American society, that it really doesn't have any right to think itself morally superior to Nazi Germany. This is not to say that America should be regarded as evil, but just as a reminder that America too has made horrible errors. I believe it is through a responsible acknowledgement of these mistakes and a recognition of our capacity for making mistakes in the future, that evil truly can be held at bay.
To this end, a book like Lions of the Sea provides a great service. There should be accountability for the types of behaviors presented so clearly in the book. It is impossible to go back to 1914 and change history, but boats filled with refugees from distant shores wind up on American and Canadian coasts with frequency even today. It is how we handle situations that we do have power over that we demonstrate our understanding of right and wrong. Everybody gives lip-service to the fact that slavery and the Nazis were evil. But will those same people make the compassionate choice when chance allows the determination of history to fall into their own hands? Until it happens, you never really know. Perhaps having read Lions of the Sea will help swing these future choices into a direction more people can live with.
This book should make all East Indians proud. It should also remind us of the great sacrifices our forefathers made to bring us to this continent, in order to gift us with the opportunities and freedoms we sometimes take for granted. Please read it. You’ll be better for it.
Editor-- This is a brief note on the events of the Komagata Maru. It has been excerpted from Our Brothers Across The Sea by Khushwant Singh, Sikh Review, August 1961.
After 1900, other batches of Sikhs began to arrive in British Columbia. The first time their presence attracted notice was in 1904 when 258 'Hindus', a term applied by Canadians and Americans to all Indians irrespective of their religion, were mentioned in the census. The emigrants found jobs in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and in the lumber mills. The wages, by standards known to them, were handsome. Out of the $1.50 they received every day they were able to save enough to send home and thus encouraged others to follow. Their wages were lower than those of white workers, but so also was their standard of living.
It took sometime before the resentment of the white workers could register on the immigrants. In the three years following 1904, Sikh migration continued at about 500-600 a year, till the number came to a little over 3000. The total by 1908 is calculated to have been 3,623. By then, the agitation of people of European stock in British Columbia had become extremely hostile and the State legislature and the Federal Government had openly declared a 'white Canada' policy and virtually slammed the door shut against further Indian immigration. In 1909 only nine Indians were admitted into the country.
The total exclusion of Indians was achieved by passing a series of Orders in Council. At first the State levied a poll tax on oriental immigrants. Another Order forbade the entry of any person who did not bring $200 nor come directly from the country of origin to a Canadian port. This 'continuous voyage' clause applied mainly to Indians who had no ships of their own to bring them from their home ports. The entry of wives and children was also forbidden.
The Canadian Government virtually brought Indian immigration to a standstill. The first to challenge the two Orders of the Council (Section 23 of the Immigration Act) was a group of 35 Indians who came in 1913 and were refused admission by the Immigration Department. Their petition for habeas corpus was dismissed by Justice Murphy. The intending immigrants appealed to the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Hunter accepted their contention and held both the Orders in the Council ultra vires of the Immigration Act, under which they were claimed to have been passed.
The Government was determined not to give in. The Orders in Council were redrafted to get around Chief Justices' opinion, and yet another Order in Council was introduced which made it illegal for artisans or laborers skilled or unskilled to enter Canada (PC 23 and PC 24 of 1914 and PC 2642 of 1913).
It was at this stage that the Komagata Maru came to the horizon. On the morning of May 23, 1914, the Japanese merchant ship, the Komagata Maru, dropped anchor in Burrard inlet near Vancouver. Aboard the vessel were 376 Indians, of which the majority were Sikhs. The leader of the party was Gurdit Singh of village Sarhali, who had a prosperous business in Singapore. In Hong Kong he consulted a leading firm of solicitors and had been given an assurance that in view of Chief Justice Hunter's decision (In re Narain Singh No. 18 of 1913. British Columbia Law reports of 1913), there was no bar to the admission of Indian immigrants to Canada.
The progress of the Komagata Maru was reported in British Columbian newspapers from the day it left Hong Kong, and 'white' sentiment was whipped up against the mounting oriental 'invasion.' Immigration personnel had the vessel cordoned off and apart from 22 passangers who claimed Canadian domicile others were told they would have to go back.
Meetings were held in several cities of the Punjab and telegrams were addressed to the Governor, the Viceroy, the Secretary of State and the Canadian Government. In London Mrs Annie Besant, took up this cause in the British press. Little notice was taken of these appeals by the British or the Canadian Governments. Canadian opinion was expressed by the Prime Minister of British Columbia, Sir Richard MacBride, who said:
"To admit orientals in large numbers would mean in the end the extinction of the white peoples and we have always in mind the necessity of keeping this a white man's country."
The leaders of the Keep the Indian Out school were members of the Conservative Party, notably Mr. H.H. Stevens, Member of Parliament for Vancouver, and members of provincial legislature, Messers C.E. Tisdall and Dr. Maguire, and the Mayor of Vancouver, Mr. Baxter. They provided the solid citizen backing to the Immigration Department headed by Mr. Reid, who had equipped himself with special staff to deal with Indian immigrants.
Reid's right hand man was William Hopkinson, who had served in the Punjab police and had a smattering of Punjabi. Hopkinson had in his payroll group of Indians who kept him informed of the immigrant organizations. The chief informer was an ex-soldier, Bela Singh from Hoshiarpur. By virtue of his association with the immigration department Bela Singh was able to influence them to deal with each case individually.
For some time before the arrival of Komagata Maru, Bela Singh and Hopkinson had been able to augment their income by charging regular fees to have the applications of the immigrants favourably considered.
In this hostile atmosphere the Indians were persuaded by their Counsel, Mr Bird, to go to a Canadian court and try out the validity of the new Orders in Council. On May 28, a full bench of Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the new Orders of Council effectively barred the courts from interferring with the decisions of the Immigration Department. (In re Munshi Singh No. 20 of 1914 British Columbia Law reports, p243)
The doors of justice was thus finally slammed in the face of the Indians.
The next step was to order the ship out of Canadian waters. The passangers committee took control of the ship from Capt. Yamemoto and his Japanese crew. On July 4th, an armed Canadian police force of 120 men aboard the tugboart, Sea Lion, tried to overpower the passengers committee. Mr Stevens accompanied this force. The passengers kept the policemen at bay fighting with nothing better than rock-coal and staves made out of driftwood floating in the Burrard inlet. The failure of Sea Lion picqued the Canadian police, particularly Mr. Stevens, who used his influence to get the cruiser, Rainbow, and the army brought into operation.
On the night of July 21st, the Rainbow with 150 blue-jackets on board, slipped into the Burrard inlet alongside Komagata Maru. In the morning the helpless passangers woke up to find guns of the warship trained on them from one side and the entire harbor lined with local militia and units of Irish Fusiliers and Seaforth Highlanders on the other.
The citizens of Vancouver watched from their windows and housetops. It was an unequal fight and at long last the Indians in Vancouver persuaded their countrymen to return. In the early hours of July 25th, while the city slept, the Komagata Maru silently slipped out into the Pacific.
On its return to Calcutta the police opened fire on an unarmed procession of the returning Sikh emigrants at Budge Budge Harbor and killed over 20 of them.
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