Originally published May 22, 2023.
On May 23, 1914, the vessel S.S. Komagata Maru reached the shores of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia. On board were 376 passengers, British subjects of Indian descent, including 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus, along with the Japanese crew and a cargo of 1,500 tons of coal. The ship was not allowed to berth so for the next two months and government officials denied all passengers entry into Canada. This standoff represented an important challenge to Canadian immigration policies that discriminated on the basis of race.
At the time, Canada severely restricted immigration from Asia. South Asians from the Indian subcontinent were British subjects, which theoretically meant that they should have had the right to move freely throughout the empire and settle in the Dominion of Canada. However, Canada tried to bar their entry with legislation that required all migrants from India to come on a single journey from their point of origin. The Canadian government subsequently worked with major steamship companies to end service along these routes and to ensure that passengers would not be able to make a continuous journey.
To combat this racist discrimination, Gurdit Singh Sarhali, a Malaysian businessman and entrepreneur, chartered S.S. Komagata Maru to bring South Asians from the Indian subcontinent to Canada. Local newspapers in British Columbia stoked the fears of the public and the government with warnings that the vessel was en route with a “horde” or “influx” of Indian immigrants on board.
For two months after the arrival of S.S. Komagata Maru, government officials prevented all passengers from disembarking and entering Canada. The passengers were denied food and water, and the situation became more desperate. At the height of the standoff, the authorities brought in HMCS Rainbow to force the passengers to leave the water shore. The passengers resisted, and fought back by throwing bricks and coal onto the Rainbow crew. In the end, the Royal Canadian Navy cruiser withdrew.
From from the outset, a shore committee composed of local Indian activists in the lower mainland raised funds to hire lawyer J. Edward Bird to defend the passengers’ rights of entry. The court allowed only one case to be heard and based on that case summarily denied all passengers entry, except 20 passengers who could prove their prior residency in Canada.
After two long months filled with great personal hardships, systemic racism, colonial, imperialism, and legal barriers, all passengers were forced to return to India. Local citizens hurled insults as they sat and watched, while picnicking with families, the “escapade” and performance of denial as the ship was turned away. When S.S. Komagata Maru returned to Budge Budge in Calcutta (India), a massacre occurred. British Indian forces—informed by British perceptions that the passengers were revolutionaries—fired at the returnees. Twenty passengers died, many more were injured, more than two hundred were imprisoned without charge, and others went into exile.
