The Legacy Of The Komagata Maru

An apology is a fundamental aspect of regaining trust and respect for those who feel offended. However, if done wrong an apology can cause further conflict and only make matters worse. Throughout the next couple of months, we will be diving deeper into a few of British Columbia’s historic events and understand our wrongs and why an apology was necessary. 

The Komagata Maru, a story that I was only introduced to recently took place over a century ago but has only just received the recognition it deserves. On April 14th, 1914 a ship named the Komagata Maru set sail carrying 165 passengers eventually picking up 211 more, 337 of them were Sikh, 27 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all of them being British subjects in search of a better life. However, this wish for a better life didn’t come true due to one thing, racism. Since they were not white they were not welcome, but they were a part of the British empire so Canada couldn’t just reject them, instead, they created the Continuous Journey Regulation. This law meant that anyone trying to come to Canada would have to come directly from their country of origin and at the time there was no line from India to Canada making this a subtle way of excluding Indians. The Komagata Maru eventually made it into the Burrard Inlet on May 23rd after 1176 hours on the Pacific Ocean, unfortunately, their arrival wasn’t too pleasant and after two months they were forced back to where they came from. If things couldn’t get any worse they somehow did, when they got back to India they were met by the Indian Imperial Police who were attempting to arrest the group of leaders. As a result of this, a riot kicked off with the killing of 20 passengers. 

Although the dream of these Indians didn’t come true they were willing to risk everything they had in order to receive a better life. The strength that the South Asians showed is what I think is the most important part of the story and should be remembered. They fought together despite the overt racism, leaving their families behind not just to better themselves, but their whole family. 

It wasn’t until 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper attempted an apology for the events regarding the Komagata Maru. This attempted apology was seen by the Sikhs as unofficial and making them feel disrespected, this is an example of what I was saying earlier about how an apology done wrong can make matters worse. The Sikh community requested a new apology to be delivered in the House of Commons. After a long eight years of waiting the Sikh community finally got what they deserved, an official apology in the House of Commons by Justin Trudeau on behalf of the government of Canada. This formal apology was seen as a sign of respect to the South Asian community, it was also the first time that the Komagata Maru tragedy had been officially recognized which was important to the South Asians because it made them feel as if they were finally treated as real people and not just second class citizens which is what Stephen Harper did. 

However, this apology shouldn’t just be used as a form of closure so nothing else with our history of racism needs to be addressed, but we should use this as a starting place. The Komagata Maru wasn’t the only form of racism happening at the time, there were other issues facing people of colour such as the Chinese Immigration Act. This racism and discrimination still have impacts on people today and we saw this on our visit to the Punjabi market. The Komagata Maru incident is usually described as the dark chapter in Canada’s history but we haven’t really gotten out of it. There are still problems going on today involving racism, migration, xenophobia and islamophobia, just a bit more subtle than over a century ago, but this doesn’t make it any less important.

As I learnt about this incident I’ve come to realize that there are always going to be wrongs, even if you don’t think so other people will. So what really matters is that we accept that we were wrong and resolve the conflict to better everyone. As we look through more of British Columbia’s dark pasts I can only feel thankful to be who I am and not have to go through the experiences non-white people had, learning about this event has made me look at the past through a different lens and I am intrigued to see the experiences other ethnic groups faced.