Diaspora, thana tourism and Komagata Maru: an archival study

ABSTRACT

This article is an examination of diaspora, thana and cultural tourism; selected archival material from the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University; and an analysis of the role of tourists and memorials in preserving memories. The study of Komagata Maru, tourism, the Indian indentured labor system, the similarities of problems among the South Asian Indians in British Columbia in Canada, allows the understanding and interpretation of the broad range of social and historical concerns. Methodologically, this article hinges on the analysis of the archival material via the theoretical frames of tourism, diaspora, and colonialism.

KEYWORDS:

• Komagata Maru
• sikh identity
• Punjabi identity
• migration
• Indian diaspora

Acknowledgements

The assistance of the Sassoon Visiting Fellowship (2019-2020) at the Bodleian Libraries, Oxford University, toconduct this study is gratefully acknowledged.

1. Due credits and thanks to Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (https://www.csla-aapc.ca/csla-aapc), Canada, for the permission to use Komagata Maru Memorial picture in this article.

2. Due credits and thanks to members at the Komagata Maru Martyr’s Memorial, Budge Budge, Kolkata, India, for the permission to use the memorial’s pictures.

3. Due credits and thanks to Vancouver Public Library’s (Canada), for the picture used in this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It is to be noted that the correspondence is about the Komagata Maru historic event and clearly highlights the trauma of all those on the ship. However, there is no clarity regarding the identities of the people. Historically, the people on board the ship constituted the Sikhs, the Muslims and the Hindus but in the correspondence, the word that is used is the ‘Hindoos’.