The journey of Komagata Maru: conjuncture, memory and history

ABSTRACT

The journey of Komagata Maru represents the convergence of several trends in contemporary colonial world. The harassment and endless misery to which the Indian immigrants into Canada were subjected indicated a new feeling of anxiety within the Empire about the immigrants/aliens/ foreigners. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Canada had solved the problem by insisting on continuous voyage from the country of origin. The immigrants of Komagata Maru were suspected to be part of a grand plan by seditious Indians to hatch an international conspiracy. This is amply borne out by the correspondence between the Criminal Intelligence Office, Simla and the intelligence departments in Bengal and Punjab. The authorities in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Penang, Singapore and Rangoon also shared information on a regular basis. The Komagata Maru incident may become more comprehensible in the light of this larger context.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• revolutionary terrorism
• ghadar
• imperialism
• racism
• Indian exiles
• history
• memory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Subhas Ranjan Chakraborty retired from Presidency College, Kolkata in 2005, but continued to teach as a guest teacher till 2013. He is a guest faculty, Department of History, Calcutta University. He has written on the history and politics of Darjeeling, on aspects of forced migration during the colonial period and on the French Revolution and the Balkans. He edited two volumes on The Uprisings of 1857: Perspectives and Peripheries and The Eighteenth Century in South Asia: New Terrains (both published by The Asiatic Society, Kolkata). He co-edited The Politics of Sports in South Asia (Routledge).

Notes

1. The movements were crushed, but the ‘coordination … was mediated through “representatives” … in Paris and … in Hong Kong, London and New York’. While the telegraph made possible faster communication, the steamship made possible ‘unprecedentedly massive migrations from state to state, empire to empire and continent to continent’ (Anderson 2007, 2–3).

2. In 1888, Jose Rizal, the pioneer of Philippine nationalism was angered at being kept for days on board a ship for ‘quarantine purposes’; in fact, the ship had about 650 Chinese on board, ‘very useful for racist, anti-immigration campaigns’ (Anderson 2007, 68).

3. Anderson has noted identical development in the context he studies. In the mid-1890s, the local newspapers could print accounts and photographs of Cuban insurrection and the Philippines revolution and other such wars/struggles against the colonial/imperial rule (2007, 221–233).

4. See Raza et al. (2015b, xv), particularly the essays by Banjamin Zachariah, Ali Raza and Maia Ramnath.

5. The links have been very elegantly established by Sohi (2014, 1–10).

6. The two organizations together submitted a petition to the minister of the interior protesting against the attempt to deport Bhagwan Singh. Bhagwan came to Canada from Hong Kong via San Francisco in 1913. He was ultimately deported in 1913, but ‘jumped ship in Yokohama, Japan, and made his way back to San Francisco the following year, where he became a prominent leader in the Ghadar Party’ (Sohi 2014, 86). Sohi cites a report by police officer Hopkinson entitled ‘Note on the Hindu revolutionary movement in Canada’.

7. The Indian community strongly protested against the continuous journey provision, for example. The Khalsa Diwan Society even decided to send a delegation to Ottawa, London and India. While the delegations to Ottawa and London were not recognized by the imperial authorities, the delegates proceeded to Punjab in 1913. British police officers, Isemonger and Slattery commented on the activities of the delegates and noted, ‘it is now apparent that it formed a distinct step in the development of the revolutionary movement and was intended to establish a link of sympathy between Indians at home and emigrants abroad’ (Sohi 2014, 115). Sir Michael O’Dwyer felt that the delegates initially criticized the immigration laws, but their messages were becoming increasingly ‘menacing and inflammatory’ (Sohi 2014, 116). He later claimed that a year after the delegates returned to Canada, ‘the Ghadr storm had burst over the Province’. B. Kettleswell, OSD, Punjab Civil Secretariat wrote to the Chief Secretary of Bengal on 17 September 1914 from Simla (Letter No. 3499 C & I), saying: ‘Request from Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Governor of Punjab to secure all passengers coming by Komagata Maru and send them by a special train to Punjab under Ordinance V of 1914 (Ingress into India)’, (Proceedings of the Komagata Maru Committee of Enquiry, Vol. II, Exhibit no. 68 (Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Press, 1914).

8. IB File No. 12/15, Sl. No.102/1915, West Bengal State Archives (Hereafter WBSA); A notification by the Chief Secretary of the Govt. of Bengal declared that all copies of the publication ‘Revolutionary Almanac, 1914’, published in New York should be forfeited. See IB File No. 1159/14, Sl. No. 25/1914, WBSA.

9. That Ingress was linked to anti-colonial movements is seen from the fact that the Ordinance was applied to the Indians in Chandernagore, a French territory near Calcutta.

10. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No.57/1914, WBSA.

11. IB File No. 204/11; Sl. No.22/1911, WBSA.

12. D.O. Letter No. 1357, dt.13.10.1914, IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

13. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

14. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No.57/1914, WBSA.

15. Letter No. 58/7, dated 4 September, Vancouver, from the Immigration Branch, Department of the Interior, Canada; IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA. In January 1911, a Sikh who had recently returned from America stated that a number of Punjabis and Bengalis at San Francisco used to practise shooting with rifles and machine guns presumably to prepare themselves for the coming revolution in India. Harnam Singh of Hoshiarpur used to attend these gatherings. He was arrested at Vancouver. While these statements may not be entirely true, the fact remains that there was a lot of talk about a revolution among the Sikhs in America and that Harnam was a leader of the seditious group. In 1912, Harnam took a prominent part in the agitation against the exclusion of the wives of Bhag Singh and Balwant Singh. In addition, there was reference to his liaison with the network of Indian revolutionaries living abroad. On 9 September 1914, Harnam and Jwala Singh were arrested in possession of bombs in Victoria, British Columbia. As a consequence, they were deported from Canada but were yet to arrive in India. There is no doubt in the minds of the Canadian authorities that he was a revolutionary associated with the Ghadar party (IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA).

16. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914.

17. IB File No. 1105/14; Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

18. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA. There are detailed reports of the searches in the IB files, WBSA.

19. IB File No.1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

20. IB File No. 715/16, Sl. No. 25/1916 – Sedition among the Indians in British East Africa; File No. 712/15, Sl. No. 33/1915 on Bengali intrigue in Shanghai and other Far-Eastern ports; WBSA.

21. Sohi (2014) has enumerated several incidents of unjust treatment meted out to immigrants. See especially Chapter 4.

22. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

23. IB File 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

24. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

25. IB File No. 1105/14, Sl. No. 57/1914, WBSA.

26. Kuwajima has cited several studies suggesting the Ghadar link of the mutiny (1991, 25)

27. Proceedings from the Committee of Enquiry, Vol. 3, Exhibit no. 3, Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Press, 1914.