Volume 11 | Issue 29 | Number 1 | Article ID 4149 | Jul 28, 2013 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus

The Extraordinary Story of the Komagata Maru: Commemorating the One Hundred Year Challenge to Canada’s Immigration Colour Bar 驚くべき駒形丸事件 カナダの人種差別的 移民政策に挑んで100年

John Price, Satwinder Bains

were centers of this anti-Asian agitation that would have both national and transnational One hundred years ago, Gurdit Singh Sirhali effects. The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act in the chartered the Japanese steamship Komagata US and the 1885 head tax in Canada reflected Maru and brought 376 Indian passengers to how white supremacy had become integral to Canada in a direct challenge to Canada’s the fabric of politics in both countries. Canada, immigration colour bar.1 The ship’s forced as a of the , was also departure from Vancouver harbour on July 23, part of a transnational racial network that 1914 ended an extraordinary two-month included other settler colonies such as standoff between the passengers, determined Australia, New Zealand and Natal, where to enter Canada, and a Canadian government Gandhi cut his political teeth advocating for the determined to enforce its anti-Asian exclusion colony’s Indian population.2 Substantial Indian policies, come what may. The ship’s departure, migration to Canada and the United States however, was not the end of this saga—the began in the early 1900s. passengers faced unimaginable hardships on the return voyage only to be met by the iron fist In the wake of Japan’s victory over Russia in of British authorities upon their arrival in India. 1905, anti-Asian movements accelerated, precipitating the decision by the San Francisco The Komagata Maru story has tended to be school board to segregate Japanese students.3 inscribed in national narratives, both Canadian This was followed by anti-Asian riots in and Indian, but in this article we argue that the September 1907. These riots targeted the 1914 confrontation was a historical moment in Japanese and Chinese communities in which a heterogenous, diasporic movement for Vancouver (BC) and in Bellingham (WA) angry social justice became a wellspring for a mobs drove Indian sawmill workers out of the transborder, anti-colonial upsurge. Entangled town. In response, the Canadian government in the maw of virulent settler racism and the moved quickly to limit immigration from Japan emerging British-American alliance for global and from India in response to public anti-Asian white supremacy, the Komagata Maru saga sentiment. With the help of the British would have profound repercussions thatambassador in Tokyo, Canadian officials forced continue to be felt to this day. the Japanese government to accept immigration quotas. In respect to India, the Transnational Background jewel in the crown of the British empire, colonial officials advised the Canadian Pacific coast settlers on both sides of the US- government to avoid introducing overtly racist Canada border share a long history of anti- restrictions that might fan the flames of anti- Asian racism. British Columbia and California colonialism. Thus Canadian legislation against

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Indian immigration, introduced in 1908, came Kumar in Seattle, Lal Har Dyal at Berkeley and in the form of a ‘continuous journey’ regulation a host of other activists worked with the requiring all newcomers to travel on a direct predominantly Sikh communities in the mill sailing from their country of origin. Since no towns to build support for a political such tickets or routes were available from India movement. Though small in numbers, white to Canada this became the convenientallies ranged from members of the IWW subterfuge for racism. No reason why it was (Industrial Workers of the World) or the necessary for anyone to travel in such a Socialist Party of Canada, to members of the manner was ever really provided, but it allowed clergy and even imperial loyalists such as the government to construct a discourse of Isabella Ross Broad in Victoria who called for ‘plausible denial’ when faced with criticisms of equality for all subjects of the Empire including racial discrimination from Indians turned away Sikhs. at Canadian ports. By 1908, the British Criminal Intelligence US president Theodore Roosevelt followed Office had begun to systematically monitor these local events very closely. When Roosevelt South Asian activities in the US and Canada. A learned that Canadian representatives in Japan number of Indian intellectuals and students had had refused to include the Americangone to the United States for further education. ambassador in negotiations with the Japanese To some, the US appeared as safe haven for to limit immigration, he realized the need for anti-colonial agitation given that country’s closer relations with the British Empire. Japan earlier war of independence against the British. and Britain had signed a strategic pact in 1902, However, British intelligence reports of the the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, leaving the US as time pointed to what they saw as dangerous a secondary power in the Pacific. Questions of developments on the Pacific coast where anti- race proved to be an important wedge against colonialists such as Taraknath Das were nascent Japanese . Rooseveltmaking contact with the largely Sikh, working- encouraged the Canadian government to press class communities in Vancouver and Seattle. A London to pursue a hemispheric accord to limit secret British intelligence paper concluded Asian immigration. He also sent the ‘Great “continued friction between Indians and White Fleet’ on a global tour starting in the immigration authorities leads to much ill- Pacific in a flagrant display of gunboatfeeling and unfortunately prepares the ground diplomacy aimed at Japan. Thus were sown the for disloyal agitation. The main danger lies in racial seeds of British-American collaboration. the fact that the Indians concerned are mostly Sikhs, many of whom have formerly served in To South Asians aspiring to come to the Pacific the Indian army, and that on their return to coast as well as to those already there (since India they are likely to sow the seeds of 1904) government policies and publicdisaffection amongst the classes from which sentiment made it clear that they werethe Sikh regiments are recruited.”4 unwanted. As a consequence, South Asian communities in Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle, The Canadian government employed William H. Astoria and San Francisco became centres for Hopkinson, who was born in India, as an social change as reformers and revolutionaries immigration officer, interpreter, and agent challenged exclusionary immigrationcharged with spying on Indian communities in regulations and other injustices including the British Columbia. He was subsequently also denial of voting rights. Sundar Singh in employed as an interpreter for the US Victoria; Bhag Singh, Taraknath Das, Teja department of immigration and began crossing Singh, and Husain Rahim in Vancouver; G.D. the border regularly. In 1913 Hopkinson

2 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF secretly travelled to London for discussions Vancouver, members of the Nationalist Party with the Criminal Intelligence Office and (Guomindang) of Sun Yat-Sen, were receiving shortly afterwards the British Indianand forwarding the Gadar in order to subvert government, with the Canadian government’s postal scrutiny.9 This upsurge in revolutionary agreement, began paying Hopkinson foranti-colonialism generated closer collaboration 5 “securing information in foreign territories.” among Canadian, American and British He became an important liaison with US authorities determined to suppress the commissioner general of immigration Anthony movement. It was at this precise moment that a Caminetti. One of his first acts in this role was Sikh businessman decided to challenge the to secretly transmit a message that the British colour bar—inextricably weaving together the colonial office hoped the US would arrest Lala politics of race and empire. Har Dayal, a revolutionary anti-colonial activist 6 in Berkeley. In the summer of 1913, with the The Extraordinary Case of the Komagata concurrence of the first secretary of labour, Maru William Wilson (founder of the United Mine Workers union), Caminetti moved to restrict In January 1914, Gurdit Singh, a businessman Indian immigration by forcing all those arriving based in Singapore visited Hong Kong where from Manila (then a US territory) to a second he found many of his countrymen destitute and 7 immigration examination. This move prompted stranded because racially motivated widespread protest and Hopkinson reported on immigration restrictions prevented them from this resistance to Caminetti. In November going to Canada or the US. He resolved to 1913, Hopkinson moved to Oakland, California break the immigration colour bar and and the following spring travelled tochartered the Japanese steamship Komagata Washington (DC) to meet with officials of the Maru to go to Canada in the hope of British embassy as well as with the Caminetti. establishing a business-venture taking Hopkinson’s move to California coincided with passengers from India to Canada. the formation of the revolutionary Hindustani Association of American, founded in Astoria in 1913. Better known by its journal name, Gadar (Mutiny), it called for the overthrow of British colonialism in India and quickly gained a small but dynamic audience.8 For a number of Indian expatriates, including Taraknath Das and Bhagwan Singh, it had become clear that the struggle for justice in America was impossible without challenging British control of India. By the spring of 1914 the Gadar newspaper began to attract a substantial following with 5000 copies being distributed on the Pacific Coast as well as in India and the Punjabi diasporic communities in Manila, Yokohama, Hong Kong and Singapore. Declared a seditious publication it was banned in Canada and postal authorities 1. Gurdit Singh (front row, left with his son) challenged Canada’s exclusion laws by chartering the began to intercept its parcels. Postal Komagata Maru in Hong Kong and bringing 376 of authorities later received word thathis compatriots to Vancouver. (Courtesy: Vancouver sympathetic Chinese Canadians in Victoria and Public Library, 6231. Frank Leonard photograph)

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The Komagata Maru left Hong Kong on Sunday, April 5 and stopped at Shanghai and then in Japan to collect more passengers. On board after departing Yokohama were a diverse group of 376 Indian passengers including Gurdit Singh and his young son, Balwant Singh. Bound by a determination to settle in Canada, the passengers religious affiliation included 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus. Two women were on board--Dr Raghunath Singh’s wife (he was the medical officer on the ship), with their son, and Kishan Kaur Tumowal with one daughter and one son.

Taking two months to cross the Pacific, the 2. Immigration agent and intelligence operative Komagata Maru entered Canadian waters off William C. Hopkinson (far right); immigration agent rd Vancouver Island on May 21 and proceeded to Malcolm Reid (3 from right); and Conservative rd William Head quarantine station near Victoria. member of parliament H.H. Stevens (3 from right) meet with reporters during Komagata Maru crisis Aware that the ship might be prevented from (Courtesy: Library and Archives Canada, PA 034017) docking, community activists accompanied by the minister L.W. Hall tried to reach the vessel but immigration officials prevented them from From the moment it entered Vancouver harbor doing so. The ship weighed anchor a few hours an armed launch constantly patrolled around later and arrived in Vancouver on May 23. In the ship, holding the passengers as virtual an unprecedented move, the ship was not prisoners without legal recourse and allowed to dock. This decision was part of a preventing supporters and lawyers from strategy to prevent any passengers from boarding the vessel. This was an reaching land. Why this extraordinaryunprecedented act in Canadian maritime treatment? Canadian officials, from prime history. Recognizing the extraordinary minister Robert Borden to Malcolm Reid, the challenge, community supporters organized a Vancouver immigration agent and avidShore Committee to mobilize support for the exclusionist, were worried that if thepassengers. Key figures included Husain passengers disembarked they would have to Rahim, Bhag Singh Bhikiwind, Mitt Singh detain them, immediately leading to a court Pandori and Balwant Singh Khurdpur. J. challenge. Fearful that they might lose in the Edward Bird was retained to act as legal courts as they had in a previous case, they counsel. From the US, the Yugantar Ashram in prevented the ship from docking even though San Francisco, headquarters of Ghadar activity, the passengers were line up on deck, smartly sent a telegram of support to Gurdit Singh. dressed with packed bags fully expecting to Immigration officials intercepted the disembark and find work. communication and interpreted it as evidence of sedition and conspiracy.

After a week of being stonewalled, the Shore Committee called a meeting of the Indo- Canadian community to support the cause of the Komagata Maru passengers. About 500 people attended including about 20 women and

4 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF men of European decent. Hussein Rahim reported only way to handle shipload without chaired the meeting and explained that the danger of escape or riot was to examine Hindus immigration department was deliberately on ship at a short distance from shore and this delaying the immigration process and the is being done. They are supplied with food and landing of Gurdit Singh in the hope that the water, were permitted to consult their charter would default on a payment of $15,000 solicitors, and arrangements made for charter that was due in about 10 days. Failure to pay to unload cargo and reload.”11 The same day would result in the ship being ordered to return this report was sent, the interpreter and secret to Hong Kong. The priest of the Vancouver agent William Hopkinson reported he had gurdwara (Sikh temple), Balwant Singh told the ‘visited the boat again, and found the crowd that “Australia, South , and New passengers in a state of unrest for want of Zealand, had all adopted measures to keep out food’. King George V read only the Hindus, and now Canada was doing the same.’ report and approved a reply to Gurdit Singh in He reminded the crowd of Sikh battles of the which the British government unabashedly told past and urged them not to ‘submit to tyranny.” him “the passengers on board Komagata Maru Over $5,000 in cash was raised immediately are supplied with food and water and have and a further $66,000 was pledged. been permitted to consult solicitors.”12

Extraordinarily lengthy on-board medical The Shore Committee managed to raise examinations were finally completed on June 1 $11,000 cash and offered it to the ship’s and immigration inspectors began interviewing owners toward the $15,000 owed for the passengers in boards of inquiry. The process charter. The Japanese steamship company was was excruciatingly slow with one passenger at interested and allowed more time to raise the a time taken off the ship to be interviewed on remaining funds. A few days later its shore, with no decisions being rendered. fundraising had reached the $18,000 mark and Meanwhile, the passengers were unable to get the Shore Committee became the formal off the boat and supplies of food and water charterer of the Komagata Maru. The on-shore were running out. Gurdit Singh realized that he support of the South Asian community was and the ship were being subjected toinstrumental in stymying the Canadian extraordinary and unjust treatment and he government strategy to force a default on the refused to allow further boarding by Canadian charter. This was a major setback for the officials. Instead he sent telegrams to Canada’s government. At the same time word of the Governor-General and to King George V standoff was spreading internationally and the stating: “No provisions since four days. Reid British government began to receive telegrams refuses supply, charterer and passengers from cities and villages across India protesting starving. Kept prisoners.” Canadian officials the treatment of the passengers. opened and read the private telegrams before they were sent. The passengers subsequently On Sunday, June 21, the Shore Committee began a hunger strike to protest theircalled a public meeting and over 500 people, conditions. including about 120 folks of European heritage, attended. Hussein Rahim chaired the session On June 6, the British monarch, King George V, and introduced his comrade in the Socialist actually received Gurdit Singh’s telegram and Party of Canada, J. Edward Bird who was through his personal secretary inquired what acting as counsel for the passengers. Bird gave was going on.10 This caused a flurry of a rousing speech explaining that immigration telegrams with the Canadian government authorities wanted “to delay matters and delay reporting to the British authorities: “Authorities matters and procrastinate and delay until such

5 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF time as these people were starved back to their appeal process but would be expedited original port from whence they sailed.”13 The immediately to the Court of Appeal for a quick authorities hoped to avoid court proceedings by decision by a full bench of five justices. Finally, keeping the passengers off shore. Theon June 29-30, the single case of one ‘immigration officials’ stated Bird, “have felt passenger, Munshi Singh, was argued in the that they are little Czars and have proceeded as Court of Appeal in Victoria over two days. J. such, absolutely in the most autocratic manner Edward Bird and R. Cassidy argued on both ever known in Canada.” From the US,anti-racist and technical grounds. A week later Taraknath Das wrote to Rahim around this time the judges released their decision upholding stating that in the US, he and others would not the discriminatory immigration laws.15 The “leave any stone unturned” to ensure the Canadian government had adjusted the passengers present their case in the courts: “To regulations to eliminate technical loophols after deny the right of justice will lead to the they lost a case the previous year. On the destruction of the British Empire.”14 political level, the justices held that the Canadian government had every right to Meanwhile the mayor of Vancouver, T.S. discriminate. As Justice McPhillips put it, “the Baxter, called a public meeting to demonstrate Hindu race, as well as the Asiatic race in support for immigration officials. Endorsed by general, are in their conception of life and Vancouver newspapers, a large crowd attended ideas of society fundamentally different to the the Tuesday evening meeting and Conservative Anglo-Saxon and Celtic races, and European member of parliament H.H. Stevens addressed races in general.” The judge further claimed the audience telling them “what we face in that, “the germ of discontent that would be British Columbia and Canada today isbrought to this country within any considerable this—whether or not the civilization which finds influx of people so different in ideas of family its highest exemplification in Anglo-Saxon life and social organization – better that British rule shall or shall not prevail in the peoples of non-assimilative- and by nature Dominion of Canada.” Stevens’ extended properly non-assimilative – race should not speech was followed by former MP Ralph Smith come to Canada but rather that they should who called on the crowd to support the remain of residence in their country of origin immigration officials. There was, he said, no and there do their share as they have in the work for many white men and so newcomers past in the preservation and development of the were unwelcome. A resolution adopted at the Empire” The justices had ruled and in so doing end of the meeting declared “the influx of layed bare how far the law had strayed from Asiatics is detrimental…from the standpoint of any notion of justice, further proof of the citizenship, public morals and labourEmpire’s callous disregard for its Indian conditions.” The meeting called for support of subjects as well as for all Asians. immigration authorities and the enactment of “stringent legislation” to prevent suchOn July 7, a day after the judgment was immigration in the future. rendered, J. Edward Bird finally gained permission to board the ship and met Gurdit Stymied in its initial strategy and with H.H. Singh to discuss the court’s ruling. The Stevens invoking the threat of riots, the passengers were in dire straits, with few Canadian government recognized that they provisions and little water. For ten days could no longer avoid a legal challenge. immigration officials tried to force departure However, they still refused to allow the ship to but the passengers refused to leave without full dock and would only allow a single test case provisioning of the ship, knowing that without that would not proceed through a regular provisions they would surely perish on the open

6 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF seas. The shore committee also submitted claims for its huge commitments necessitated by the government’s stalling tactics. The passengers, who had taken direct control of the ship, refused to depart. The delays infuriated H.H. Stevens and Malcolm Reid and they conspired with the Japanese captain, Yamamoto, to force their way onto the ship and force it to depart. In the early morning of July 19, the tug Sea Lion was boarded by immigration officials and 150 armed constables. The tug went alongside the Komagata Maru but the passengers took advantage of their location above the tug to 3. The HMS Rainbow forces the Komagata Maru from rain coal and other objects down on the Vancouver Harbour, July 23, 1914 (Courtesy: officials and police. Apparently shots were fired Vancouver Public Library, 130. Canadian Photo Co.) but no serious injuries occurred and the officials had to call off their action. Having With the warship Rainbow’s guns trained on been held like prisoners the passengers were in the Komagata Maru, passengers and the Shore no mood to accommodate their jailers. This Committee negotiated with Burrell and debacle prompted a flurry of telegrams to the immigration officials. A deal was reached by prime minister with H.H. Stevens suggesting which the government would provide the food that warships be brought in to force the and resources necessary for the return voyage Komagata Maru out of the harbor. Borden and in exchange the passengers returned the agreed that drastic measures were necessary control of the ship to the Captain. Burrell and that it was the government’s intention to further agreed that an inquiry would be held “enforce the law firmly and effectively but with regarding the financial losses the Shore no unnecessary violence.” Borden ordered the Committee had incurred in taking over the HMS Rainbow to Vancouver harbor from ship’s charter. On July 22, supplies were put on Victoria, and authorized the mobilization of the board but members of the Vancouver Sikh militia to board the ship as its marine corps. At community were still prevented from going on the same time he asked a cabinet minister, board. Finally, in the early hours of July 23, the Martin Burrell, Minister of Agriculture visiting Komagata Maru weighed anchor and left the in the interior of the province, to proceed to harbor under armed escort by the HMS Vancouver to take charge of the situation. Rainbow as thousands of Vancouver residents watched. What lay in store for them was utterly unimaginable. The Governor General of Canada, Arthur the Duke of Connaught, cabled the Colonial Office, “It is thought here that political agitators or secret revolutionary societies financed the trip of the Komagata Maru”, setting the stage for what lay ahead.16 While at sea, the British Empire went to war with Germany.

Three weeks after leaving Vancouver, the Komagata Maru arrived in Japan. On August

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17, Sohan Singh Bakhna, a Gadar activist met from Calcutta. The ship was quarantined while the ship in port in Yokohama and conveyed a British and Punjabi police searched the ship message to the passengers that the movement and its passengers. Finding nothing, the ship was actively proposing an ousting of the British proceeded towards Calcutta. The following day from India. He proposed that returning Indian on September 27, the ship approached the nationals should fight for this cause and placed industrial town of Budge Budge, about twenty some ammunition that was hidden on board. seven kilometers from Calcutta where it was The passengers were curious about hisforced to drop anchor. The commissioner for message but most of them were distant police in Calcutta, Sir Frederick Loch Halliday observers to this aspect of the unfolding drama boarded the ship and told Gurdit Singh that the on the ship. Nevertheless, as Canadian scholar passengers would be sent by train to Punjab. Hugh Johnston put it, the Komagata Maru was Gurdit Singh refused this suggestion, as he was a marked ship. extremely suspicious of berthing on the wrong side of the river – direct trains going to Punjab A day later, the Hong Kong colonial secretary boarded on the west side of the river at issued instructions barring passengers from Howarah station. The officers treated Gurdit disembarking in Hong Kong. The ship was Singh with hostility and threated to kill all the forced to move to the port of Kobe on August passengers if they did not disembark. However, 18. Eighteen passengers disembarked at some passengers agreed to disembark and Yokohama and fifteen at Kobe, some to find an under threat of death the others followed suit alternate route home and others to find work. and Gurdit Singh reluctantly left the ship with On September 3 the ship set sail after lengthy the passengers on the 29th of September. negotiations to cover further costs of the voyage. Shortly thereafter, the British Indian On the afternoon of September 29, an government passed the Ingress to Indiaentourage of passengers carrying the holy Ordinance giving the Viceroy the power to scriptures, Sri Guru Granth Sahib on their head arrest anyone entering India considered a (as is customary), left the ship and were told threat to the safety of the nation state. that they could be forced to board the train on the platform of whose destination they knew The Komagata Maru arrived in Singapore on nothing of. The passengers refused and asked September 13 but it was forced to anchor five permission to deliver the scriptures to the kilometers from shore. Again, British officials Gurdwara at Calcutta as it would be prevented passengers from disembarking – sacrilegious to carry the scriptures on the train even those who had lived in Singapore previous and they refused to enter the train. While to their journey, which included Gurdit Singh. waiting on the platform for the request to be After five days being held offshore, the ship fulfilled, and seeing no resolution, the departed on the last leg in a long journey that passengers decided to march to Calcutta and had started with such promise. It steamed in left the station with the scripture. However, unscathed through naval conflict zones in the after having marched for about four miles, they Pacific — the German government hoped to were stopped and convinced by a British sow dissension in the British government by official to return to the station and that he supporting the Ghadar movement. would listen to their grievances. Two hours later, at five pm, the passengers arrived back at On September 26, the Komagata Maru arrived the Budge Budge railway station only to face a at the mouth of the Hooghly River where contingent of armed police. They were told to British officers forced it to drop anchor on the wait on the grassy bank while the officers east bank about ninety kilometers downstream decided whether to put them on a train or back

8 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF on the ship. No water was given to the thirsty regime responded by introducing a series of and hot passengers and the soldiers mistreated repressive laws and arresting hundreds on them, pushing, hitting, and verbally abusing charges of sedition. So-called conspiracy trials them. were convened in Lahore and in Mandalay, Burma leading to the execution of dozens of At 7 pm, Superintendent J.H. Eastwood of the activists and imprisonment of hundreds. The reserve police plunged into the passengers to British government established MI6 in 1916 to capture Gurdit Singh, but he was overpowered spy overseas. By 1918 it had at least 200 by passengers determined to protect Singh. agents working in the US monitoring anti- Halliday ordered the troops to fire and they imperialist activities.18 indiscriminately shot into the crowd of waiting passengers. Twenty died and many more were In the United States, the Komagata Maru gravely injured. In the ensuing melee, many incident and the branding of Indian activists as took refuge in the ditches around the station radicals prompted a tightening of immigration and some escaped under cover of darkness. regulations. In early 1917, Congress passed a British troops hunted down those in the vicinity new immigration law, the Asiatic Barred Zone of the station and jailed them. Gurdit Singh Act, prohibiting immigration from India, escaped by dressing like a Bengali and fleeing Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. As to the other side of the river on a small boat as brought the US into the war, did many others. Those that ended up boarding the British and US governments worked closed the trains arrived in Punjab on October 2, to indict Indian and other radicals still in the where they were held and interrogated for one United States for working with Germans week before being discharged and ordered to against the British during the war. In what go to their home villages where they would be became known as the ‘Hindu conspiracy’ trial under surveillance. A journey that began as a from November 1917 to April 1918, the US search for justice ended in tragedy, sending government tried 17 Indians, nine Americans shockwaves across Asia and the Pacific.17 and nine Germans. Evidence intercepted illegally by Japanese postal authorities at the Conclusion request of British officials was used in the trials.19 The most expensive trial in the US to In the aftermath of the Komagata Maru date, the British government covered $2.5 incident, Taraknath Das and Sailendra Ghose million of the costs compared to $500,000 by declared that Indian independence andthe US. The accused were found guilty and freedom from racism required an end to ‘Anglo- served sentences of two to 22 months. 20 Saxon’ imperialism, “the most pernicious imperialism in the world.” That Das and Ghose The diasporic Indian communities in America identified the organic racisms connecting were a wellspring of anti-imperialism in the British and American imperialism reflected early in ways quite similar to their experiences in the United States and Chinese communities in the Americas.21 They Canada. Theodore Roosevelt’s racial initiative clearly perceived that their status abroad was to forge closer US-British ties ten years earlier directly connected to the colonized state of had born fruit as British-US collaboration their home countries. The Gadar movement and intensified up to 1914. With the onset of World its many allies faced terrible consequences, yet War I hundreds of Indian expatriates had they exerted a profound influence on the anti- abandoned the Pacific coast to return to India colonial movement in India. Gandhi and in response to theGadar ’s call for an Congress moved from a position advocating co- insurrection against British rule. The British operation and home rule to one of non-co-

9 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF operation and independence. And the small as Zulmi Katha – Gurdit Singh’s account of his communities of South Asians in Canada and the journey, and Gadar newspapers of the time. US, often bound by their faiths, managed to Other references include this web archive and survive despite tremendous challenges. Once the British commissioned report of the India achieved independence in 1947,Komagata Maru Committee of Inquiry (1914). immigration would re-open and eventually flourish. John Price is professor of history at the University of Victoria, Canada and author of In the aftermath of , the Canadian Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the government continued to press for closer Transpacific (UBC Press, 2011). British-US ties. Robert Borden, prime minister during the Komagata Maru affair, wrote to Satwinder Bains is the director of the Centre British prime minister Lloyd-George: “You for Indo Canadian Studies, University of the know my own conviction that there is at least Fraser Valley and is completing her PhD at possible a League of the two great English Simon Fraser University. speaking commonwealths who share common ancestry, language and literature, who are Recommended citation: John Price and inspired by like democratic ideals, who enjoy Satwinder Bains, "The Extraordinary Story of similar political institutions and whose united the Komagata Maru: Commemorating the One force is sufficient to ensure the peace of the Hundred Year Challenge to Canada’s world. It is with a view to the consummation of Immigration Colour Bar",The Asia-Pacific so great a purpose that I should be content, Journal, Vol. 11, Issue 29, No. 1, July 21, 2014. and indeed desire, to invite and even urge the American Republic to undertake worldwide Related articles responsibilities in respect of undeveloped territories and backward races similar to, if not •John Price, Racism, Canadian War Crimes, commensurate with, those which have been and the Korean War: Shin Hyun-Chan’s assumed by or imposed upon our ownQuest for Justice Empire.”22 Despite British and American hesitations, the US did take on a greater role •Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Guarding the Borders and, as a number of scholars have argued, the of Japan: Occupation, Korean War and echoes of the Anglo-American racial empires Frontier Controls continue to resonate to this day.23 •Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Migrants, Subjects, References and Further Reading Citizens: Comparative Perspectives on Nationality in the Prewar Japanese Empire This account draws heavily on the ground- breaking work of Hugh Johnston, The Voyage of •Stephanie Bangarth, Nikkei Loyalty and the Komagata Maru (re-published by UBC Resistance in Canada and the United Press, 2014) and Ali Kazimi’s bookStates, 1942-1947 Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru (Vancouver, Douglas & Mcintyre, 2012) a •Simon Nantai, When the Geta is on the companion volume to his award-winning film, Other Foot: Xenophobia in the Canadian Continuous Journey. It also draws onImmigration Policy Towards Japan, independent research in archival sources 1907-1908 including the British Library and the National Archives in London and works in Punjabi such Notes

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1 . General references used in the writing of 9 . R.O. Montgomery to H.F. Bishop, this essay are appended at the end. Postmaster, Victoria, 23 July, 1915 (British Library, L/PJ/6/1395/3292). 2 . On this topic see Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing the Global Colour Line: 10 . F.G.A. Butler to Lord Stamfordham, 12 June, White Men’s Countries and the Question of 1914 (British National Archives, CO 42/979). Racial Equality (Cambridge, Cambridge 11 University Press, 2008) and Jeremy Martins, “A . Governor General to Secretary of State for Transnational History of the Colonies, 10 June, 1914 (British Naitonal Archives, CO 42/979). Immigration Restriction: Natal and New South 12 Wales, 1896–97,” in The Journal of Imperial and . Stamfordham to Butler, 14 June, 1914 (BNA, Commonwealth History, 34, 3 (September CO 42/979). 2006), 323-344. 13 . William Hopkinson brought stenographers 3 . See Erika Lee, “Hemispheric Orientalism to these meetings and so we have a verbatim and the 1907 Pacific Coast Race Riots,” transcript of the June 21 meeting. See “Minutes Amerasia Journal 33:2 (2007), 19-47 and John of a Hindu Mass Meeting,” (BNA, CO 42/980), Price, “’Orienting’ the Empire: Mackenzie King 1-13 as well of a meeting the two days later, and the Aftermath of the 1907 Race Riots,” B.C. see “Minutes of a Public Meeting” (BNA, CO Studies, 156 (Winter 2007/08), 53-81. 42/980), 1-23.

14 4 . Taraknath Das to Rahim, nd (British Library, . Criminal Investigation Office, “Indian L/PJ/6/1341/5372 1914). Agitation in America,” 17 December 1912,

British Library, L/P&J/12/1), 7 15 . Re The Immigration Act and Munshi Singh,

5 British Columbia Court of Appeal . J.A. Cote to the Governor General’s Secretary, 8 August 1913 (British Library, 20 B.C.R. 243, 29 W.L.R. 45. L/P&J/ 12/1), 1. 16 6 . Hugh Johnston,The Voyage of the . Handwritten note, O.H. Dumbell to Under- Komagata Maru, 142-143. Secretary of State, 9 May 1913 and approved on 13 May 1913 despite Viceroy of India’s 17 . A number of murders occurred in the South objections. Lala Har Dayal was arrested in the Asian community in Vancouver in the aftermath spring of 1914 and fled the US. including the murder of the agent William Hopkinson by Mewa Singh who was 7 . Seema Sohi, “Race, Surveillance, and Indian subsequently tried and executed. He remains a Anticolonialism in the Transnational Western martyr for many in the South Asian US-Canadian Borderlands,”Journal of communities. American History, 98 No. 2 (September 2011), 430-431. 18 . Reg Whitaker, Gregory S. Kealey, Andrew Parnaby, Secret Service: Political Policing in 8 . On Ghadar see Maia Ramnath, Haj to Utopia Canada from the Fenians to Fortress America (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2011) (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2012), and Hugh J.M. Johnston, “The Komagata Maru 55. and the Ghadr Party,”B.C. Studies, 178 (Summer 2013), 9-31. 19. Japanese authorities, in intercepting large

11 11 | 29 | 1 APJ | JF volumes of mail to and from Indians, “have particularly in regard to indigeneity see Renisa acted illegally and are naturally anxious that Mawani, “Specters of Indigeneity in British- the fact should not become known.” W. Indian Migration, 1914,”Law and Society Conyngham Greene to British Ambassador, Review, 46, 2 (2012), 369-403.

Washington and to A.J. Balfour, 16 April 1917 22 . Prime Minister to Prime Minister of United (British Library, L/PJ/6/1559/5784 1918). Kingdom, November 23, 1918 (Documents on

20 Canadian External Relations, Vol. 2, The Paris . On the conspiracy trials see Maia Ramnath, Peace Conference of 1919), p. 3. Haj to Utopia, Chapter 3. 23 . Marilyn Lake and Henry Reynolds, Drawing 21 . On the limits of this anti-imperialism the Global Colour Line, Introduction.

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