Clash at Budge Budge
The Komagata Maru reaches Budge Budge near Calcutta. Passengers who refuse a special train to the Punjab clash with police and troops, and about twenty of them are killed.
On the way back, Hong Kong and Singapore refused to let passengers ashore, and some left the ship in Japan. The authorities in India now treated them as rebels. The ship was searched at Budge Budge on 29 September 1914, and no arms were found.
A train stood ready to take them to the Punjab. Most of the Sikhs refused it and set out towards Calcutta in procession with Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji at their head. Troops and police turned them back to the station, and fighting broke out there. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says it began when European sergeants interrupted the evening prayer.
Baba Gurdit Singh escaped and stayed in hiding for seven years. Most of the others were caught, and more than 200 were interned in the Punjab under the Ingress Ordinance. The Canadian Encyclopedia sees the affair as one factor in turning Indian opinion against British rule.[EoS][EoS][EoS]
Dates in the sources
- 1914-09-29: The date is agreed, but the number of dead is not. The Encyclopaedia's Komagata Maru entry gives nineteen Sikhs, two European officers and two Punjab policemen. Its entry on Baba Gurdit Singh gives eighteen Sikhs killed and twenty-five wounded. The Canadian Encyclopedia says 20 passengers were killed.[EoS][EoS][EoS]