The Komagata Maru at Vancouver
The Komagata Maru, chartered by Baba Gurdit Singh to test Canada's exclusion of Indians, reaches Vancouver with 376 passengers. Nearly all are refused entry, and the ship is forced to leave after two months.
Canadian rules of 1908 barred anyone who did not arrive by continuous journey from their home country, and required Asian arrivals to carry 200 dollars. They were written to keep out Indians without saying so. Baba Gurdit Singh, a Sikh businessman based in Malaya and Singapore, chartered the Japanese ship in Hong Kong to challenge them. The passengers called it Guru Nanak Jahaz. It sailed on 4 April 1914.
At Vancouver only about twenty returning residents and a few special cases were allowed ashore. The rest stayed confined on board while Sikhs in Canada raised money for the charter and took the case to court. A full bench of the court declined to interfere with the immigration department.
The passengers took control of the ship from its Japanese crew and refused to leave, and a Canadian warship was brought in against them. The ship left on 23 July 1914 with 355 passengers aboard. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologised for Canada in the Commons on 18 May 2016.[EoS][EoS][EoS][Src]
Dates in the sources
- 1914-05-23: Accounts differ on who was aboard. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says all but 30 of the 376 were Sikhs. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives at least 337 Sikhs, about 27 Muslims and about 12 Hindus, and notes that the passenger lists do not allow a precise count. The number allowed to land is given as 22 by the first and as 20 returning residents and a few special cases by the second.[EoS][EoS]