Bill's Books

During and after reading Dr. Hugh J.M. Johnston's The Voyage of the Komagata Maru (2014) it struck me as odd the scant references he made to the world being on the brink of war in the summer of 1914. Perhaps it's simply my own lack of cognitive reading skills that these references were included but were missed. Any serious writer and researcher would acknowledge that to place all the blame for what occurred to this shipload of refugees in Vancouver harbour in 1914, must be viewed and considered in the context of history. To deny the world -- and in particular Europe -- had been for years building armaments for war while 376 Southeast Asians thought it a good idea to come to Canada, is to deny Canada had every right to deny their entry..

Almost all of the 376 Komagata Maru passengers were single male temporary workers, mostly illiterate farmers from India. Almost all were Sikhs, but there were a few Muslims and Hindus. Most had mortgaged their land to pay for their trip. Like many of the Chinese and Japanese, their primary reason for coming to Canada was to make money and then leave. According to Johnston, the wages they could earn here were between 10 and 15-times what they could make in India. Some other sources said the figure they could earn in Canada was closer to 50-times as much.

 A prior comment seems to have covered the inconsistencies in reporting the true facts regarding the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program as not being denigrated for racist reasons, let me comment on the Komagata Maru issues. In my opinion were the Komagata to arrive in Canada today its passengers would probably be treated at best as illegal immigrants and at worst terrorists.

The Southeast Asian community in North America was itself in political, racial and ethnic turmoil here in the early 1900s. Cross-border arms' smuggling and conspiracies between British Columbian and Californian and Oregonian cells were constantly meeting to update their strategies to circumvent Canadian immigration authorities and allegedly to coordinate attacks on rival factions within the Indian/Asian community.  

So hostile was the ethnic environment here in Victoria and Vancouver that several terrorist attacks were perpetrated which included murders and fire-bombings of Punjabi newspapers, many high-profile members of the Indian community fled British Columbia to Ontario to avoid being beaten or murdered.  

Into this malaise sailed the Komagata Maru. Suffice it to say the conditions within the Indian community here and in India, were not as sanguine as some would lead us to believe. The turmoil within the Indian community here in British Columbia during this time is well documented in books and on the internet for any interested researcher.

 Here are some relevant dates not emphasized in Johnston's book:
1.) Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28,1914 in Sarajevo.
2.) The Komagata Maru left Vancouver Harbour on July 23, 1914, escorted by the Rainbow, a Canadian warship.
3.) On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.
4.) Britain (and thus, Canada) entered the First World War, August 4, 1914.

 Before leaving this issue until next year when the 101st Anniversary will be commemorated, permit me to remind readers the history surrounding William Charles Hopkinson (1880–1914 (aged 33–34) who was an Indian Police officer and later an immigration inspector in the Canadian Immigration Branch in Vancouver, B.C., who is noted for his role in infiltration and intelligence on the Ghadarite movement in North America in the early 1900s.

 On Aug. 31, 1914, one of Hopkinson's informants, Harnam Singh, was found murdered in Vancouver. On Sept. 3, 1914, another informant, Arjan Singh was shot dead in Vancouver. On Sept. 5, 1914, another informant, Bela Singh, was arrested and subsequently charged with murder for killing two local Ghaderites, in what he claimed was self-defense.

 On Oct. 21, 1914, Hopkinson attended the provincial courthouse on West Georgia Street in Vancouver. He was there to testify at Bela Singh's murder trial, where he was expected to give evidence concerning threats made against Bela Singh, including death threats made by one of the victims. While waiting outside a courtroom, Hopkinson was assassinated by Mewa Singh.

To this day, Mewa Singh, is allegedly feted on some Komagata Maru websites as being some kind of martyr or hero. I've seen no written apologies for the murder of this Canadian Public Servant nor any to his wife, Nellie, and two daughters, Jean and Constance from the Punjabi or South Asian Community in British Columbia. According to Professor Hugh Johnston, up until 1980, when his first-edition book was published, Mewa Singh’s death was still commemorated in gurdwaras in Canada and the U.S. and his picture still hangs in the Vancouver Sikh temple.

The website: komagatamarujourney.ca, is funded in part by Canadian taxpayers through the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada under the auspices of the Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP). The Komagata Maru: Continuing the Journey website was created by Simon Fraser University Library. In part its page reads: "Mewa Singh [Lopoke] also said that he did not expect justice and then went on to declare 'I know I have shot Hopkinson and will have to die.' He meant that his action was a righteous action, even if his judge and jurors did not recognize it as such."

 This pretty much summarizes where the current thought of the East-Indian community is in British Columbia as we move from the twentieth century to the twenty-first century: They are totally agreed that to murder someone who upholds the law-of-the-land and does his job for the benefit of all Canadians is "a righteous action". Perhaps another example of skewed thinking along the lines of their "honour killings." People who think this way should stay in the land where all their peers think this way. If there is such a place -- it's doubtful.

 In Canada, you murder someone you DO get justice. In the case of Mewa Singh it was to be hanged by the neck until he was dead.

 It seems we are dealing with a double-edge sword regarding discussions surrounding the 1914 Komagata Maru incident in Vancouver, BC. Regrettably, only one side appears to be heard each year as the anniversary of these events roles around.

Labels: komogata