Remembering Baba Gurdit Singh

Ninety-four years ago yesterday, the Komagata Maru ship was turned away from the Vancouver coastline in 1914. The ship was charted by Baba Gurdit Singh, who was accused of violating the discriminatory continuous journey law that was aimed at keeping Indian immigrants out of Canada.

Gurdit Singh charted the Japanese vessel with 376 passengers aboard that remained stranded for two months at sea after its arrival in May. Though the B.C. government has apologized for that episode, Gurdit Singh is still looked upon with suspicion.

A few commentators and writers have described him as somebody involved in human smuggling. His act is still considered by many as unlawful. The people who question Gurdit Singh’s role and challenge his integrity should also examine the intentions of the then Canadian establishment.

They should find the real reasons behind the continuous journey law. Wasn’t that law racist? Wasn’t it aimed at keeping Canada white? Wasn’t it discriminatory against a particular ethnic group?

In that context, we should remember that certain laws did not allow women to vote in Canada. Women were not even considered persons in the past. Can those who challenged these types of blatant discrimination really be called criminals?

There were segregation laws in the U.S. that kept the blacks and the whites apart. Rosa Parks challenged one such law by refusing to vacate a seat on the bus for a white passenger. She was arrested for doing so.

Her action galvanized the civil rights movement that brought an end to America’s segregation laws. Will history recognize her as criminal?

Gurdit Singh’s act may be criminal for some people, but the Canadian establishment was the biggest criminal for enacting laws that were shamefully unfair to people of colour. Rather, this episode transformed Gurdit Singh and the other ship passengers into rebels against the British government that ruled India.

Most passengers of the Komagata Maru came to Vancouver for economical reasons; they were, in fact, the first ecomonic refugees.

Since Canada was a dominion state of the British Empire, they came to Canada as British subjects with the hope of being accepted.

As they returned, the British Police forcibly tried to send them to their home province of Punjab. This resulted in a shootout that claimed several lives, forcing Gurdit Singh to disappear and remained underground for some time. Like Rosa Parks, Gurdit Singh will always be respected by people who really care for social justice.