White Rock council has decided to create an interpretive history panel, for installation on the waterfront, in memory of the Komagata Maru incident of 1914.
At its April 29 meeting, council voted in favour of recommendations from staff and the public art and culture advisory committee that suggested that an interpretive sign would be the best way for the city to acknowledge the historic injustice.
“The City of White Rock has a direct connection to the Komagata Maru incident,” said Raj Singh Toor, now a city resident, who said he was “very happy” at the decision, which followed his October appeal to council for some local recognition of the incident.
Actual installation of the signage will have to wait until 2025, however, following completion of a staff-recommended heritage interpretive signage plan to cover all similar requests.
In the 1914 incident, a group of 376 immigrants from then ‘British India’ — passengers on the SS Komagata Maru, which had arrived in Vancouver from Hong Kong — were denied entrance to Canada as a result of racist policies then prevalent at all levels of government. Ultimately only 27 were allowed to stay.
After two months of being held at the port — without adequate food or medical attention — the ship and its passengers were ordered to sail to India. When it arrived, in Budge Budge, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Imperial Indian Police of the British Raj attempted to arrest leaders of the group, believing them to be dangerous political agitators.
A riot ensued in which the police fired on passengers, and some 16 were killed, and 200 more imprisoned.
Toor — whose grandfather, Baba Puran Singh Janetpura, was one of the Komagata Maru passengers who survived — is vice-president and spokesperson of the non-profit Descendants of the Komegata Maru society.
Lobbying by himself and others over some two decades has resulted in official apologies for the incident in the House of Commons and the B.C. legislature — as well as initiating commemorative street namings and other memorials in Vancouver, New Westminster, Port Moody, Surrey, Delta and Abbotsford.
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In a letter to Peace Arch News on April 29, he pointed out that the South Asian community was very important in the development of modern-day White Rock, and fellow Sikhs were in the majority of the passengers on board the Komagata Maru.
“The Sikhs were some of the early pioneers of White Rock making important contributions to the labour pool for the lumber mills — the Fox and Hunter Sawmill in White Rock, The White Rock Tie and Lumber Mill, the Campbell River Sawmill, the Melrose Sawmill, Crescent Oyster Company and industries of the area,” he said.
At a time when the B.C. legislature and city councils in Vancouver and New Westminster were passing resolutions against South Asians, support of the passengers of the Komagata Maru was a very pressing concern for all Sikhs in B.C. during the summer of 1914.
“Some … lived in White Rock during (that time) as well — and they generously responded with donations of food, water, money and medicine and also contributed to try to lease the ship in an attempt to keep it from being sent back.”
As a result of being denied access to Canada, and in the wake of the Calcutta shootings, Komagata Maru passengers became highly politicized, Toor said.
“Most of the passengers, including my grandfather, joined the freedom movement — the Komagata Maru incident was a very important event leading up to India’s independence in 1947,” he added.
“In 1962, my grandfather was recognized by the Punjab, India government for his services and for his active role in the Indian freedom movement.
“In 1968, my uncle sponsored (him) to come to Canada. However, my grandfather refused, saying that he had a painful, bitter memory of Canada.
“He said that he would not go there, but the South Asian community would go there and would be very successful and live happily and peacefully there,” Toor recalled.
“His words came true.”