A timely and superbly illustrated account of the explosive
event that challenged Canada''s racist immigration policy
In May 1914, the Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376
immigrants from British India, was turned away when it tried to
land in Vancouver Harbour. Many of the men on board, veterans of
the British Indian Army, believed it was their right to settle
anywhere in the empire they had fought to defend. Enforcing the
"continuous journey" regulation, immigration boats surrounded the
ship a half-mile offshore, making the passengers virtual
prisoners.
Thus began a dramatic standoff that would escalate over the next
two months, becoming one of the most infamous events in Canadian
history. Weaving text together with rarely seen photographs and key
documents, award-winning filmmaker Ali Kazimi
explores what the current federal government has acknowledged as a
"dark chapter" in Canada''s past.
Throughout, he seeks answers to the incident''s most provocative
questions: Why would Canada turn away these South Asian migrants
when it had accepted more than 400,000 immigrants the previous
year? Why were some of the passengers killed upon their forced
return to India? How did this ship pose a threat to the mightiest
empire the world had ever known? By setting the story in a global
context and against the early histories of Chinese, Japanese and
African-American immigrants to Canada, Kazimi shows that the
Komagata Maru "incident" was far from incidental. Today,
with Canada''s immigration and refugee framework under intense
scrutiny, the story of the Komagata Maru is all the more
relevant.
