RAGHAVENDRA Rao is an award-winning visual artist based in Bangalore and Vancouver. Over the past 20 years, his works have been exhibited around the world including India, Sweden, Scotland and Canada. A talented musician, singer and scholar, Raghavendra Rao is a featured artist in Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru

When did you first learn about the Komagata Maru?

I first learned about the Komagata Maru In 2012, from Dr. Anne Murphy (who also happens to be my wife) while she was working on events related to the centenary commemoration of the founding of the Gadar Party.

Later I watched ‘Continuous Journey’ by Ali Kazimi as part of that program and listened to scholars and others eloquently talk about it.

Tell us about your pieces in the Ruptures in Arrival exhibition? What inspired you about the story?

I wanted to do some work on the Komagata Maru incident after I attended the events on the Gadar Party… and talking with a number of people including Anne. However, I didn’t know what it would be… I had plans to make three-dimensional interactive pieces as well. But, as I looked at the archival pictures of the people on board the ship, I felt like making portraits of them. I looked for photographs of people around that time in the archives online and found many photographs of South Asian men doing different kinds of manual labour. I decided at that point to make portraits of these in a style that would resemble aristocrats / kings – centrally placed, and almost regal. But, in this case, with my work, you would see a patch of red around them which could connote violence and betrayal.

To me, the most poignant experience was while I was working on the paintings, looking at the archival pictures for so long… it made me feel as though I know these people. It is like some kind of connection that got created during the process.

Tell us about the Visions of the Living Past: Visions of the Komagata Maru exhibit in Bangalore?

It was received really well, as artworks and of course the subject matter moved everyone who visited the show. Each and every person asked ‘How come we do not know of this really important part of our history?’ It was interesting for me as I am not a Punjabi and most of the viewers were not Punjabis but they all said ‘our history’. It is significant to notice that it is not just a ‘Punjabi-Canadian’ story but a vital part of Indian history too… South Asian history too.

How do the themes of your work soon to be on display at the Surrey Art Gallery connect to larger themes in your practice?

Through the international residency programs and workshops I have taken part in, I have interacted with artists from different parts of the world and I understand how processes of making art are influenced by political and social contexts. These interactions have helped me in situating my own, as I call it, “context specific” work. When I began the transition of moving to Vancouver, I started understanding this new ‘context’ slowly. ‘The Imaginary Landscape of the Komagata Maru: Visions of the Living Past’ has emerged from my Canadian experience in the last year and a half. Through this, I reflect on and imagine the experience of early South Asian settlers to Canada at the beginning of the twentieth century. And it helps me to understand my own experience in a fuller way.

Why is the Komagata Maru narrative important today?

It is as important a past for white Canadians as it is for South Asian Canadians, or Chinese Canadians or members of the First Nations. And it is also true that there are ramifications of it today and we also find parallels today, in immigration policy today. It is a story of discrimination that happens even today all over the world in the name of different communities – not just racially defined ones. So, this story speaks to all of us, and tells us about the present as well as the past. We need to listen to it, to understand ourselves and our world, and particularly if we want to change that world for the better.

Raghavendra Rao’s work will be on display until June 15 at the Surrey Art Gallery’s exhibit Ruptures in Arrival: Art in the Wake of the Komagata Maru.

SPECIAL BY NAVEEN GIRN
Naveen Girn is the Project Manager for “Komagata Maru 1914-2014: Generations, Geographies and Echoes” featuring a group of 8 institutions across Metro Vancouver collaboratively commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru Episode (www.komagatamaru100.com)

CBC Vancouver is launching a special series to remember the 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident with programming on CBC Television and CBC Radio One.

CBC Vancouver’s coverage of this significant event in Canadian history kicks off with a Canada-wide radio special, ‘Injustice and Darkness’ airing on CBC Radio One on May 19 at 5 p.m. This special show reflects on how different society is today with interviews with descendants, historians and people closest to the story.

From May 20 to 23, CBC’s The Early Edition, with special guest host Stephen Quinn, will air ‘A Century of Success: 100 Years since the Komagata Maru’. Local cultural success stories are highlighted, with guests including Amar Doman, the CEO of Futura Corporation; Ujjal Dosanjh, former Premier of B.C.; Raminder Dosanjh, a woman’s right activist; Karimah es Sabar, CEO and President for the Centre for Drug Research and Development; Wally Oppal, former Supreme Court Justice / former MLA; and Ninu Kang, Director of Communications and Development at Mosaic.

Also for the week of May 19, Our Vancouver on CBC Television features an interview with Ali Kazimi, a Toronto based filmmaker and author who has dedicated years of his life telling the story of the Komagata Maru.
“The centennial anniversary is the perfect time to re-open the history books and commemorate the story of the Komagata Maru. It’s a chance for us as Canadians to reflect on how far we’ve come since 1914, and how far we still need to go,” says Jason de Souza, CBC reporter for the series.

CBC Radio One’s The Early Edition airs 5:30 to 8:37 a.m. weekdays at 88.1FM and 690AM. Our Vancouver airs Saturdays at 6 a.m., Sundays and Mondays at 11am.

For more information on CBC Radio One’s The Early Edition, Our Vancouver, and CBC in British Columbia, go to www.cbc.ca/bc or follow on Twitter @CBCVancouver.

AS the 100th anniversary of the Komagata Maru tragedy approaches, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair rose in the House on Thursday and opened question period by demanding that the government apologize in the House of Commons on behalf of the Government of Canada.

Mulcair said: “Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus from India set across the Pacific looking to build a better life in Canada. After seven weeks of arduous journey, they arrived in Vancouver. After two months of near starvation in harbor, they were forced to return at gunpoint.

“When they arrived back in India, many were arrested, imprisoned, or killed. The Komagata Maru stands as a severe stain on Canada’s history. Why, 100 years later, does the Government of Canada still refuse to apologize for the Komagata Maru?

“May 23 will mark the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the Komagata Maru into Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet. Due to the discriminatory continuous journey regulation, passengers were prevented from disembarking and were denied basic necessities such as food and water.”

Mr. Mulcair’s question may be viewed at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkpFSOfYgks&feature=youtu.be

THERE was no attempt for several years to challenge the continuous journey rule put into effect after the success of the SS Monteagle case. Shipping companies like the CPR eliminated direct passages and through ticketing from India, though a handful of lucky migrants were able to obtain through ticketing. When a new Immigration Act was passed by Parliament in 1910, the government re-enacted the same continuous journey restriction and the $200 cash requirement for Asiatic migrants.

During that time the west coast of North America became a gathering place for various Indian nationalists, whose goal was Indian independence from British colonial rule. Their presence raised concern in Delhi. It also attracted a former Anglo-Indian police officer from Kolkata, William Hopkinson, who came to Vancouver in 1908. He would become a central player in the events of 1914 involving the Komagata Maru. In early 1909 he became an immigration officer. He also became a Dominion Police officer and he send regular intelligence reports to London and Delhi on the activities of Indian nationalists.

Hopkinson created a network of informants in Canada and the United States to keep tabs on the political activists. Efforts were made to discourage their activities. In early 1910 a Gujarati cotton merchant, Husain Rahim, came to Vancouver. When told of the continuous journey rule, he convinced the immigration officials to let him enter as a tourist. He stayed on. When he made himself known to officials later that year, he was ordered deported. He also attracted Hopkinson’s attention, when he was found in possession of a list of activists.

Rahim twice challenged the deportation order. In early 1911 the BC Supreme Court found that the government had no authority to order his deportation because he had changed his mind to stay in Canada. A second deportation order in late 1911 was also defeated. The court held that new rules to remove tourists who remained in Canada under the 1910 Immigration Act did not apply to Rahim as he entered prior to their coming into effect. The court also suggested that the continuous journey and $200 requirement rules were invalid. The latter comments received no public notice. It was two years before the court’s comments were given life.

In October, 1913, the SS Panama Maru docked in Victoria. Among the passengers were 56 Indian nationals, the largest number of Indian nationals attempting to enter Canada since 1908. Some were allowed to re-enter as returning residents. The rest were ordered deported under the continuous journey regulation. The group challenged the orders. On November 24, 2013, Justice Hunter ruled the restrictive orders invalid on the ground that they were not written according to the terms used in the Immigration Act, as decided in the Rahim case.

Following the victory, residents wrote to family and friends to come to Canada while the door was open. The Borden government quickly shut the door, passing new rules in early January, 1914, that complied with the court’s judgment.

However, a wealthy Sikh contractor from Malaya, Gurdit Singh Sirhali, took up the challenge of testing the restrictive rules. During spring 1914 he chartered a Japanese-owned ship, the Komagata Maru, to carry several hundred Indian passengers to Canada. The ship set sail from Hong Kong in early April, travelling to China and Japan, collecting more passengers, before making its way across the Pacific to arrive in Vancouver on May 23.

The ship remained anchored in Burrrard Inlet for almost two months; its passengers kept as virtual prisoners on the ship. Of the 375 passengers on board, about 20 were allowed off as returning residents. The rest were denied entry under the continuous journey rule, the $200 requirement rule and under a new rule passed on March 31 that prohibited the landing of skilled or unskilled labourers.

After debate and negotiation, it was agreed to have the deportation order of one passenger, Munshi Singh Gulpur, put forward as a test case. A habeas corpus application was summarily rejected in order to allow for an appeal to the BC Court of Appeal. The appeal was heard in Victoria in late June. The court rendered its judgement on July 6, upholding the deportation. The court found 1914 rules validly enacted under the Immigration Act. It upheld Parliament’s power to enact immigration rules that could prohibit British subjects, including those born in the United Kingdom, and to discriminate between different classes of subjects.

Subsequent events quickly overshadowed the Komagata Maru. Within a month Canada was at war. The continuous journey rule continued to remain in effect for more than 30 years. Limited migration from South Asia was allowed in the early 1950s. Restrictions based on nationality were eliminated in 1962. Immigration law is inherently discriminatory as it sets rules for the selection of immigrants and workers. In the next part, I will look at the events of a century ago and show what has changed and what policies have not changed.

BY WILLIAM MACINTOSH
William Macintosh started practising as an immigration lawyer in 1984. You can reach him for advice or help on any immigration or citizenship matter at 778-714-8787 or by email at [email protected]