Film/Stage
The Komagata Maru Sails Again
by VARINDER SINGH
Families of the passengers of the "Komagata Maru", a Japanese liner which set sail from Hong Kong to Vancouver in 1914, carrying 376 freedom fighters from Punjab, are recalling whatever they can about their forefathers and their chivalrous act, which was treated as a mutiny by the British empire.
Aides of internationally-acclaimed film director Deepa Mehta, who is making the much-publicised "Exclusion", a Hindi film on the shocking "Komagata Maru" incident, are in the process of documenting the recollections of the fourth-generation descendants of the passengers from this ship's ill-fated voyage.
These families of the original list of passengers, including Bhai Arjun Singh, a Budge-Budge Ghat martyr, are settled in Dhadde, Khurdpur, Kotli Than Singh, Jamsher, Wirring and Haripur villages in Jalandhar and Amritsar, and in Taran Tarn and Sarhali village of the Majha region.
Mehta's representatives are visiting these villages to collect information pertaining to the passengers of the ship and those who subsequently suffered martyrdom at Budge-Budge.
Amitabh Bachchan is said to have been selected to play the lead role of Baba Gurdit Singh, a well-to-do Singapore-based businessman, originally hailing from Sarhali in Amritsar, who had chartered the liner in 1914 to beat the exclusion laws being imposed by then Canadian authorities on Asians to prevent their immigration to that country.
"Exclusion" will depict the "Komagata Maru" incident, wherein the Canadian authorities forced the ship to turn around off the shores of Vancouver and set sail back to India, even though it had reached and docked in the Canadian city. Apart from Bhai Gurdit Singh, revolutionaries like Bhagwan Singh, Barkatullah and Balwant Singh were also prominent passengers of the vessel, which had to return to India after it reached Burrard Inlet, near Vancouver.
The passengers wanted to stay in Calcutta, but when they were forced to reboard the ship at Budge-Budge, they protested and even refused to get back on. The police opened fire, killing twenty passengers and injuring nine.
"Deepa Mehta's representatives, Kabir Singh and Ashu Chaudhary, had come to us and they were guided to the villages of the orginal ‘Komagata Maru' passengers", said Gurmit Singh and Charanjit Lal, secretary of the Jalandhar-based Desh Bhagat Yaadgar Hall Committee and a research scholar at the hall, respectively.
John Abraham, Manisha Koirala, Seema Biswas and Mahima Chaudhary are reported to be featured in Mehta's film, which will have music by A.R. Rahman.
[Courtesy: The Tribune]
[Photos - all images are taken from historical photos of the "Komagata Maru", its passengers, and its leader, Baba Gurdit Singh, seen here with his son, who accompanied him on the voyage.]
Conversation about this article
1: Harinder (Pune), July 23, 2007, 7:55 AM.
At last, one hopes, these unsung heroes will get the recognition they deserve ... something that has eluded them even in India.
2: Maninder Singh (New Delhi, India), July 29, 2007, 3:45 AM.
Wow! I'm excited about this one! I hope there won't be any controversy around this flick.
3: Harpreet Singh Hunjan (Vancouver, B.C., Canada), August 04, 2007, 12:16 PM.
Well ... making a movie on this subject is a great idea. Sikhs and non-Sikhs would benefit from learning more about this seminal incident in Canadian history, and the role Sikhs have played in the building of this nation for well over a century now.
4: Sumit (Toronto, Canada), September 07, 2007, 10:34 AM.
I give full credit to Canadian filmmaker Ali Kazimi, who actually took the initiative to bring out such a fascinating but hitherto buried topic into the open, with his wonderful documentary, "The Continous Journey". As for Mehta's project - it's an amazing idea ! Good luck.
5: Arsh (Taran Taran, Sarhali Kalan, Punjab), April 15, 2010, 10:21 AM.
Aapaan taan mil ke Baba ji de naa te ik Sports Club benaa ditta hai, taan ki pind de is mahaan purakh baare vudd to vudd lok jaan sakan.
6: Jasvir Gill (San Diego, California, U. S.A.), September 17, 2011, 11:12 AM.
My great grandpa - well, my grandpa's brother, so I guess my great uncle - was one of the 300 or so Sikh passengers on the Komagata Maru. He was one of the people who escaped the battle in Budge Budge and was in hiding his whole life. He died, having never married.
7: Parm Gill (Canada), May 06, 2014, 12:54 PM.
My grandfather, Sardar Bagga Singh of District Ferozepur, Village Dhudike, in Punjab, was on the ship. When he returned to India he was beaten by the British authorites so badly that his legs were swollen for a month afterwards. My father, now 85, still recalls how his father refused the Indian government's freedom fighter pension because he said what he endured could not have a price - qurbani vechnaa nahee! I think this is important to remember.
8: Rajmani (New Delhi, India), October 06, 2014, 3:34 AM.
A lot of original material relating to the Komagata Maru tragedy is available in the National Archives of India, Janpath, New Delhi. The contemporary official (British) material is bound to throw some more light on the incident.