Political Apology - Komagata Maru

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LovelyLadyLux
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Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Today in Parliament our new Prime Minister (who is rapidly falling out of favour) is going to formally apologize for a matter that happened in 1914 whereby a boatload (376 persons) of Sikhs and persons from south Asia arrived on our shores and were refused entry by the British officials in charge. The officials wanted to determine if each person on board had the equivalent of $200 which was the amount deemed necessary to support oneself. The ship was not allowed to dock and was held in the harbor for 2 months and finally it re-crossed the Pacific and was forced back to Calcutta with a Sikh manifest where it was met with anger and violence. 19 killed, many jailed and many of the passengers went into hiding.

Name of the ship was the Komagata Maru.

Seems at the time there was substantial anti Asian sentiment and during that time people coming from Britain were definitely favoured.

Apparently this incident has been a black spot on our history and has festered within our East Indian communities so today our Prime Minister is going to issue an apology.

Now please tell me are any of you aware of any insults any of your distant relatives 100 years ago suffered that would result in an apology 100 years later?

I think all of these centuries old after the fact apologies are ridiculous! Am not saying that lots of terrible things didn't happen way back when but times and values were so different back then. I don't see how an apology from somebody now holds water. Shouldn't we all be getting over the past and moving forward vs holding any festering incident you can think of? I also want to know IF we didn't allow anybody off this ship then WHO is insulted by it? Who are all these people who are upset? Surely nobody ON this ship is alive today so WHO are we apologizing to?


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Re: Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by Grandad »

It is not uncommon for apologies to be expressed for events that happened long ago LLL. We have had many similar examples.
I believe the aim is to bring closure and to end a long standing resentment of some act which, as you say, occurred in different times and those involved are long dead.
I do believe that there is a risk in such apologies being interpreted as admissions of guilt and as a result claims for compensation for those affected may well follow. In particular I could see that being the case for descendants of the 19 who were killed and those who were jailed on return to India.
Only time will tell if an apology is accepted as closure or if it opens up the whole story again.....
:gg:
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Re: Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Just amazes me always as to how many people SEE themselves as victims. The 19 were killed in India so why are they not angry with and demanding an apology from India? Same with the ones that were prisoned and who went into hiding.

I guess these passengers were British citizens and so should have been able to land - but - did they do all the proper prep to insure this before arriving?

Not trying to be argumentative but it just seems that in todays world 'we' (and I'm meaning white people) are being called upon to apologize to everybody for everything. How much anger do Black people in the USA direct towards other Black or Arab people in Africa who actually captured them and sold them into slavery? IMO it is negligible yet they direct anger towards 'us' now.........go figure.
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Re: Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by Grandad »

LovelyLadyLux wrote:Not trying to be argumentative.
Oh come on LLL, let's have a good argument, it's too quiet round here :lol: :lol: :lol:

I think the case would be that if they had been allowed to land in Canada then there would have been no reprisals because they would not have returned to India. I don't know any of the facts of this case but I understood you to say they were 'Sikhs and persons from south Asia'. In your last post you say they were British citizens???? Who were they exactly???
:gg:
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Re: Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

At the time of this incident Canada and particularly Canadian Immigration was still under the auspice of Great Britain. I said this morning they were British citizens because that is what I heard on the news. On researching it a bit more as to why the TV News would say that I came across this:

The passengers consisted of 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus, all British subjects. One of the Sikh passengers, Jagat Singh Thind, was the youngest brother of Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian-American Sikh writer and lecturer on "spiritual science" who was involved in an important legal battle over the rights of Indians to obtain U.S. citizenship (United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind)[4] both born in village Taragarh Talawa.

Indian nationals had engaged in terrorism, assassinating Viceroy Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo and William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, wounding Lord Hardinge, gun running with ships off Gray's Harbour and Singapore, as well as breaking immigration laws. The Government of Britain, which held the Canada Immigration portfolio at the time, was worried about Indian nationals spreading rebellion on the eve of the First World War. See Ghadar conspiracy, Annie Larsen arms plot, and Christmas Day Plot.


I repeated what I heard BUT I think now it should have been said they were "British Subjects" vs citizens.

The ship was never allowed to dock and nobody was allowed off the ship. From my own High School days I do recall in passing hearing of the word - "Komagata Maru" but so many years and with no interest on my part I doubt I could have even given a reasonable explanation of it. NOW I'm only reacting to our Prime Minister giving an apology to another group from a Century ago who seems to think they're still aggrieved today.
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Re: Political Apology - Komagata Maru

Post by Grandad »

Some incidents are never allowed to rest LLL, even though they occurred at a different time with different conditions at that time.

A 10 part series on UK TV that has just finished, called Indian Summers (I know RS was an avid follower ;) ), was set in the early thirties in Simla the summer retreat for the British Government representatives. Although basically fictional it did contain factual themes including terrorism against the British occupation of India. So although later than your incident it had interesting parallels.
:gg:
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