Unmooring the Komagata Maru: Charting Colonial Trajectories

353 Pages·2019·2.082 MB·English

by  Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani, Satwinder Kaur Bains

Unmooring the
Komagata Maru

Unmooring
the
Komagata Maru
Charting Colonial Trajectories
Edited by
Rita Kaur Dhamoon,
Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani,
and Satwinder Kaur Bains
© UBC Press 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior written
permission of the publisher.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Title: Unmooring the Komagata Maru : charting colonial trajectories / edited by
Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Davina Bhandar, Renisa Mawani, and Satwinder Kaur Bains.
Names: Dhamoon, Rita, editor. | Bhandar, Davina, editor. | Mawani, Renisa,
editor. | Bains, Satwinder Kaur, editor.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190135131 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190135239 |
ISBN 9780774860659 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780774860673 (PDF) |
ISBN 9780774860680 (EPUB) | ISBN 9780774860697 (Kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Komagatamaru (Ship) – History. | LCSH: East Indians – British
Columbia – Vancouver – History – 20th century. | LCSH: Imperialism – Social
aspects – Canada – History – 20th century. | LCSH: Canada – Ethnic relations –
History – 20th century.
Classification:
LCC FC3847.9.E2 U56 2019 | DDC 325/.25407109041 – dc23
UBC Press gratefully acknowledges the financial support for our publishing
program of the Government of Canada (through the Canada Book Fund), the
Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to
Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Set in Galliard and New Baskerville by Artegraphica Design Co. Ltd.
Copy editor: Dallas Harrison
Proofreader: Judith Earnshaw
Indexer: Margaret de Boer
Cover designer: George Kirkpatrick
Cartographer: Eric Leinberger
UBC Press
The University of British Columbia
2029 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
www.ubcpress.ca
Contents
List of Illustrations /viii
Acknowledgments /ix
Chronology of Events /xi
Map: Route of the SS Komagata Maru /xx
Introduction: Unmooring the Komagata Maru / 3
Davina Bhandar and Rita Kaur Dhamoon
Part 1: The Politics of Anticolonial Resistance in the Journey
of the Komagata Maru
1 Right to the Empire? British Imperial Citizenship before the First
World War / 35
Ian Christopher Fletcher
2 The Last Stretch of the Journey: The Komagata Maru, Wartime Political
Radicalism, and Migrant Workers from Punjab in Calcutta / 56
Suchetana Chattopadhyay
3 The Resistance of Indian Migrants: Facing Lies, Deception,
and Racism / 76
Satwinder Kaur Bains
vi Contents
Part 2: Migration Regimes in Colonial Contexts
4 The Komagata Maru as Event: Legal Transformations in Migration
Regimes / 95
Radhika Mongia
5 Borders, Boats, and Brown Bodies: Reading Tamil “Irregular Arrivals”
through the History of the Komagata Maru / 121
Nadia Hasan, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Omme-Salma Rahemtullah,
Nayani Thiyagarajah, and Nishant Upadhyay
6 Temporary Arrivals: The Komagata Maru Passengers and Migrant
Labour / 141
Davina Bhandar
Part 3: Colonial Temporalities of Memory and Cultural Production
7 The Komagata Maru Incident as Described in Two Japanese Works / 163
Kaori Mizukami
8 (Mis)Representing the Komagata Maru in Indian Print Cultures / 179
Irina Spector-Marks
9 The Time and Sound of the Nautical Border / 197
Ayesha Hameed
Part 4: Disrupting Colonial Formations of Nation
10 When Home and Harem Collide: The “Hindu Women’s Question”:
A Mass Spectacle of the Canadian Nation, Family, and Modernity / 215
Enakshi Dua
11 The Komagata Maru Recontextualized: Memory, History, and
Diasporic Sikh Subnationalism in Anita Rau Badami’s Can You Hear
the Nightbird Call? / 244
Rajender Kaur
Contents vii
12 Past Wrongs and a New National Imaginary: Remembering the
Komagata Maru Incident / 265
Alia Somani
13 The Politics of Empire: Minor History on a Global Scale / 280
Renisa Mawani
14 Poems: Still Chanting Denied Shores / 290
Tariq Malik
Appendix 1: Historical Figures Cited in the Chapters / 297
Appendix 2: BC Government Apology, May 23, 2008 / 309
Appendix 3: Canadian Government Apology, May 18, 2016 / 310
Contributors / 314
Index / 318
Illustrations
Map
Route of the SS Komagata Maru / xx
Figures
7.1 The ship’s owner Yokichi Shiozaki, the captain Tokujirō
Yamamoto, the chief engineer Masayoshi Kajiyama, and
Gurdit Singh / 164
9.1 Still from Continuous Journey / 198
9.2 Still from Yellow Limbo / 208
9.3 Still from From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf / 210
12.1 The passengers arriving in Vancouver / 273
12.2 A woman and her child aboard the Komagata Maru / 275
viii
Acknowledgments
This book was born from the journeys of past sojourners, close and
distant kin, and family connections. We hope that this book honours those
who have come before us and those who are forging radical practices of
unmooring contemporary imperialism.
We appreciate the insights of the contributors to this volume – you came
from near and far for the workshop in Victoria, British Columbia, from
which this edited book emerged, and we are grateful. We are also grateful
for your ongoing patience as this volume followed its path to publication.
Our collective thanks go to those who helped us to arrange the work-
shop. They include our organized research assistant Thomas Lattimer,
the wonderful Anne MacLaurin (communications officer in the Faculty
of Social Sciences at the University of Victoria), Grace Wong-Sneddon
(at the University of Victoria at the time), and Kim Gough at the Royal
Brit ish Columbia Museum. We have special appreciation of the staff in
the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria, espe-
cially Joy Austin, Rosemary Barlow, and Tamaya Moreton – thank you
for calming things down at various points of organizational crisis! On
the days of the workshop, a number of people shared their time and
knowledge, including Cheryl Bryce, from the Songhees community, who
facilitated a colonial realities tour of Victoria; Elder Butch Dick, who
opened the event; Roshni Narain for her ever-generous care and kind-
ness; and those who chaired the panels: Nilufer E. Bharucha (English,
University of Mumbai), Paul Bramadat (Director, Centre for Studies
in Religion and Society, University of Victoria), Matt James (Political
ix