University History Module: Literature Review on Komagata Maru Incident

This literature review examines the Komagata Maru incident of 1914, where a ship carrying immigrants from British India was denied entry to Canada. The review analyzes three sources: a journal article discussing the incident and the Canadian government's discriminatory policies, a newspaper article reflecting the biased perspective of the Canadian government, and a book offering a broader perspective on the legal and historical context of the event. The author explores the different viewpoints presented in each source, highlighting the complexities of the incident and its impact on the immigrants. The review concludes by emphasizing the historical significance of the Komagata Maru incident and its connection to issues of discrimination and imperialism.

Running head : LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature Review
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Introduction
The Komagata Maru incident was the involvement of the Japanese steamship Komagata
Maru where a group of people from the colonised British India wanted to emigrate in the
Canadian Country in the year 1914. However, this person was denied entry and was forced to
return to the city of Budge Budge in Calcutta. The British police attempted an arrest on the group
leaders and a riot has ensued, and there was a fire on the police, which resulted in the death of
the 20 Sikhs. The incident is one of the incidents in which the exclusion in Canada and the
United States of America was used in order to exclude the immigrants who were of Asian origin.
Regarding the incident the why did the Canadian government formulated the policy of
exclusion? What was the impact of this incident globally?
Discussion
Article
According to the author, the incidence of the Komagata Maru incident was neglected in 1914.
The author states that there is different incident regarding the incident and in the role, there is a
direct connection which is taken by the Indian passengers who was to take Vancouver against the
discriminatory law of Canada (Almy, 2018). With the legal loss of the passage, the author claims
that the passenger suffered this tragic issue. With the legal loss with the passengers, there was
suffering all over, and the incidence was just tragic. The author in the article has highlighted that
this was the clash between the British imperialist and legal system. In a contrasting viewpoint, it
can also be said that the imperial harmony and the right and the subjects of the local concerns in
terms of the empire. According to the Canadians, it is about the self-governing domain in order
to make and pass laws as it is an important issue in the imperial membership, loyalty as well as

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harmony in this context. The British government, in this context has talked about the notion of
British liberty. I chose this article as it highlights the difference between the settler colonies and
exploitation colonies and shed light on a different perspective on the issue.
Newspaper
The name of the article is "Unwanted Hindus" which was published in the Manchester Courier
and the Lancashire General Advertise ( '"Unwanted Hindus" ,1914). The article speaks about the
encounter that happened between the Sikh people who hailed from the Komagata Mary and the
Vancouver police who had a massive flight between them. The article has highlighted that the
government of Canada does not want the ship to stay on the port of Vancouver. The title only
reflects the view of the Canadian government and the bias of the press. It clearly highlights that
they view the Hindu community as inferior to them. The article claims that 100 of policemen
was injured by the native Indians as they throw missile targeting the policemen. The article has
shed light on the issue that the Sikh community people also carried illegal weapons. I choose to
use this article as the Sikh community people were represented in a different picture in the
foreign media which definitely was a different picture.
Book
The book by the famous author Renisa Mewani is segregated into five chapters. The book is
more than an account of the law of the ocean and is much more about the dark chapter in the
Canadian and the British history, which is indeed about the law of the sea. The book loosely
follows the chronology of the Komagata Maru's journey in the Glasglow shipyard in Hong Kong
on the way to Vancouver to Calcutta (Mawani, 2018). Each of the chapters in the book is

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narrated through the legal artefact, concept and figure which generally revolves around the sea,
ship and the manifest. The central core of this book is the idea of the race which is operated by
the British regime in the Indian country. The book is chosen by me as it has departed from the
traditional articles of just highlighting about the incident and instead have highlighted on several
theory to support the incident
Conclusion
The Komagata incident is one of the darkest chapters in world history. From the above
discussion, it can be concluded that there are different version of the same incident. While the
article discusses how imperialism is one of the black spots in the history of mankind, the
newspaper article proposes an opponent view describing the incident in favour of the Canadian
government (Go.gale.com, 2020). Lastly, Mawali takes the reference to ocean law and several
theory to describe the event. I think these three articles have discussed the issue quite minutely. I
think the incident was nondiscriminatory towards the Hindus, and there could be sources which
discuss the afterwards impact of the article.

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References
Almy, R. L. (2018). ‘More Hateful because of its Hypocrisy’: Indians, Britain and Canadian Law
in the <italic>Komagata Maru</italic> Incident of 1914. Journal of Imperial &
Commonwealth History, 46(2), 304–322.
https://doi.org/10.1080/03086534.2018.1438964
Go.gale.com. (2020). Gale - Institution Finder. Retrieved 11 April 2020, from
https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GDCS&u=bcptstothepast&id=GALE|
GR3217199336&v=2.1&it=r&sid=GDCS&asid=3f33f6ac
Mawani, R. (2018). Across oceans of law: The Komagata Maru and jurisdiction in the time of
empire. Duke University Press.