Hello readers, today we will be exploring the story of the Komagata Maru. This is one that not too many have heard of since it is only being told in BC. So to start though I would like to give you guys a summary of what this was. If you would like a detailed version, you can click here.
The Komagata Maru was a ship of 376 Punjabis that were trying to come to Canada in search for a better life. Higher wages and better living conditions were some factors that influenced them to come. But when they arrived, Canada did not let them in because they were Indian. When the Punjabis decided to stay, the government did not supply food and forced them to leave port after 2 months.
After getting a sense of what the Komagata Maru was in school, we went to a museum that holds one of the only museums remembering the Komagata Maru. This museum was located at a temple, more specifically at the Khalsa Diwan Society of Vancouver. After a drive to downtown we found that the museum held a lot of Information on the area we had just explored.
What stood out to me, is that that not only the indians, but many Asian countries got “banned” from entering Canada no matter what. Unfotunately, even if these people did make it into Canada, they were still treated very poorly. Bad jobs, low wages, racism, and a confined area where they could work and live were just some of the troubles south asians had to deal with in the early 20th century.
After exploring the museum, we stayed around the temple to explore the Gudwara (worship spot) and Langar (eating spot). The community was very welcoming and insisted we even stay for lunch. Free food for everyone is a belief that the Sikhs have and is their way of giving back. Unfortunately, we were scheduled for lunch right after but we stayed for some tea and pakoras which were absolutely phenomenal.
We then took a trip to the Himalaya Restaurant for lunch. We were served some classic Indian dishes before heading out to explore the remains of the Punjabi Market.
Many shops in the market had moved or been shut down as the market became less busy and customers moved away. A large amount of people were forced to stay in a small section of downtown in the 1900s until the law was passed and citizens could move away to other sections of B.C. At the Punjabi Market, we browsed the shops and listened to some background on the different shops whether they were still there, or were once there. Although the some businesses were gone, I was amazed to see the ones remaining still sold the same things and stayed strong through the years.
I found this trip to be full of information from the Komagata Maru to the lifestyle of the Punjabis. And although we only learned a fraction of what it was like back then, it felt meaningful to understand the racism, and inequality they faced and to know how lucky I am to be the person I am right now. But I don’t think the road to eliminating racism is over. In fact, although we may be looking at this right now and thinking this was terrible, we still see racism throughout our lives and I believe the next generation could easily consider us racist as well. We are a long way away from removing racism completely but educating our generation and generations to come is an important step in the right direction.