In 1914, the SS Komagata Maru crossed oceans and jurisdictions –
Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Japan, and West Bengal – to arrive on
the west coast of Canada. Citing regulations designed to limit the
immigration of Indians, Canadian officials refused the ship and its
passengers entry and detained them for two months in Vancouver
Harbour. Most of the 376 passengers were then forcibly returned to
India. Unmooring the Komagata Maru challenges conventional Canadian
historical accounts of the incident by drawing from multiple
disciplines and fields to consider the international and colonial
dimensions within the context of political resistance, migration,
cultural memory, and nation-building. Drawing from various
disciplines, the collection situates the history of South Asians in
Canada within a larger global-imperial history, emphasizing the ways
in which the Komagata Maru incident is related to issues of
colonialism. The contributors offer not only nuanced interpretations
of the ship’s journey but also a critical reading of Canadian
multiculturalism through past events and their commemoration.
Ultimately, they caution against narratives that present the ship’s
journey as a dark moment in the history of an otherwise redeemed
nation. Unmooring the Komagata Maru demonstrates that, more than a
hundred years later, the voyage of the Komagata Maru has yet to reach
its conclusion.
Les mer
Charting Colonial Trajectories
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780774860673
Publisert
2021
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
University of British Columbia Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok