India to claim millions in barred immigrants saga?

Canada’s scandalous refusal of entry to a shipload of South Asians in 1914 is a story that is never far from the headlines as the Sikh community presses the Canadian government for adequate acknowledgment and reparation for the damage inflicted on the would-be immigrants.

Now the story is taking another significant twist with a report that the Punjab state government in India is thinking of asking Canada for close to $150 million for turning back the passengers, mostly Sikhs, from Vancouver, in British Columbia.

According to Cheryl Chan of the Canwest News Service, writing for the Montreal Gazette, a Punjab government committee is to look into initiating legal and diplomatic proceedings to recover a $15,000 “entry tax” that Sikh passengers aboard the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru reportedly paid out in 1914.

Why the figure has soared to  $143 million has not been explained, according to the English-language Hindustan Times. Whether the tax was $15,000 per passenger, or for the entire ship, is also undetermined.

The Komagata Maru carried 376 would-be immigrants  from Hong Kong to Vancouver. They included Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus from various Far East locations.

All but 24 were refused entry when Canada applied a regulation that said immigrants should come by continuous journey from their home country.  It has been regarded ever since by Sikhs as a racist blot on Canada’s record and may become the subject of a feature film by Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta.  Actors Seema Biswas, John Abrham and Terence Stamp have been mentioned in connection with the project.

The vessel lay at anchor for two months before being forced to steam back to India by Canadian warships. Twenty people were killed and many more jailed by British authorities when it docked in Calcutta.

The Hindustan Times reports that the Punjab government has decided to investigate the possibility of financial reparation after meeting families of passengers killed by British officers. The families maintain that the $15,000 deposited as entry tax is lying unused.

If the Punjab government decides there are grounds to act it will raise the issue with the Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Money recovered could be used to fund memorials although it has also been suggested that it could be paid out to descendants of the affected passengers. Many had sold land and belongings for the voyage to Canada and their lives were in ruin where they were returned.

The Punjab government’s hopes of a massive financial settlement may be easier to aspire to than to achieve.  An academic in Canada has cast doubt on the size and source of the so-called entry tax.

Hugh Johnston, professor emeritus of history at Simon Fraser University, in BC, said passengers were required to pay for the chartered vessel in $15,000 instalments, one of which fell due when the ship arrived in Vancouver.

Members of Vancouver’s Khalsa Diwan Society are reported to have raised about $25,000 from local Sikhs to pay the ship owners.

The Descendants of the Komagata Maru Passengers Society say that what British Columbia’s South Asian community wants more than money is an official apology from the federal government in the Canadian House of Commons.

Last year Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology to the Sikh community during a festival in Surrey, British Columbia — although this was criticised by some as insufficient — along with $2.5 million in federal funding for projects commemorating the tragedy.

The province of British Columbia issued an official apology for the discriminatory policy in the legislature in 2008.