Relevance: GS-1 (Modern Indian History – Freedom Struggle) | Source: The Indian Express

1. What is the News?

The Komagata Maru incident, a tragic milestone in India’s freedom struggle, was recently recalled by global popstar Diljit Dosanjh during a concert in Vancouver. He contrasted the historic systemic racism that denied Indians entry in 1914 with the large, thriving diaspora present in the stadium today.

2. The Historical Event

An administrator must know the factual timeline and the key figures involved in this anti-colonial trigger:

3. The Root Cause: Systemic Racism

The Canadian authorities used a specific legal tool to block the ship:

• Continuous Journey Regulation (1908): This Canadian law stated that immigrants could only enter if they arrived via a non-stop, continuous journey from their home country.
• The Hidden Loophole: Because ships from India physically required stopovers to reach Canada, this law was a deliberate trick to block Asian immigration and “keep Canada white”.

4. Resistance and The Budge Budge Massacre

• The Shore Committee: The local South Asian diaspora in Vancouver formed a committee led by Husain Rahim. They raised $20,000 to retain the ship’s charter and fight the blockade legally.
• The Tragedy (Sept 1914): The ship was forced to return to India, arriving at Budge Budge (near Kolkata). British authorities ordered passengers onto a train to Punjab. When they refused, British troops opened fire, killing 20 people. Gurdit Singh escaped but later surrendered at the urging of Mahatma Gandhi.

5. Significance in the Freedom Struggle

• Shattered Illusions: It destroyed the myth that Indians enjoyed equal rights as subjects within the “benevolent” British Empire.
• Catalyst for Revolution: The tragedy deeply radicalized the Ghadar Party (founded in 1913). It shifted their demands from seeking basic civil rights to fighting for complete independence and the armed overthrow of British rule.

The “UPSC Trap”

• Trap: Assuming the Ghadar Party was formed as a result of the Komagata Maru incident.
• Reality: The Ghadar Party was actually founded a year earlier, in 1913, in North America. However, the 1914 Komagata Maru incident acted as a massive catalyst that radicalized the existing group and united Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs against the British.

UPSC Value Box

• Continuous Journey Regulation: A discriminatory 1908 Canadian immigration law designed to prevent Asian settlement by exploiting the geographical impossibility of non-stop ship travel from India.
• Shore Committee: A local support group led by Husain Rahim in Canada that raised funds and legally challenged the discriminatory blockade of the Komagata Maru.
• Official Recognition: In 2016, the Canadian Prime Minister formally apologized for the incident in the House of Commons, and the Indian Government has issued commemorative coins to honor the Budge Budge martyrs.

With reference to the Komagata Maru incident during the Indian freedom struggle, consider the following statements:

1. The Komagata Maru was a British naval ship chartered by the colonial government to transport indentured laborers to North America.
2. The ‘Continuous Journey Regulation’ was an immigration law enacted by Canada designed to deliberately restrict Asian immigration.
3. The tragedy at Budge Budge served as a major catalyst for the Ghadar Party to explicitly demand the complete armed overthrow of British rule.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (b)