Canada Post releases stamp on Komagata Maru
Thursday, 08/05/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140508/punjab.htm#10
Jalandhar:The Centre and the state governments have yet to acknowledge the significance of the Komagata Maru incident, but the Canada Post Corporation yesterday released a commemorative postal stamp on the incident in Ottawa on its 100th anniversary.
Canada’s Federal Employment and Multicultural Minister Jason Kenney and Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra released the stamp at an impressive ceremony, owing to the efforts of the Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, a Vancouver-based NGO.
Speaking to The Tribune, foundation president Harbhajan Gill said they had sent an application to the Canada Post two years ago for the stamp’s approval . “This is the best tribute to what our pioneers went through 100 years ago in Canada and then at Baj-baj Ghat in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal,” he said.
He said the hall where the ceremony took place was jam-packed.
On the functioning of the foundation, he said that it was a non-profit, non-government organisation that worked towards creating awareness on the Komagata Maru incident, besides promoting the Punjabi culture through seminars and plays. Harbhajan said Punjab and Indian Governments, too, should honour the legends.
Harbhajan Kaur, granddaughter of Baba Gurdit Singh, who had hired Komagata Maru, said she had written several letters to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging them to establish a memorial at Baba Gurdit Singh’s native village Sarhali in Amritsar. However, none had bothered to answer her letters.
Welcoming the initiative of Canada Post, she observed: “Here in India, we have spent money to raise a memorial at Baj-baj Ghat in West Bengal. Not a single rupee was provided by the government, but the West Bengal Government named a railway station after Komagata Maru. Our family has not been considered for the freedom fighters’ quota,” she said.
Dr Raghbir Kaur, Desh Bhagat Yadgar Hall Committee general secretary, said the Punjab Government must take a lead in paying due respect to its legendary figures.
About Komagata Maru
A Japanese steamship, Komagata Maru, sailed from Hong Kong, Shanghai, China to Yokohama, Japan, and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
It reached there on May 23, 1914. It carried 376 passengers from Punjab. Of them, 24 were admitted to Canada
The remaining 352 were not allowed to land in Canada. The ship, hired by Gurdit Singh, was forced to return to India
Among the passengers were 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus, all British subjects
This was one of the several incidents in the history of the 20th century involving exclusion laws in Canada and the US designed to keep out immigrants from Asia
The ship was forced to return to India, where at Baj-baj Ghat in West Bengal, 20 passengers were shot dead and others imprisoned.
