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Critical Summary of "The Komagata Maru and Ghadr Party: Past and Present of a
historic Challenge to Canada's Exclusion of Immigrants from India" by Hugh J.M.
Johnston.
Introduction
In this article, Johnston provides a detailed outline of the Komagata Maru event. His
analysis is based on official accounts from both Canadian and Indian sources as well as live
interviews with witnesses both in Canada and India. He explains the lives of many key
players before, during and after the events of the Komagata Maru and Ghadr Party and how
the two were linked (Johnston, June 2013).
Background
The Komagata Maru incident involved a Japanese steamship, Komagata Maru, which
sailed to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada carrying 376 passengers in 1914, from
Punjab, British India. 24 of them were admitted to Canada, but the rest were forced to return
to India with the ship as an incident involving exclusion laws in Canada designed to keep out
immigrants of only Asian origin. Upon return to India, the ship was docked at Budge Budge
and the passengers were placed under guard in Calcutta. The British government wanted to
arrest the men of Komagata Maru. They resisted, shots were fired, 19 passengers killed while
some escaped. The remaining passengers were imprisoned after arrest, to their villages under
a village arrest for the duration of World War I. The incident at Budge Budge became known
as Budge Budge Riot. Ghadr Party as an organization started by Punjabi Indians in Canada
and United States with the aim of gaining Indias independence from British rule.

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Summary
First, Johnston says that the stories had a reflection of British Empires state in the
early twentieth century. The expectation of the empire was loyalty from subjects of many
nationalities and races, but it had philosophical and organizational inability to treat all
subjects equally. The Empire had self-governing colonies with legal regimes that did not offer
shared citizenship rights.
Second, he says that the primary objective of the Komagata Maru was to open
Canada for South Asian immigrants and that the Ghadr Party was an anti-British party with
revolutionary aims. It is true, he writes, that there were personal links between the Ghadr
Party leadership and the organizers of the Komagata Maru; Ghadr literature found its way
into the ship and some men onboard later became active Ghadrites. He explains the founding
of Ghadr Party. The principal propagandist was the Punjabi Hindu scholar and activist, Har
Dyal. He carried the vision of a far-future armed struggle for freedom that took place nearly
by circumstance due to Word War I, and simultaneously with the planning of the Komagata
Maru voyage.
Third, he documents the collective experience and context of the major Punjabi Sikh
men involved with the two events. For example, Gurmukh Singh Lalton was a passenger on
the Komagata Maru who later became active in the Ghadr Party. Puran Singh (a classmate of
Gurmukh from Ludhiana) was a leader on the Komagata Maru, as stores keeper throughout
the voyage. Johnston claims to have interviewed Katar Singh Mehli an ordinary passenger
of the Komagata Maru, who was a village confine after he escaped imprisonment by going
back to Punjab. He had determined to get to Canada or the United States to farm wheat that
reflected the initial ambition of most of the men on the ship as acquiring land in Canada.
Gurdit Singh Sarhali chartered the Komagata Maru. He was the leader on board who
incidentally turned the ship to a religion and political classroom by installation of a Sikh

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temple onboard. Ghadr Party sympathizers Balwant Singh Khurdpur, Professor Maulana
Barkatullah, and Bhagwan Singh Jakh spoke from that temple.
Major Criticisms
Johnston seems to support the South Asians cause. He claims that the Punjabi
passengers of the immigrant ship made a valiant, but futile bid for legal admission to Canada
viewing the event from the Punjabis perspective only. He does not account the economic and

cultural experiences of contemporary Canadians in the time the Ghadr Party uprising was in
play. He writes about public apologies made by politicians currently but doesnt seem to
support any reason the apologies should not be made.
Conclusion
He presents an all-inclusive report on how the two events affected all the parties
involved. He included the present-day political memorials carried out in both Canada and
India and explained their impact and or perspective; both in the eyes of the politician and the
public. His research is convincing. He discussed the Ghadr movements activities and reasons
why it is kept silent in the current political society.

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Works Cited
Immigration. (n.d.). Retrieved from BC Studies.: http://www.bcstudies.com/?
q=keyword/immigration