The Komagata Maru incident involved a Japanese steamship, the Komagata Maru, that sailed from Hong Kong, Shanghai,China to Yokohama, Japan and then to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1914, carrying 376 passengers from Punjab, India.
Of them 24 were admitted to Canada, but the 352 other passengers were not allowed to land in Canada, and the ship was forced to return to India.
The Komagata Maru incident was widely cited at the time by Indian groups to highlight discrepancies in Canadian immigration laws.
Further, the inflamed passions in the wake of the incident were widely cultivated by the Indian revolutionary organisation, the Ghadar Party, to rally support for its aims.
In a number of meetings ranging from California in 1914 to the Indian diaspora, prominent Ghadarites including Barkatullah, Tarak Nath Das, and Sohan Singh used the incident as a rallying point to recruit members for the Ghadar movement, most notably in support of promulgating plans to coordinate a massive uprising in India.
It is 100 years now. A centenary commemoration will be celebrated this year.
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