Weeks before, newspaper headlines yelled out warning, Vancouver B.C was preparing itself for a shipload of Punjabis. As Bagga Singh read this head line he recalled how he had been drawn away from his wife and kids one year before, by the stories of opportunity in Canada. How Bagga or any of the other Sikhs were welcome to Canada. Cheap labour was in short supply since the Chinese immigrants, so Sikhs got jobs on fruit farms and in the forest industry. Bagga found himself a job in a sawmill and crammed into an over crowded bunkhouse to live in. There was usually 100 Sikh workers that lived together in one house, as many as 10 men shared a single room for eating and sleeping, saving money to send back home to their family’s. Bagga made about $9 a week and paid about $2 for rent, sending the rest back home. These men worked hard to earn a place in a country and a town they knew they were unwelcome.
Canadians hated it, they treated the Sikhs badly, they referred to them as degraded, uncivilized, or worse. European Canadians would refused to serve them in stores, restaurants, or allow them into certain neighborhoods. Bagga learned to avoid these cold hearted people. The Canadian Government only allowed 9 Sikh women to come to Canada between 1904 -1920, they were afraid that the Sikh population would grow to big.
During the Depression of 1907, 1,000 Sikhs had were unemployed. The government admitted that they were well provided for privately, yet 2 years later B.C took away their right to vote. Without franchises they couldn’t enter professions, get government contracts, or vote. They were forbidden jobs in the public or with forestry companies that cut on Crown land. It was claimed that “the Hindu is not suited to the climate of this country.”* It was disturbing for a Sikh to be called Hindu, as technically they were Indian. Hindu and Indian had very different religions. Sikh women are equals, and a practice of langar brought the rich and poor to eat and worship together. While a Hindu practice was to force widows to be burned when their husband died. Sikh history is full of heroic men and women, as well as martyrs who had been sawed in half, beheaded, or boiled in oil by the Hindu and Muslim rivals. The Khalsa (pure) a society were the men take the last name Singh (lion), and the women take Kuar (princess). Men of the Khalsa had 5 rules: to keep their breads and hair uncut and to wear a comb, steel bracelets, soldier’s breeches, and a dagger. Bagga Singh was not a Hindu, but that didn’t matter to Canadians. “Canada is best left in the hands of the Anglo-Saxon race. Our doors shall be closed to the Asians,”* said MP Herbert Stevens. He had “lit the match that set off a powder keg of hate.”*
Immigration policies became stricter and more uneven. The government demanded Punjabis have $200 in possession when they arrived, while European immigrants only needed $25. Then the government instructed steamship companies not to provide service to India. An angry Sikh businessman hired a ship called the Komagata Mura, out of Hong Kong to take Sikhs to Vancouver, without the $200 entry money. In May the ship pulled into Vancouver and anchored in Burrard Inlet with 376 passenger. The Canadian government instantly had armed guards to stand by the ship, and did not let the passengers on land. One Sikh man argued that the passengers are British subjects and they had the right to visit any part of the British empire. The Canadian government disagreed yet they forget that the Sikh were faithful soldiers. Hundreds of years before, the Hindus and Muslims had agreed to fight along beside the British. Then the British offended the Hindu and Muslim soldier's by greasing the rifles with cow and pig fat. The soldier’s murdered their British officers. Each group began the idea of taking over India, England looked for allies. The Sikhs had not forgotten how the Hindu had treated them years before, and joined British forces. The Sikhs were faithful soldier's all through the British empire, and now they were arguing to get into Canada.
Bagga Singh and 14 other men, helped organized a court meeting. It didn’t go to well. Canadians were in a hurry to get rid of the passengers. They decided that the fate of the passengers would rest on a single test. One man out of 356 passengers would be tested and if he passed they could all stay. If not the whole boat would sail back to Hong Kong. The Sikhs refused, they of course then this would not go well. By June 20 the ship had been in the harbour for a month. The passengers started to get sick, and garbage had piled up on the ship, officials refusing to remove it. Drinking water and food had also gotten low. The government even thought about the idea of ‘kidnapping’ the passengers, and return them to the Orient aboard a Canadian Pacific liner. Prime Minister Robert Borden declined this plan scared it may lead to murder. Finally the Sikhs gave in and agreed to the single court test. A man named Munshi Singh was chosen for the test. The was appealed to 5 judges and of course he lost.
The officials agreed to clean up the ship before the journey back to Hong Kong. But the Sikhs had control of the ship. A plan was made that they would subdue the passengers and sail the ship into international waters. This became known as the Battle of Burrard Inlet. At about one in the morning, 160 armed officers arrived at the ship, on a boat called the Sea lion. Officers threw grappling hooks onto the deck and used high pressure hoses to scatter the angry Sikh passengers. The Sikhs fought back with throwing coal, garbage, scraps of wood and metal. 30 people on the Sea lion were injured, and ten minutes later the Sea lion retreated. After the short and embarrassing Battle of Burrard Inlet, a warship named the HMCS Rainbow was used to intimidate the Sikhs. The next day the Rainbow, and half of Canada’s navy, came back to the Komagata Maru. Soldiers pointed their fixed bayonets at the Sikhs. The Sikhs were defeated and on July 23 the Rainbow escorted the Komagata Maru out of Vancouver. The same day the Komagata Mura left Canada, the government of Hong Kong refused to let the ship land back in Hong Kong as they feared the Sikhs would become violent; Hong Kong was still under British rule. The ship finally landed near Calcutta and was instantly surrounded by armed officers. They allowed the passengers to got off the ship and they were immediately shoved to the train station. Trying to protect one of their own, a massacre broke out. 20 Sikhs, 4 officers, and 2 local residents died.
When a war with Germany broke out later in summer, militant urged Indians to come home, and armed uprising against the British. Hundreds of Sikhs left Canada. Bagga Singh stayed behind add something here to indicate why perhaps and how he continued to work hard to grow industry to support your next few sentences. By 1920 Sikhs had built temples in Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster, Nanaimo, Golden, Abbotsford, Fraser Mills, and Paldi. By this time they also owned 6 sawmills and 2 shingle mills. After 17 years, the Canadian government loosened laws about bringing children and spouses. Bagga’s wife joined him in Canada. Bagga moved across the province for work, and finally settled in New Westminster. It wasn’t until April 1947, that the Sikhs won back the right to vote again. While he worked and lived invisibly, Bagga Singh challenged the foundations of the Canadian law, and worked for equal application. Bagga died in 1954, at the age of 63. “He had won faith that had risen from wounds of injustice half a world away, and helped make a new nation.”
* Quotes taken from the book: A Scattering of Seeds- The Creation of Canada By Lindalee Tracy