Diasporas and Transnationalisms by Anjali Gera Roy Ajaya Kumar Sahoo

Author:Anjali Gera Roy, Ajaya Kumar Sahoo [Anjali Gera Roy, Ajaya Kumar Sahoo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Ethnic Studies
ISBN: 9781351788991
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

The Komagata Maru voyage as a site of Sikh resistance from the Far East

Historians are familiar with the Komagata Maru voyage from the Canadian and the Indian perspective. Within Canadian national history, the Komagata Maru represents a case in example in multiculturalism and immigration never to be emulated. And the Budge Budge killings were another episode within the Indian struggle for independence of civil disobedience. But the pre-departure occurrence in the Far East reveals the migration story of Sikhs to such places as Malaya, the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, Manila and Japan. Gurdit Singh Sarhali’s own life trajectory is revelatory of the constant movement of servicemen and migrants between destinations in the Far East, the Punjab as well as other areas of Sikh settlement of what came to be known as the Sikh diaspora. By the time of 1914, Gurdit Singh had been in Malaya for 35 years. Gurdit Singh was born to a peasant household in the Sarhali village of Amritsar in 1859 (Tatla 2007, 9). In 1870 as Amritsar faced economic tribulation due to the failure of crops, Gurdit Singh’s father, Hukam Singh turned to military service with the British as an alternative occupation. After the Anglo-Sikh wars of the nineteenth century and the loyalty exhibited by the Sikhs in the Indian mutiny of 1857, the British termed certain ethnic groups such as the Sikhs as the ‘martial classes’ and recruited them for military and policing service throughout the Empire. The Malay States and the Straits Settlements together with Hong Kong and Shanghai received Sikh police regiments to maintain law and order for the British, as they were found to be particularly useful against Chinese gangs (see Kaur 2009). Hukam Singh was recruited by Captain Speedy himself (known for creating the first gathering and settlement of Sikh soldiers/policemen in Malaya, Perak) (Tatla 2007, 10). Captain Speedy recruited a 150-strong contingent of Malwai and Majhail Sikhs together with some Muslims who were successful in suppressing a local Malay rebellion.

After several years of service, Hukam Singh returned to the Punjab but he was able to arrange for two of his sons, one of them being Gurdit Singh, to arrive and work at Malaya. Gurdit Singh worked at several jobs in Perak Malaya, which included working with a Chinese businessman to supply meat to army regiments. Eventually Gurdit Singh started his own business supplying milk to the Sikh regiment (Tatla 2007, 10). He needed to travel to Punjab several times due to his business since he imported Punjabi buffaloes for his milk business. As a businessman he travelled throughout Malaya and Singapore and was familiar with the concerns of the Punjabi Sikh community. Gurdit Singh took interest in the fact that many in the Far East were keen in moving off to destinations in the settler colonies such as New Zealand, Australia, USA and Canada. The Hong Kong gurudwara was a transit point for Sikh passengers who could wait up to six months making arrangements to arrive at the desired settler colonies.

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