Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
Komagata Maru Exhibition
May 18, 2016 at 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM
| Location: | MacOdrum Library |
| Audience: | Anyone |
| Key Contact: | Harry Sharma |
| Contact Email: | india@carleton.ca |
| Contact Phone: | 6135202600 x7873 |
C
anada India Centre for Excellence at Carleton University is pleased to announce the opening of an art exhibition to commemorate the events around the Komagata Maru incident. The exhibition will be hosted by Carleton University’s MacOdrum Library. The official opening ceremony will be held on May 18, 2016 at 4PM.
About Komagata Maru
Komagata Maru was a Japanese ship that arrived in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet on 23 May 1914. It was chartered from Hong Kong by an Indian citizen Gurdit Singh and carried 376 Indian passengers, mostly Punjabi Sikhs. Many of the passengers were ex military men who had made sacrifices for the British empire in wars. Naturally they expected a welcome in Canada, a British colony like India at the time. Instead they were imprisoned in their own ship, were deprived of water and food and turned back in humiliation after two months. When they reached their own country at the port of Budge Budge Ghat near Calcutta the British-Indian government suspected they had turned revolutionaries. In a brief scuffle at the Ghat the police firing killed 19 passengers and injured many more.
Since then the incident has become a symbol of struggle against injustice and continues to inspire efforts against racism. These paintings are part of a full series of 21 paintings included in a large format book A Journey With The Endless Eye. The book includes stories by Ajmer Rode and paintings by Jarnail Singh. The ‘endless eye’ is an expression found in ancient Indian scriptures. It means the eternal gaze behind our temporal eyes and an ever continuing quest for truth and justice. The paintings show such a quest by depicting the struggle of Komagata Maru passengers.