Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau has announced he will apologise for the infamous Komagata Maru incident in 1914.
Trudeau said this while speaking at a function to mark Vaisakhi in Ottawa, Canada. He said the immigrants were denied entry to Canada due to "the discriminatory laws at that time".
"Passengers of Komagata Maru, like millions of immigrants to Canada since, were seeking refuge and a better life for their families. With so much to contribute to their new home, they chose Canada. And we failed them utterly," said Trudeau.
Komagata Maru was a Japanese steamship that arrived in Vancouver on May 23, 1914, with 376 passengers from Punjab, mostly Sikhs. Admitting only a handful of the immigrants, rest of them were forced to stay aboard the ship. Two months later, 352 of them to returned to India.
On September 27, 1914, when the ship entered the Calcutta harbour, the British police tried to arrest the leaders whom the Raj considered dangerous, including Baba Gurdit Singh. As these men resisted the police, shots were fired and 19 passengers were killed, some managed to escape and the rest were arrested.
