Book review By Matthew Behrens <http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/1807>  -
July 12, 2012



Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru, An Illustrated History

by Ali Kazimi (Douglas & McIntyre,2012; $39.95)



As Parliament passes sweeping, repressive immigration legislation,
Toronto filmmaker Ali Kazimi's timely book, Undesirables, is a welcome
and necessary contribution that should be required reading not only for
Jason Kenney and his cohorts, but also those good-hearted folks who
claim the new law violates Canada's mythic "humanitarian traditions."

The Komagata Maru was a shipload of South Asian immigrants forced to
dock a half mile off the B.C. coast for two months in 1914 as a battle
to determine whether they could land played out in the media, the
courts, on the docks and in a variety of communities. Denied access to
counsel, blockaded from receiving food and water, demonized in the
press, and eventually forced to leave when a Canadian court ruled that
race could be a grounds for excluding newcomers, their struggle was a
signature moment reflecting an ingrained xenophobia that undergirds
contemporary Canadian policies.

The book is visually stunning, thorough and wholly accessible in its
historical, political and social presentation. Kazimi, whose documentary
Continuous Journey also portrayed this period, outlines the extent to
which Canada was built as "a white man's country," and how specific
communities (largely South Asian, Chinese and African American) were
systematically excluded from Canada. He also illustrates how limited
numbers from these communities, in a mirror to today's wretched
treatment of temporary foreign workers, were allowed in to Canada to
perform menial labour, but had impossible obstacles thrown in the way of
permanent residence, much less family reunification.

Importantly, he documents the wretched conditions in countries under
British colonial control (from political repression to easily
preventable famine and disease) that resulted in the urgent desire to
emigrate not simply for a better life, but to save one's life. Indeed,
many onboard the Komagata Maru were Sikhs, who paid a huge price in the
struggle against British colonialism, a fact that Kazimi notes is rarely
acknowledged.

As hundreds of thousands of white Europeans entered Canada in the first
decades of the 20th century (on average, 200,000 annually from 1908 to
1914), a series of racist measures were imposed designed to cut off the
flow of immigration from countries like India and China. Indeed, from
1907-1910, fewer than 3,000 South Asians were admitted, and only five in
1910-11. This was the era of the Chinese Head Tax, as well as specious
medical examinations that turned certain classes of immigrants away for
common and non-threatening afflictions, and the requirement that certain
immigrants possess the then princely sum of $200 before gaining entry to
Canada.

While "the yellow peril" and other racist headlines dominated the
papers, racism was easily adaptable to prevailing political winds.
Notably, after Britain formed an imperial alliance with Japan, Japanese
men were allowed to bring family members to Canada, but Chinese and
South Asians were not.

"That Canada must remain a white man's country is seen necessary on
moral and political grounds," wrote future Prime Minister Mackenzie King
in a 1908 report that articulated the reasons for imposing a "continuous
journey" order in council that would remain for 40 years, essentially
barring South Asians from entering Canada unless they came directly from
India. Kazimi show that, nonetheless, British authorities were concerned
about the need to soft pedal some of Canada's racist legislation so as
not to inflame tensions in its colonies: after all, this was a time of
growing resistance to British repression, and not all individuals who
were British subjects took kindly to discriminatory treatment.

Kazimi's study also does a great service by examining the resistance of
targeted communities, who formed self-help and self-defence leagues,
raised money for the folks aboard the stranded ship, engaged legal
assistance, and produced their own newspapers. Part of that resistance
was the Komagata Maru itself, whose journey was a publicly announced
challenge to the continuous journey provisions: it picked up passengers
from a series of overseas ports on the way to Canada.

With no small sense of irony, once a test case for a Komagata Maru
passenger got to court, government lawyers successfully argued that
since First Nations had limited rights as British subjects, Canada
actually had the power to restrict rights of other British subjects
based on race. As Kazimi sadly concludes, "the colonization of Canada
and the subjugation of its aboriginal inhabitants was presented as a
legitimate precedent for denying South Asians their rights."

By the time the ship returned to India, the stench of alleged subversion
had been imposed on the passengers by British colonialists, and 21 of
them were shot down by British troops upon their arrival, with many more
arrested.

Kazimi sees the Komagata Maru as a transformative moment for Canada,
occupied India, and the rest of the British empire, but cautions against
seeing this as an isolated instance. Rather, it was one of many moments
in a long history that continues to this day. His superb ability to
connect past and present policies both shows the parallels and explains
the extent to which the "white man's country" theme threatens to remain
forever stitched into the Maple Leaf.Matthew Behrens

*Matthew Behrens is a rabble.ca columnist