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SUMMARY:The fugitive sojourns of Gurdit Singh\, 1914-1922 - Professor Reni
 sa Mawani\, University of British Columbia
DTSTART:20151202T170000Z
DTEND:20151202T180000Z
UID:TALK61248@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Barbara Roe
DESCRIPTION:This paper centers on the fugitive sojourns of Baba Gurdit Sin
 gh\, a railway contractor and anticolonial figure best known for charterin
 g the Komagata Maru. In April 1914\, under Singh’s authority\, the Japan
 ese steamship journeyed from Hong Kong to Vancouver carrying 376 Punjabi m
 igrants in defiance of Canada’s continuous journey law. Although much ha
 s been written about the event\, particularly its arrival and departure\, 
 we still know little of those who planned and executed the ship’s voyage
 . Gurdit Singh remains an enigmatic figure. \n\nSingh left Punjab for Mala
 ya in 1885 at the age of twenty-six. By 1913\, after working in various in
 dustries\, he began a flourishing railway contracting business where he wi
 tnessed the brutalities of British law firsthand. Though not formally educ
 ated or legally trained\, Singh had a formidable knowledge of British and 
 colonial legalities. Critical of law’s enforcement\, Singh remained comm
 itted to its promises for an ineffable justice. Yet\, British Canadian\, a
 nd Indian authorities characterized Singh to be an outlaw and thus outside
  the law. \n\nThis paper focuses on the Komagata Maru’s arrival at Budge
  Budge and Singh’s seven years of fugitivity that followed. Specifically
 \, I consider the criminal accusations that rendered Singh to be a suitabl
 e target of law’s force and how he countered these allegations through h
 is self-representations as a law-abiding British subject. His seaborne mob
 ility and imperial itinerancy\, combined with his fugitivity in India\, I 
 argue\, were central to these opposing characterizations and to his refuta
 tion of British legality and British rule. \n\n
LOCATION:Seminar Room S1\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambrid
 ge CB3 9DT
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