Baba Gurdit Singh

Baba Gurdit Singh (1877 – 1954) was an Indian Sikh entrepreneur and nationalist. He is known for organising the 1914 Komagata Maru voyage, a landmark event in the struggle against racial discrimination.

Born in Sarhali, Punjab, he chartered the Japanese steamship Komagata Maru to transport 376 Indian passengers to Canada, directly challenging the country’s exclusionary immigration laws. The incident drew international attention to the injustices of colonial policies and inspired nationalist movements in India. After years in exile, Singh surrendered to British authorities in 1922 and was imprisoned, later becoming a respected figure in the Sikh community. He spent his final years in Amritsar, where he died in 1954.

Legacy A well-to-do fisherman in Singapore, Gurdit Singh chartered a Japanese ship, the Komagata Maru, in 1914 to go to Canada, with the aim of helping his compatriots whose journeys to Canada were being blocked. The government of Canada had put restrictions on the entry of Indians.

The ship had a total of 376 passengers out of whom 351 were Sikhs and 21 Punjabi Muslims. The ship sailed from Hong Kong to Vancouver on 3 April 1914. The obstructions put up by the alien authorities and the hardships faced by its passengers turned them into staunch nationalists. The ship reached Vancouver on 22 May 1914, it was not allowed to anchor and was attacked by the police at night. The attack was repulsed by the passengers and it created a great stir among the Indians in Canada. He believed he could circumvent this law by hiring a boat to sail from Calcutta to Vancouver.

At the same time, in January 1914, he publicly espoused the Ghadarite cause while in Hong Kong. The Ghadar Party was an organisation founded by Indians of the United States and Canada in June 1913 with the aim of liberating India from British rule. It was also known as the Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast.

Later years Singh escaped and remained underground for many years until 1920 when, on the advice of Mahatma Gandhi, he made a voluntary surrender at Nankana Sahib