BY Balwant Sanghera
Khalsa Diwan Society Vancouver held avery successful seminar to pay tribute tothe Gadar Movement and the FreedomFighters on Saturday, October 19, 2013.The seminar was held at the ResourceCentre of the Society located at 8000Ross Street in Vancouver. The ResourceCentre also happens to be the home ofthe museum dedicated toKomagatamaru, the ill- fated Japanesesteamship (carrying 376 Indian passengers)that was forced to return to Indiaafter spending two months in theBurrard Inlet under heavy guard. Thiswas the third event organized by theKhalsa Diwan Society to pay tribute tothe Gadar Movement. The first one wasa Kavi Darbar that brought togethersome of the best Punjabi poets to recitetheir poems dedicated to the GadariBabey. This was followed by the releaseof a souvenir which contained articlesabout the Movement from some of theprominent writers and respected membersof the community.A large number of verywell- known members of the SouthAsian community took the time to jointhe Khalsa Diwan Society for this welldeservedtribute. Representatives of variousplaces of worship, communityactivists as well as Burnaby EdmondsMLA Raj Chauhan, Indian ConsulGeneral Ravi Shankar Aisola, ConsulD.K. Sharma were some of the distinguishedguests on this auspicious occasion.The media was also well represented.Khalsa Diwan Society’s GeneralSecretary Joginder Singh Sunner welcomedthe guests on behalf of theSociety. He emphasized that it is due tothe selfless sacrifices of the GadariBabey that we are enjoying the good lifein Canada. Sunner also stressed the closelink between the Gadar Movement andKhalsa Diwan Society. He raised a fewquestions for the speakers before thankingmembers of the audience for takingthe time to attend this very fitting homageto our ancestors.Earlier this year, In order to assist withthese activities ,Khalsa Diwan Societyhad invited a number of communityactivists to undertake this task. Theyincluded Nadeem Parmar, Mohan SinghGill, Balwant Singh Sanghera, SuchaClaire, Harchand Singh Bagri, KartarSingh Bains and Rajinder SinghPandher.These individuals put in a lot ofeffort in ensuring the Society’s role andclose connection with the GadarMovement are rightfully recognized. Inthis context, a number of other organizationshave done a commendable job inpaying tribute to the Gadar Movement.As a matter of fact, it is very gratifying tonote that since January of 2013 everymajor function held in the communityhas been dedicated to the GadarMovement.The seminar brought together four excellentresource people who shared theirexpertise and research on this subjectwith a distinguished audience. MilanSingh, a Ph. D. student and researcher ofthe Komagatamru and the GadarMovement was the first speaker. Milan isa descendant of one of the FreedomFighters, Ram Nath Maharaj ofKhanpur,who was arrested by the Britishfor his involvement in the Movement andsent to Fiji for intensive labour. Shedefined the Gadar Movement and itsnoble objectives of freeing India fromthe British rule in a very eloquent manner.This young researcher of politicalactivity of the Canadian South Asiandiaspora shared her research about thetrials and tribulations of the community.This theme was carried further by prominentSouth Asian community historianSohan Singh Pooni. Pooni stated that theGadari Babey believed that the only wayto get respect here was to get rid of theBritish rule in India. He emphasized thatthe turning point in this struggle was onOctober 3, 1909 when former soldiers(decorated by the British) who hadvaliantly fought for the British Empire,burnt their hard earned medals inVancouver. It made a very strong politicalstatement by these pioneers. Hedescribed the struggle and aspirations ofthese brave souls in a beautiful manner.Pooni emphasized that these FreedomFighters wanted to be identified asIndians not as Sikhs, Hindus or Muslims.They had a firm belief that inorder to get respect overseasthey needed India to become afree country.The formation of the GadarParty in April, 1913 was culminationof these collectiveefforts. Naveen Girn, a youngcultural researcher, shared thework he has been doing as curatorand cultural researcherfocusing on the South Asiancommunity. His presentationincluded a number of veryimpressive slides highlightingthe community’s past includingthe first Sikh Gurdwara nearBurrard Street in Vancouver andthe Komagatamaru. All of thesehave a very close connectionwith Khalsa Diwan Society andthe Gadar Movement. The lastspeaker for this tribute was Dr.Hugh Johnston, ProfessorEmeritus in history at SimonFraser University. ProfessorJohnston is one of the mostprominent historians who havewritten extensively about theSouth Asian community’s historyin Canada. He has also writtena book on theKomagatamru . Dr. Johnstonknows our community’s historyvery well and has written a lot ofpapers in this regard.Professor. Johnston mentionedthat there was a good reason forthe origin of the GadarMovement and its links to theWestern U.S. Most of theGadari Babey considered theU.S. as a beacon of democracy,secularism, prosperity and freedom.Thus they wanted thismovement to be modelled onthe U.S. They strongly believedthat like the Americans they hadto wage an armed struggle inorder to drive the British out ofIndia. India’s Consul General,Ravi Shankar Aisola conveyedhis greetings on this occasionand made a few suggestions forthe researchers/historians towork on. The tribute concludedwith a few questions from anumber of prominent membersof the audience. In the end, Sohan Singh Deo, president ofKhalsa Diwan Society thankedthe organizers and attendees fortaking part in this tribute. Heassured of the Society’s full cooperationfor any common projectsthat the community maylike to take on. Participants hadvery positive comments andcommended the Khalsa DiwanSociety and seminar organizersfor doing an excellent job.
