The Komagata through a media lens: racial, economic, and political threat in newspaper coverage of the 1914 Komagata Maru affair.

Panesar, Nilum ; Pottie-Sherman, Yolande ; Wilkes, Rima 等

Abstract

As part of its 'white Canada' policy, Canadian officials denied entry to 376 Indian immigrants who arrived aboard the Komagata Maru in 1914. Although the Komagata Maru affair was among the first Canadian immigration controversies to generate international media coverage, little is known about the nature of this coverage. In this paper, we examine the extent to which media coverage of the event reflected a range of racial (Orientalism; Canada's white destiny), political (the British Empire and Indian nationalism), and economic threat (economic depression, wage competition) ideologies. Our analysis of 193 newspaper articles published between May 5th and July 30th, 1914 finds that most articles emphasize the political implications, followed by race, and then by economic competition. By portraying the passengers not only as radicals but also as threats to the very fabric of the British Empire, the media delegitimized the migrants' claims to move freely within it.

Resume

Dans le cadre de sa politique sur le "Canada Blanc", les fonctionnaires canadiens ont refuse l'entree de 376 immigrants indiens arrives a bord de Komagata Maru en 1914. Bien que l'affaire Komagata Maru fut l'une des premieres controverses de l'immigration canadienne a susciter la couverture mediatique internationale, on connait peu dans la nature de cette couverture. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment la couverture mediatique d'un evenement peut avoir des retombees ideologiques d'ordre raciale (orientalisme, destinee du Canada blanc) ; politique (l'empire britannique et nationalisme indien) ; et menaces economiques (depression economique, competition salariale). Notre analyse de 193 articles de journaux publies entre le 5 mai et le 30 juillet 1914, demontre que la majorite des articles insiste sur les implications politiques, suivies par la race et puis par la competition economique. En representant les passagers non seulement comme des radicaux, mais aussi comme des menaces pour le tres construit empire britannique, les media delegitiment les revendications des migrants de circuler librement dans le pays.

Introduction

Throughout Canadas history, a disproportionate amount of media coverage of maritime arrivals has been negative (Bradimore and Bauder 2011). From the landing of the Amelle in Nova Scotia in 1987 to the 599 Fujianese refugees who arrived in 1999, and the 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the MV Sun Sea in 2010, media coverage has delegitimized the appeals of migrants who arrive by water. As Mannik (2015, 137) explains, "metaphorically speaking, people's movements through water are viewed as such a threat to the solidarity of national space that they have the power to wash away humanitarian sentiments." The Canadian media has framed these arrivals as security risks, terrorists, and "abusers" of Canada's humanitarian generosity (Bradimore and Bauder 2011; Fieras 2011; Hier and Greenberg 2002; Krishnamurti 2013). These contemporary framings of "subaltern transnational subjects" have long histories (Dean 2012; Kapur 2003, 7).

The Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver in 1914 and was one such maritime arrival. With 376 passengers aboard, the ship sat in the harbour for months, until it was forced to return to India, but only after public hostility towards the ship had swelled to the point of violence. The considerable body of scholarship on the Komagata Maru affair highlights the ship's complex entanglement: within Canada's nation-building project (Dua 2007; Ward 2002); labour unrest in Vancouver (Johnston 2014 [1979]); and the politics of resistance in British-India and within the Sikh diaspora (Kaur 2016; Mawani 2012; Mongia 1999). A central theme of much of this scholarship concerns the pronounced public outcry the ship's arrival generated in Vancouver and Canada more broadly (Johnson 2014 [1979]; Kazimi 2011; Wallace 2013; Ward 2002). This paper builds on this work by making two contributions to the general understanding of this event.

First, while previous research on the Komagata has examined court documents, legal proceedings, and government transcripts (Buchignani 1977; Chattopadhyay 2016; Johnston 2014(1979]; Kaur 2012; Mann 2009; Sohi 2014; Wallace 2013; Ward 2002), there has been no systematic analysis of media coverage of the event. The Komagata's appearance in Canadian waters generated an extraordinary media response. This media response is critical as studies of more contemporary media stories show the significant extent to which "people rely on information sources to form attitudes about immigration and immigrants" (Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart 2009, 516). Newspaper discourse must have played an especially important role in shaping public opinion about the Komagata Maru. Because there was little to no communication between the passengers and Canadians, newspapers relayed the only information accessible to the public. Therefore, by considering media coverage, we can establish--at least in the public's eye--the "information environment" at the time (ibid; Pottie-Sherman and Wilkes 2014; 2016).

Second, previous research provides three principal explanations for Canada's response towards the ship and its passengers--that the hostility towards the Komagata Maru was rooted in racism, political threat, or economic threat (Buchignani 1977; Johnston 2013; Kaur 2012; Sohi 2014; Wallace 2013; Ward 2002). Here we argue that these are not merely explanations for what happened but that these threats are also potential ways that the passengers and the ship itself might have been framed by the media (see also Bradimore and Bauder 2011). That is, it is important to consider not simply whether groups of people are 'othered' but also how this takes place. We, therefore, consider how, and to what extent, racial, political and economic frames were manifest within media coverage of the Komagata Maru.

We make these contributions by analyzing the coverage as it appeared in 193 newspaper articles published between May 5th and July 30th, 1914, gathered from three major Canadian newspapers. Our findings reveal that, while all three types of threat (racial, economic, and political) appeared in media coverage, above all, the media created a moral panic around the political threat that the passengers were held to pose. By portraying the passengers not only as radicals but also as threats to the very fabric of the British Empire, the media delegitimized the migrants' claims to move freely within it.

UNDERSTANDING THE KOMAGATA MARU INCIDENT OF 1914

The arrival of the Komagata Maru in Vancouver's harbour on May 23rd, 1914, generated a major public outcry. Aboard the steamship were 376 Indian passengers seeking to immigrate to Canada as British subjects (Mawani 2012, 384). (1) Instead, Canadian officials prohibited them from disembarking, claiming that the passengers were transgressing Canadian immigration law, which had effectively restricted immigration from India since 1908 (Johnston 2014 [1979]; Mann 2009; Ward 2002, 119). Thousands of citizens voiced opposition to the passengers' immigration case in Vancouver; and, on July 6th, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that the passengers' status as British subjects was inadequate to justify their admission to Canada. (2) Only twenty of the passengers were allowed to land in Vancouver. On July 23rd, 1914, the Komagata was forced out of Canadian waters (Buchignani 1977, 89; Kazimi 2011). (3 4)

Scholarly explanations of the hostility towards the Komagata draw attention to the role of racial ideology as well as the role of political and economic threat. The Komagata threatened the racial ideology underlying Canada's nation-building project (Buchignani 1977; Wallace 2013; Ward 2002). As noted by then Premier of British Columbia, Sir Richard McBride, Canada was to be a "white man's country" and to "admit Orientals in large numbers would mean in the end the extinction of the white people" (McBride 1914, cited by Grace and Helms 1998, 85). Authorities argued that the passengers were inassimilable due to their "Oriental tendencies" towards immorality, dirtiness, radicality, and disease (Buchignani 1977, 88; Sohi 2014; Wallace 2013; Ward 2002). (5) Although these attitudes were widespread before the Komagata's voyage, the ship's arrival represented the culmination of fears of the so-called "Hindu" menace of the early 20th century (Mongia 1999) and the prevail ing fear that Canada would be "inundated" by "Asian hordes" (Ward 2002). As such, the Komagata affair revealed the racially demarcated borders within the British Empire (Sohi 2011, 7).

The British Empire perceived the Komagata as a political threat (Johnston 2013; Sohi 2014; 2011). The passengers claimed that their status as British subjects entitled them to travel within the British Empire. This allegation created complicated matters for Canadian authorities who wanted to exclude all non-white immigrants without fueling resentment of British rule in India (Kaur 2012; Manak 1998; Mann 2009, 194; Sohi 2011, 425). Canadian officials viewed the Komagata's voyage as "political," and worried that the passengers espoused a revolutionary agenda that could deepen the emerging Indian nationalist Ghadar movement among British Columbia's South Asian community. The Ghadar Party, a San Francisco-based political organization, urged rebellion against the British (Johnston 2013). At the same time, most of the passengers were Sikh, and the British respected Sikh soldiers from the Punjab due to their history of loyalty to the British Indian Army, their masculinity, and adherence to the tenets of Khalsa. The Sikhs onboard hoped this loyalty would guarantee their right to settle in Canada. While authorities viewed the passengers as "dangerous revolutionaries" (Johnston 2013), this mix of anti-British sentiment and expected loyalty complicated the issue (Kaur 2012; Sohi 2014). Although the desire to uphold "imperial ties" deterred authorities from using overt violence against or turning away the Komagata as soon as it arrived, their reactions to the ship were exceptionally hostile (Ward 2002, 117).

Finally, the Komagata also posed an economic threat to British Columbians. The ship's arrival in Vancouver coincided with an economic recession (Buchignani 1977, 87). White workers and immigration officials feared that, if allowed to come ashore, the passengers would compete for scarce jobs, endangering the "livelihood of the white working man" (Ward 2002). The economic recession also crystallized a more longstanding antipathy among white workers towards "cheap Asiatic labour" (Ward 2002). Asian immigrants would work for less than white Canadians and employers readily employed them in British Columbia when cheap labour was sought (Jensen 1988: Sohi 2011, 424; Ward 2002). Thus, the white working population was primarily opposed to the Komagata, and many complained that "Indian immigration was again flooding the province" (Ward 2002). As Johnston (2014 [1979], 42) concedes, "[t]he situation was tricky. In the early spring, white labour in British Columbia had been demanding the few jobs held by Indians." Hostility towards the Komagata grew when the public learned of a few wealthy passengers onboard. This revelation heightened the material threat posed by the ship.

While scholars have noted that newspapers played a central role in shaping the Canadian public's attitudes towards the passengers onboard the Komagata Maru (Buchignani 1977; Sohi 2014; Wallace 2013), no study has examined media coverage of the incident. During the affair, the media was the sole avenue by which the public received information about the proceedings. National discourses about immigration embody the "core values of its citizens" (Beyer and Matthes 2015, 3264) and the media's promotion of negative tropes about immigrants can demolish support within a community and, ultimately, can "legitimize" exclusionary state action (Bradimore and Bauder 2011, 641; van Dijk 1988; 1991). Little to no communication occurred between the passengers and Canadians: newspapers relayed the only information accessible to the public, which suggests that newspaper discourse played a large role in influencing public opinion. In this paper, we examine the representation of these three frames--racial ideology and political and economic threat--in newspaper coverage of the "highly publicized affair" (6) (Sohi 2014, 109).

The incident merited more attention than any other immigration attempt in the pre-war period. The Vancouver Sun's framing of the South Asian passengers as an "Asian menace" is said to have elicited a heated reaction from the public (Buchignani 1977; Johnston 2014(1979], 13). We find that the media privileged the political threat posed by the Komagata, above the other two frames. This finding suggests that public hostility was fueled primarily by the suggestion that the passengers' immigration claims could destabilize the British Empire.

METHODOLOGY

We analyzed 193 newspaper articles from three newspapers representing coverage of the incident: the Vancouver Sun, Times Colonist (Victoria), and the Globe and Mail. Articles were identified via keyword searches of "Komagata" or "Maru," and were included if published between May 5th 1914, when the Canadian media became aware of the Komagata's approach, and July 30th, 1914 when the ship had left Vancouver. Our goal was to determine the prevalence of each of three incident frames within newspaper coverage of the Komagata. To do so, we developed a coding scheme that categorized each article according to a set of frame-associated cues. By determining which threat narrative had the loudest voice in the media landscape at the time, our goal was to understand better how media coverage could have generated public hostility towards the Komagata.

The first frame was the tendency to display the passengers as a racial threat. Within this frame, we include all cues referencing the groups' 'foreign' appearance, dress, and customs. We also recorded cues that compared "Oriental" and European culture in Canada, as well as any mention of Canada's white destiny or potential threats to Canadian culture associated with the Komagata. The second frame was the tendency to display the passengers as a political threat. Within this frame, we included references to the passengers' potential for violence, mentions of their violent nature or disposition (including the weapons they were perceived to be carrying), and their potential to 'riot'. Within this frame, we also include references to the passengers' histories of military or political involvement, including Indian nationalism and the Ghadr movement. The third frame was the tendency to display the passengers as an economic threat. Within this frame, we included references to the Komagata's passengers' threat to jobs, the wealth of the incoming passengers, the poor economic situation in British Columbia, or the law preventing labourers and artisans from entering Canada.

These frames were not mutually exclusive--some articles contained more than one frame--and, as we show, racial tropes were often mobilized to connect the Komagata passengers to radical political ideas. We recognize the impossibility of separating political and economic arguments against the Komagata from racial ideology.

FINDINGS

Media coverage of the Komagata Maru was extensive and unapologetically negative. Beginning in early May of 1914 and continuing months after the ship departed, the press depicted it as a critical threat to Canadian society. Our study reveals, however, that the media did not assign equal weight to all three types of threat, but rather, characterized the Komagata primarily as a risk to political stability--in British Columbia, and the British Empire more broadly. Table 1 summarizes the frequency of the three frames by newspaper. As the table shows, most of the articles appeared in the most geographically proximate sources to the crisis: the Vancouver Sun and the Times Colonist. All three frames appeared in each of the newspapers. Approximately two-thirds (65%) of the articles referenced political threat while 23% referenced economic competition, and 32% used racial discursive cues. In what follows, we explore the subordinate themes emerging within each frame.

Political threat dominated coverage of the Komagata Maru in the Vancouver Sun, the Times Colonist, and the Globe and Mail. (7) The racial threat frame was most prevalent in the Times Colonist and the Vancouver Sun, where approximately half of the articles referenced this frame. The Globe and Mail's relative lack of emphasis on this frame is surprising considering that we anticipated that whiteness as a nation-building project would be salient at all scales, if not more so at the national level. The greater tendency of the Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist to represent the Komagata's passengers as a racial threat reflects their geographical proximity to the incident. Economic threat was the least salient frame in newspaper coverage of the Komagata incident. References to economic threat occurred more frequently in the Times Colonist and the Vancouver Sun, compared to the Globe and Mail.

Political Turmoil: The Passengers as a Political Threat

Many of the articles focused explicitly on the political trouble the Komagata could bring to the British Empire. One journalist asserted, for example, to have "received information that this excursion on the Komagata Maru was inspired with the idea of making trouble which agitators in India could make use of for the purpose of arousing hostility to Great Britain in India" (Times Colonist, 21 July 1914). Along similar lines, the Vancouver Sun reported that, While opinion was unanimous that the incident was likely to bring a crisis, an Imperial problem of the first magnitude, it was also agreed that the people of British Columbia had but one course open to them and that was to protest by every means in their power against the admission of the Asiatics. (23 May 1914)

In other words, the Komagata was first and foremost an "Imperial problem."

The print media raised the alarm about the political threat posed by the passengers by describing them as violent. For example, as the vessel approached the Canadian coast, the Times Colonist noted that its passengers "were armed" and could "present a formidable front to the authorities" (21 May 1914). The Vancouver Sun warned the public of the potential for the "Hindu" frenzy to spill over onto shore. Riots, as the newspaper explained, "might easily occur and would be more serious than any threatened riots in Vancouver." On June 25th, a headline in the Vancouver Sun admonished: "Riotous passengers on Japanese vessel erect barricades on deck for attempt to repel new attack today--have been three months trying to enter Dominion through Vancouver." By using the language of battle--'attack' and 'barricades' --the headline suggests that Canada is under siege by invaders.

Journalists relied on statements made by Canadian authorities to legitimize their warnings about the "riotous" nature of the passengers. For example, the Times Colonist reported that: "the opinion expressed by Mr. H.H. Stevens. M.P., in a telegram to Ottawa to the effect that a serious riot may occur in the city in the event of the East Indians on board the Maru being allowed to land is shared by all classes" (23 June 1914). The article continued, emphasizing the consequences to Canada's peace and security if the Komagata passengers were allowed to disembark. The inclusion of the Member of Parliament's opinion lends credibility to the journalists' claims. Drawing on Stevens' authority, the reporter noted that "Mr. Stevens states that if they are landed a riot will certainly ensue and he anticipates that there will be bloodshed and disturbances of a very serious nature" (Times Colonist, 23 June 1914).

The media linked the Komagata to violence by describing the passengers as "warlike, and brandishing their lathis" (Vancouver Sun, 17 June 1914). The Vancouver Sun also described the passengers as "trained soldiers" (23 June 1914) armed, ready to "fight" and willing to "resort to war" (Vancouver Sun, 18 June 1914; 23 June 1914). Elsewhere, media coverage emphasized the (presumed) military training of the passengers and the cultural practices surrounding weaponry in the "Orient." The Times Colonist explained to its readers that "the sword in the Orient is a familiar weapon and a very large percentage of the would-be citizens of Canada are armed with them" (Times Colonist, 21 July 1914). Even as the Komagata departed Canadian waters, the Times Colonist speculated about the potential for mutiny, suggesting that "a last desperate effort would be made by the East Indians to reach the shores of the forbidden land" (Times Colonist, 24 July 1914). These representations reflect the Sikh's reputation within the British Empire as fierce, well trained, and loyal to the British Empire. In covering the Komagata affair, the media played up these skills to encourage the public's fear of the group.

The political threat posed by the passengers was also salient for government officials, who feared strained relations within the British Empire. Reflecting on the incident several months later, the Times Colonist speculated that the Komagata Maru affair had been a veiled attempt by Germany to destabilize the British. The newspaper reported that "there is some evidence of Germans having incited the East Indians to start on the expedition, and, if turned back, to stir up trouble at home" (Times Colonist, 26 Nov 1914). The Komagata Maru incident occurred as World War I was developing. The media portrayed the Komagata as not only a threat to public safety but also insinuated that the passengers were part of an enemy plot to undermine the Empire from within on the eve of WWI. By connecting the passengers to Germany, the media further legitimized their exclusion from Canada.

Racist Ideology: Passengers as a Threat to Canada's White Destiny

The media constructed the passengers as an "out-group" by emphasizing their differences from white Canadians. Even before the ship arrived in the Burrard Inlet, the Times Colonist described the passengers as part of a "skittish impetuous race, prone to vehemence and hysteria" (12 May 1914). This and subsequent statements reflect the essentialist Orientalist assumptions of Asian weakness and subordination. The Vancouver Sun wrote in early June that, "it is an Oriental characteristic to surrender suddenly, after a stubborn fight and throw up their hands and call it Kismet" (3 June 1914). This statement furthers the divide between those prone to "Oriental characteristics" and the white Canadians. The presumed link between "Asiatic races" and impulsive religious fanaticism appeared repeatedly. The Times Colonist, for example, explained to its readers that the "fanatical strain running through many Asiatic races is well known" (24 June 1914). The article continued, stating that "the capacity of the natives of India for enduring long gasts and physical suffering, when under the influence of religious excitement, is another well-known fact."

Journalists positioned the dominant white Canadian race against the subordinate "Other" South Asian passengers aboard the Komagata. The following statement, which appeared in the Vancouver Sun, illustrates this discursive strategy: "Our minds are not primitive enough to take in the extent of their fanaticism" [our emphasis] (29 June 1914). The "Our" unifies white Canadians and reinforces their dominance. Positioned first in the sentence, it juxtaposed white Canadians against the inferior "their" who is primitive and prone to zealotry. This construction legitimized the religious and cultural persecution the Komagata passengers experienced at the hands of the local press.

As the affair progressed, the descriptions of the passengers became more explicit. The language used to describe the passengers' appearance or religion painted a picture of acutely alien beings, further reinforcing the divide between the passengers and white Canadians. For example, the Times Colonist reported "few [of the passengers] wore anything on their feet" (9 July 1914), an observation that represents them as primitive and destitute. Other descriptions of "swarthy, black-bearded and turbaned men" played up the danger posed by the passengers (Times Colonist, 5 June 1914). The Times Colonist also emphasized the strangeness of the passengers religious practices, describing "figures prostrate upon mats" (Times Colonist, 11 July 1914) and the "temple aboard the Komagata Maru, in which religious exercises are continually in progress" (Times Colonist, July 9).

The Vancouver Sun also relied on the testimony of British citizens living in India. For example, a letter written to the newspaper by an Englishwoman living in India urged readers that: May Canada be firm and able to hold her own against all Orientals is the earnest wish and prayer of every English woman and man who knows India and its vilely low, common inhabitants ... [...]. And it will be the white woman who will be insulted and dishonored, for the Oriental being such a low, filthy-minded brute (his own females being no better) has no respect whatsoever for woman, in fact to him, all women are no better than dogs ... [...]. The consequences will be terrible if you give in to the Oriental. (26 June 1914)

The woman's residence in India lends credibility to her warning about the concerning elements of the passengers' culture, and especially of the danger they posed to women in British Columbia. This statement reflects eugenics discourses of the early 20th century. Its underlying assumption is that the passengers were not only sexually threatening to white women, and by extension, could lead to the "extinction" of the white race. These depictions of the passengers' "Oriental tendencies" legitimized their persecution by the public, and ultimately legitimized their exclusion.

Economic Competition: The Passengers as a Threat to Workers

Although economic threat was the least salient of the three frames, it was particularly important in the British Columbia newspapers. The media presented the Komagata debate as a matter of wage competition between "white labour" and "cheap" East Indian labour in the context of a recession. A few weeks into the ordeal, an editorial in the Times Colonist explained that "there is a great deal too much competition with white labour in our city at the present time," and warned against any "further influx of Orientals" (5 June 1914). Similarly, the Vancouver Sun suggested that there would be dire consequences for the wives and children of white labourers should the courts side with the Komagata. It argued that British Columbia should not provide "a grain for a crowd of Asiatic adventurers who are trying to force themselves into the country and starve out the wives and children" (Vancouver Sun, 8 June 1914). After authorities had driven the ship out of the Inlet, the Times Colonist newspaper described it as a "scheme for the importing of cheap labour into British Columbia" (25 July 1914). These statements cast the Komagata passengers as opportunistic economic migrants who would jeopardize society's most vulnerable.

In constructing the Komagata affair as a matter of economic threat, the media relied on statements by government officials to legitimize their claims. For example, the Times Colonist explained that "the mayor [of Vancouver] pointed out that Vancouver had its own poor, and if there was any feeding to be done, white men would be fed first" (Times Colonist, 14 May 1914). Similarly, the Vancouver Sun cited official Canadian laws barring the entry of artisans and labourers: "he [Singh] believes that his fellow citizens have the right to enter Canada, but gives no reason why the government's order-in-council prohibiting importation of labour into British Columbia should not be enforced in this case" (Vancouver Sun, 28 May 1914). The laws and authority figures lend legitimacy to the journalist's words against the passengers. The media also appealed to higher moral authorities to justify excluding the Komagata passengers: "[h]e pictured the peril to the moral as well as the economic life of the country by allowing them to settle on our soil" (Vancouver Sun, 17 June 1914). The economic threat therefore was not based purely on material grounds but also on moral reasoning.

A heightened awareness of the economic threat posed by the Komagata would have influenced the perception held by the public and any measures taken by them to keep the group out. By juxtaposing the Kotnagata's passengers against vulnerable groups (white workers and their wives and children) in British Columbia, the article heightened the in-group's perception of economic threat. In doing so, its readers may have felt obliged to act to keep the Kotnagata's passengers from entering Canada.

CONCLUSION

Migrant arrivals by water have always generated more outcry than those arriving by other means (Mann 2009; Mannik 2015; Perera 2013). Because of Canada's geographical location, irregular maritime arrivals occur infrequently. Nonetheless, this form of arrival--unsolicited and outside of "legal channels"--has elicited notable media hostility (Bradimore and Bauder 2011; Hier and Greenberg 2002; Ibrahim 2005, 175; Mannik 2015). Newspaper coverage of the Komagata Maru can be read both as a "cultural product" (Conrad 1997) as well as the principle source by which the public received information about the events.

A major obstacle for research on the Komagata Maru incident has been to interpret highly Eurocentric accounts of the affair. We have not used newsmedia to reconstruct the past, but rather, make use of the breadth of coverage of the Komagata affair to examine the media's role as a major "contextual factor influencing public opinion" (Boomgaarden and Vliegenthart 2009, 519; see also Wilkes 2016; Wilkes and Kehl 2014). Following Beyer and Matthes (2015, 3264), we assume that the patterns by which "immigration is discussed in a democratic society reflect the core values of its citizens," and that media coverage of the three dimensions of anti-immigrant hostility--racial ideology, economic competition, and political threat--can be taken as a proxy for mainstream public opinion on South Asian immigration to Canada in 1914. Our findings reveal the historical and geographical rootedness of beliefs about immigration. But, they also underscore the continuities in media coverage of immigration and of maritime arrivals more specifically.

While the media used all three dimensions in covering the Komagata affair, they used the political threat frame more frequently. Journalists across the three newspapers represented the arrivals as weapon-wielding radicals with personal histories of militarism, connecting the passengers to violent societal consequences including riots and "inevitable bloodshed." These findings reflect a deepening uncertainty about the future of the British Empire. Officials were wary of its multi-layered political complications, much of which the public would not have had any knowledge. By 1914, India was on the cusp of revolt. Although Canadian authorities wished to exclude Indian immigrants (alongside all non-European immigrants), they were required to tread carefully. The Komagata passengers were British subjects, and many of them Sikh, with a history of demonstrated loyalty to the British National Army. The officials' desire to maintain ties with the Empire prevented them from turning the Komagata away at once, but did not prevent them from manipulating the information environment.

It is not entirely clear why the media most frequently invoked the political frame although there are a number of possibilities. The first is that Gurditt Singh himself framed the journey of the Komagata as a political challenge to the British Empire, though it should be acknowledged that many of the passengers had economic motivations. (8) It could be that the media too seized on this argument but then took it in a very different direction. The second is that political threats might be more frequently invoked when the "other" group is still outside the geographic boundaries of the nation--economic and racial concerns might be invoked more often once there is more potential for inter-group mixing.

Our findings also underscore the centrality of racial ideology to the media's framing of the Komagata incident. The media represented the Komagata as a threat to white racial purity, constructing a stark opposition between the perceived inferiority of the 'Orientals' aboard the ship and the racial superiority of British Columbia's European stock. Journalists relied heavily on claims by government officials that accepting the passengers would derail Canada's white destiny. While this coverage would have undoubtedly fueled public animosity towards the arrivals, racial purity was a longstanding concern in British Columbia. We suspect that the sub-ordinance of the race frame to the political frame owes itself to the already deep entrenchment of racial ideology prior to the ship's arrival. Political threat, however, was more specific to the Komagata incident. While the media did suggest the potential for labour competition between the Komagata's passengers and British Columbia's working class, this narrative was not central to their coverage of the events. We expected this frame to appear more frequently than it did, given that one of the three laws used to bar Indian immigration prevented the entry of artisans and labourers. Yet less than one third of the articles in our sample invoked economic threat.

The parallels between media coverage of the Komagata Maru incident of 1914 and discourses surrounding contemporary "Others of globalization" (Perera 2013) are profound. In 2010, for example, 254 Tamil-refugee claimants were apprehended in Indonesian waters aboard the Jaya Lestari 5. As the ship sat immobilized for six months, government officials and the media attacked "their credibility by casting them as terrorist and criminals" and sought to "damage their morale and disable their means of communication" (Perera 2013, 68). Most recently, talking about the contemporary flow of Syrian refugees, The Independent reported that: "unless the flow of refugees is better managed, it could cause the break-up of the European Union" (Cendrowicz, 22 January 2016) and that the Islamic State was using Syrian refugee projects to "infiltrate" the West (see Sims, The Independent, 15 September 2015; and Berman, The Atlantic, 18 November 2015). In 1914, the media framed the Komagata Marus passengers as unpredictable and chaotic agents that, if allowed to enter Canada, would destabilize the British Empire. It may serve as a meaningful project to perform a comparative analysis of these two periods and to further explore the connection between political threat and arrival by water.

NOTES

(1.) Several scholars note the validity of this claim. Complex colonial networks linked India and Canada (Walton -Roberts 2003, 236), and the passenger's stature as British subjects did in fact grant them the right to travel within the empire (Kaur 2012; Manak 1998; Mann 2009, 194). The Komagata departed Hong Kong on April 4th, 1914, picking up passengers in Shanghai and ports in Japan before sailing for Vancouver (Johnston 2014 [1979]). Gurdit Singh, a Sikh merchant and contractor, assembled the group. Although Singh's motives for organizing the voyage remain ambiguous, most scholars speculate that he sought to challenge the Canadian Continuous Journey legislation that had effectively restricted immigration from India since 1908 (Buchignani 1977; Johnston 2014 [1979]; Kaur 2012; Mann 2009; Mawani 2012; Sohi 2011; Ward 2002). Singh had reason to believe that a successful challenge of this legislation was possible. Only a few months prior, a Canadian court had ruled in favour of the immigration claims of the passengers of another ship, the Panama Maru. By the time Singh secured the charter for the Komagata, however, Canadian officials had closed the loopholes in the Continuous Journey legislation. Others attribute Singh's decision to charter the ship to strong nationalism: the voyage was understood as a patriotic means of providing his "illiterate, helpless [country] men" (Johnston 2014(1979], 25; Ward 2002) with better means of earning money, thereby helping their families in India. The passage also offered a robust business opportunity, as the Komagata carried an ample amount of coal, which could be traded in Canada (Johnston 2013; 2014 [1979]; Ward 2002).

(2.) While the legal battle unfolded onshore, the ship's provisions dwindled and then expired when officials withheld food and water as a means of exerting pressure on the passengers to leave (Kazimi 2011). As weeks passed, public hostility towards the Komagata also grew, crystallizing in a heated meeting in Vancouver on June 23, where thousands of citizens voiced opposition to the passengers' immigration case. On July 6th, the British Columbia Court of Appeal ruled that the passenger's status as British subjects was inadequate to justify their admission to Canada. The ship then lay in Canadian waters for several more weeks while the passengers appealed the court's ruling (Johnston 2014 [1979]).

(3.) Speculations continue to cloud the motivations of immigration officials in instigating this event. One explanation is that officials intended to drive the ship out of Canadian waters while passengers slept to avoid a revolt (Johnston 2014 [1979]; Ward 2002). Then immigration minister, Fred Taylor, claimed that the groups' decision to go out to the boat was to have a "confab" and was a chance for their friends to look around (Taylor 1976, cited by Mall 2014). The passengers had gone hungry for days and were under the impression that they were being forcibly removed without food. When the officers attempted to board the Komagata, its passengers responded by throwing piles of coal, scrap metal, and firebricks (Johnston 2014 [1979]; Ward 2002). The tugboat was forced to retreat, but immigration officials now had grounds to remove the violent passengers with whatever force they deemed necessary.

(4.) Fearing a possible riot in Calcutta upon the ship's arrival in India, the British regime re-directed the ship to Budge Budge, an industrial port 25 miles to the southwest. There, British police forced passengers onto trains bound for Punjab. Many resisted, and the violent riot that ensued ended with eighteen passenger deaths, as well as dozens injured (Buchignani 1977; Johnston 2014 (1979]; Kaur 2012). The Komagata s long voyage and the resulting Budge Budge Massacre strained the imperial fraternity and fostered resentment within the South Asian community towards Canadian authorities during the first half of the 20th century (Mawani 2012, 370). Although British Columbia issued an official apology for the Komagata incident in 2008, this resentment resurfaced in 2013 after a leaked government document referred to a subsequent apology as a "quick win" for the Liberals' "ethnic vote" strategy (Vancouver Sun, 8 March 2013).

(5.) According to Ward (2002, 90) the threat posed by the Komagata passengers was twofold. The first concern stemmed from the "fear of inundation by hordes of Asian immigrants." Canadian officials perceived India as a "land of teeming millions," whose growing population would overrun Canada if unchecked. The second concern stemmed from the prevailing notion that East Indians were inassimilable.

(6.) Scholars have fruitfully drawn on rich primary source material to further public and academic understanding of the Komagata Maru incident. Johnston (2014(1979]) uses telegrams, memorandums, meeting minutes, immigration policies, letters, verbal conversations and newspaper clippings, as well as the official Indian government report on the Komagata Maru, other meeting reports, Komagata Maru committee minutes, Gurdit Singh's memoirs, and newspaper articles. He also includes the reflections of the only passenger still alive at the time his book was written.

(7.) Given the small number of articles written about the Komagata Maru in United States news sources, it is unlikely that a pattern can be extrapolated from these findings.

(8.) We thank a reviewer for this point.

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NILUM PANESAR has an MA degree in Sociology from York University. Her Master's research focused on media representations of immigrants in Canada. She is currently serving as a Junior Research Fellow for the NATO Association of Canada and has broader interests in leadership and global development.

YOLANDE POTTIE-SHERMAN is Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Memorial University. Her research examines the geographies of immigration, inclusion, and exclusion in U.S. and Canadian cities. Her recent publications have appeared in Social and Cultural Geography, International Migration Review (with Rima Wilkes) and Urban Studies (with Daniel Hiebert).

RIMA WILKES is Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia and the President-Elect of the Canadian Sociological Association. Her research focuses on collective action and resistance by Indigenous nations and public opinion on immigration and trust. Her recent publications have appeared in Geoforum, International Political Science Review (both with Cary Wu) and the Canadian Review of Sociology (with Aaron Duong, Line Kesler and Howard Ramos). TABLE 1. Number of articles by frame and newspaper Economic Racial Political Frames Frames Frames Vancouver Sun (n=104 articles, 34 54 68 156 frames) Times Colonist (n=78 articles, 29 38 50 117 frames) The Globe and Mail (n=19 articles, 4 3 12 19 frames) Total N 67 95 130 % of frames 22.95% 32.53% 65.99%