Punjabi music icon Diljit Dosanjh—who has achieved world stardom by way of a brand new album, sold-out stadiums, and an inimitable bhangra type—appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night The Tonight Present for a second time final week. Dosanjh was there to advertise his newest album, Aura, and his North American tour, which opened with a present in Vancouver on April 23. Halfway by way of the interview, although, he turned to one thing fairly completely different: the story of the Komagata Maru, whose principally Punjabi passengers had been denied entry to Canada in 1914.
For descendants and students, the change with Fallon was about extra than simply superstar. It positioned a painful chapter of Canadian immigration historical past—a narrative of rejection and the seek for belonging that’s all too acquainted to the bigger Indian and South Asian diaspora—earlier than a mainstream world viewers.
Dosanjh was referring to the voyage of the Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship additionally remembered within the Punjabi neighborhood because the Guru Nanak Jahaz. The ship arrived in Vancouver in Could 1914, carrying 376 passengers from British India, most of them Punjabi Sikhs searching for entry to Canada at a time when immigration guidelines had been designed to maintain Asians out. After almost two months in Burrard Inlet, most passengers had been compelled to show round.
For Raj Singh Toor, vp and spokesperson for the Descendants of the Komagata Maru Society, Dosanjh’s point out was an act of recognition. “When he says one thing, hundreds, thousands and thousands, of individuals hear,” Toor says. “I wish to thank him for recognizing Komagata Maru passengers in his present.”
Toor has spent years pushing governments and cities to formally acknowledge the incident, together with apologies, commemorative indicators, and renamed public areas. Canada formally apologized within the Home of Commons in 2016, greater than a century after the incident. However Toor says the bigger aim is schooling, particularly for youthful Canadians who might not understand how exhausting earlier generations fought to open doorways.
“We will’t undo the previous,” Toor says, “however we are able to transfer ahead”—by educating folks what occurred.
That historical past is private for Toor. His grandfather, Baba Puran Singh Janetpura, was one of many ship’s passengers—on his strategy to Canada looking for a greater life, solely to be held offshore and denied entry. Toor says the passengers trusted the native South Asian neighborhood for meals, water, and drugs whereas they waited. For him, the episode isn’t solely about Canada’s refusal however about what earlier migrants made potential for later generations. Toor’s grandfather refused to return to Canada due to the painful reminiscences however believed these passengers helped open a path.
“Due to their sacrifice, at present the South Asian neighborhood resides very peacefully, very fortunately right here in Canada,” Toor says.
Charlie Wall-Andrews, a Toronto Metropolitan College professor who has developed a course on Dosanjh’s cultural affect, says the second on Fallon’s present stood out as a result of it was historic: a Punjabi artist being celebrated on a significant American stage whereas honouring ancestors who had been as soon as rejected by the West.
Wall-Andrews says that by utilizing the identify Guru Nanak Jahaz, Dosanjh “didn’t simply point out a tragedy; he reclaimed a chunk of Sikh historical past and turned a late-night leisure phase into a robust assertion on diaspora resilience.”
The change additionally gave Wall-Andrews’s work an sudden highlight. Fallon famous {that a} Toronto college is educating a course on Dosanjh. The singer laughed it off, saying he didn’t know what the course would educate as he hadn’t gone to varsity or college himself, describing himself as “tenth go”—somebody who has studied solely as much as grade ten.
Dosanjh’s second look on The Tonight Present in two years additionally suggests Punjabi music is not being handled as a one-off, Wall-Andrews says, however as a sustained world drive with a rising viewers. (Dosanjh’s first look was in June 2024, when he was launched as one of many greatest Punjabi artists on the planet, and he carried out “G.O.A.T.” and “Born to Shine.”)
And the interview wasn’t only a historical past lesson. Moments later, Dosanjh taught Fallon a bhangra transfer—the clip going viral on social media, with thousands and thousands of views.
Through the years, the Indian and South Asian diaspora has develop into a significant a part of Canada’s social and cultural material. In line with World Affairs Canada, greater than 1.8 million Canadians are of Indian origin, whereas Statistics Canada categorised South Asians because the nation’s largest racialized group within the 2021 census, at almost 2.6 million and making up 7.1 p.c of Canada’s inhabitants.
The timing of Dosanjh’s feedback was additionally important. Vancouver marks Could 23 as Guru Nanak Jahaz (Komagata Maru) Remembrance Day, after town council formally apologized in 2021 for the discrimination. Town says it’s refurbishing its memorial with extra sturdy supplies and up to date, translated historic content material.
Toor desires governments, colleges, and universities to do extra to show Canadians in regards to the episode for the advantage of future generations.
“In the event that they know the historical past, the historical past won’t repeat once more,” he says.
Initially revealed as “Diljit Dosanjh rekindles a century of uneven Punjabi Canadian historical past” by New Canadian Media. Reprinted right here with permission.
The publish Diljit Dosanjh on Jimmy Fallon: A Historical past Lesson in Canada’s Mistreatment of Immigrants first appeared on The Walrus.//www.instagram.com/embed.js
Leave a Reply