Bhai Mewa Singh Ji (b.1881 - January 11, 1915) was a Sikh activist in Canada who was a member of the Vancouver branch of the Ghadar Party, which called for the overthrow of British rule in India. In …
Bhai Mewa Singh Ji (b.1881 - January 11, 1915) was a Sikh activist in Canada who was a member of the Vancouver branch of the Ghadar Party, which called for the overthrow of British rule in India. In 1914, the Komagatu Maru incident occurred in which 376 passengers from India were denied entry despite being British subjects under Canada's continuous journey regulation, due to suspected links to revolutionaries in India. While the ship was at anchor waiting for provisions for their forced return trip to Asia, Mewa Singh traveled across the border to Sumas, WA to purchase guns for the Komagatu Maru passengers. Unfortunately he was apprehended and the ship sailed back to Calcutta (present-day Kolkata). On 29 September 1914, the Indian Imperial Police attempted to arrest the group leaders, leading to violence in which police opened fire and killed 20 passengers while others were arrested or imprisoned.
On this day in 1914, Mewa Singh murdered a Canadian immigration inspector, W. C. Hopkinson, a political act of violence for which he was executed by the Canadian government. Hopkinson had presided over the Komagatu Maru incident, and was notoriously running a spy ring of infiltrators within the local South Asian community, especially of anti-colonial activists who were organizing from N America for India's liberation from England. Hopkinson was a former Indian police officer, and was working for both the Canadian Immigration agency and providing information to England's Criminal Intelligence Department in India, as well as US Immigration. One of Hopkinson's spies, Bela Singh had entered the Vancouver Gurdwara (sacred Sikh religious building) and under abetment of Hopkinson, opened fire within the Gurdwara and murdered two Sikhs. This sacriligous act was deeply disrespectful to the Sikh community and one of the main reasons for Mewa Singh's assassination of Hopkinson. Today Mewa Singh is celebrated as a martyr across West Coast South Asian communities. At his court date, Mewa Singh explained the reasoning for Hopkinson's execution: “out of honour and principle to my fellow men and for my religion,” “in the cause of justice,” and to help the Sikh community: “I have taken Mr. Hopkinson’s life and am going to give my own.”
This incident is memorialized in the movie Guru Nanak Jahaz, which was the Punjab name for the Komagatu Maru.
