Looking back at the historical incident of 1914, after exactly a century in 2014, the Canadian government recently issued a stamp, respectfully remembering the tragedy affecting the lives of more than 350 Indians in its centenary year.
However its quite sad that the incident is not being remembered with an equal respect in our own country, not even by the people in Punjab or its state government, officially. So this is my humble attempt to enlighten all friends about that lesser known heartbreaking event of 1914 and a film made on the same released way back in 1974.About the actual incident
Komagata Maru, was a Japanese steamship hired by an influential Sikh Baba Gurdit Singh sailing towards Canada with 376 Indians aboard including 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus as per the history books. The ship reached Vancouver on May 23, 1914 but due to certain migration restrictions its passengers were not allowed to get off and only 20 out the 376 people were given the permission after proving their resident status. The ship was then sent back to India and it again reached a port near Calcutta after a long, tiring voyage towards the end of September (after four months). But shockingly, here several travellers of the ship were gunned down by the British troops near Baj Baj ghat and only a few managed to escape whereas the rest were all imprisoned in their own country by the foreign rulers. The tragic incident was one of the major historical events of the early 20th century contributing hugely in building a solid base for India’s freedom struggle in the next decades.
A Rare Hind Film made on the historical tragedy.
Dedicating the project to Baba Gurdit Singh, writer-producer-director Rajbans Khanna made a spirited Hindi film titled JEEVAN SANGRAM in the year 1974, which was a fictional account of the events after the ship came back to India. The movie featured Shashi Kapoor, Radha Saluja, Om Shiv Puri, Man Mohan, Iftekhar, Murad, Asit Sen, Jalal Agha & many more in the key roles of revolutionary Indians and had its soundtrack composed by Kalyanji-Anandji. The songs had melodious voices of Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, Mahendra Kapoor and Narender Chanchal, singing the lyrics of Indivar, Gulzar and M.G. Hashmat. Plus the screenplay and dialogues were also written by Gulzar and Qamar Jalalabadi together which certainly gave another finer edge to the project undoubtedly.Made with a very authentic feel of Punjab, it had some thoughtfully written dialogues in its well-executed climax, mentioning the teachings of Jesus Christ and the huge sacrifice of the entire family and his four young sons by the tenth Guru of Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh.
Unfortunately JEEVAN SANGRAM, remains one of those visionary but forgotten films made on the Indian Independence movement in the 70s and the KOMAGATA MARU incident is still not known to a big proportion of our population sadly. The film is a rare find in the home video market presently but luckily I did found a working link with the complete film at a foreign language site as a pleasant surprise.
So if you do find the theme interesting, then just try to watch this unheard of gem at the earliest. And at the time of writing this article the film was available at the link given below thankfully.
HIS BLESSINGS
Tags :
Komagata Maru Incident of 1914, Canadian Stamp Issued on Komagata Maru in 2014, Jeevan Sangram released in 1974, Did You Know Facts about Hindi Cinema by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Unknown Trivia on Hindi Films by Bobby Sing, Bollywood Rare Trivia at bobbytalkscinema.com
