Komagata Maru and Canadian Law

: On board were 376 passengers, most of whom were Sikh migrants from what was then British India, according to Hamilton Spectator. The ship was not allowed to dock. In mid-May 1914, the Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship, arrived in Vancouver after leaving Hong Kong in early April. A 1908 Canadian law at the time forbade arrivals in the country who did not make a "continuous journey" from their nation of birth or citizenship. In a challenge to the rules, the Komagata Maru, chartered by a Sikh businessman with ties to an influential Sikh political party in the Americas, steamed across the Pacific. In an era when hundreds of thousands of white European immigrants were settling in Canada, the law was seen as a measure to stymie Indian arrivals because it was practically impossible to travel directly from the Indian mainland to North America. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.