Suchetana Chattopadhyay’s book on Komagata Maru selected for Muzaffar Ahmed Memorial Prize

Chattopadhyay and the other recipients will be the conferred the award in a function in Kolkata on August 5

Kolkata: Historian Suchetana Chattopadhyay’s book on Komagata Maru has been selected for the prestigious Muzaffar Ahmed Memorial Prize this year.
Besides Chattopadhyay’s work — which throws light on how the British colonial police set up an elaborate system of surveillance on Sikh migrants returning to Punjab from North America and East Asia in the wake of the Komagata Maru firing incident — two other books, too, have been chosen for the award instituted in the memory of Ahmed, who was one of the founders of the Communist Party of India.
The two latter books are written in Bengali. SK Nath will be awarded for his work on Akshay Kumar Datta, an intellectual stalwart from 19th century Bengal while Manabendranath Saha has been chosen for the award for his book on filmmaker Mrinal Sen.
The award-winning book by Chattopadhyay, who teaches history at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University, is written in English.
Named “Komagata Maru: Imperial Surveillance and Workers from Punjab in Bengal”, the book tells the fascinating story of how “the Punjabi Sikh emigrants became formal targets of the colonial repressive state apparatus” in the wake of the Komagata Maru incident.
Chattopadhyay, a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, is fond of Sikhs and it shows in her academic pursuits.
Besides Komagata Maru, she has also written on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and revolutionary activities among the Sikh cab drivers living in Kolkata when India was a British colony.
The Tribune asked Chattopadhyay what was it that fascinated her about the Sikhs and Punjab? Was it the stories of the sacrifice by the Sikhs, the role played by the people of Punjab in India’s struggle for freedom or the popularity of Left-wing politics among a section of the Punjabis?
“Everything, all these things,” Chattopadhyay answered.
Former JNU professor Chaman Lal complimented Chattopadhyay on her being chosen for the Muzaffar Ahmed Memorial Award.
“She has done painstaking research for the book which has turned out to be an absolutely first-rate work,” Chaman Lal said.
Chattopadhyay and the other recipients will be the conferred the award in a function in Kolkata on August 5 on the occasion of 132nd birth anniversary of Muzaffar Ahmed.
Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship, sailed from Hong Kong for Vancouver with 376 Punjabi passengers on board in 1914. On being denied entry to Canada, it finally returned Budge Budge near Kolkata where the British police, suspecting the passengers of being sympathisers of the Ghadar Party, fired upon them when they tried to disembark. Twenty people, most of them Sikhs, died in the incident which took place in September 1914.