ABSTRACT
The paper examines how memories of Komagata Maru had travelled beyond Budge Budge and returned after these were selectively appropriated by Indians at different points of time. In Kolkata, the Punjabi Sikhs incorporated them in their anti-imperial struggle to recreate home memories through remembrances of community's sacred text (Guru Granth), sacred space (gurdwara) and mother tongue (maboli). In spite of attempts at marginalizing the representations of Komagata Maru in Independent India, their incessant imagined journeys beyond the limits of Punjabi Sikhs widened the implications of Komagata Maru episode, elevated Budge Budge to a site of national pride. Reconstruction of the memories of many voyages of Komagata Maru not only underline how the Indian nation state was compelled to legitimize them on the eve of their centenary celebration, but also offers an entry point of reviewing of how these provide some fresh perspectives to the notion of Sikh diaspora beyond Punjab in India.
