Renisa Mawani charts the story of the Komagata Maru-a steamship that left Hong Kong for Vancouver in 1914 carrying 376 Punjabi immigrants who were denied entry into Canada-to illustrate imperialism's racial, legal, spatial, and temporal dynamics and how oceans operate as sites of jurisdictional and colonial contest.

Scholars and students of postcolonial studies, transnational studies, Canadian studies, South Asian studies, Canadian history, politics, sociology, and critical ethnic studies will find much to interest them in this book. It will also find an audience within the South Asian diaspora.