INDIAN ROUTES
by Kumkum Ramchandani

What do people associate with Indians and their culture? Information technology and computers, graceful saris, colourful festivals, traditional weddings, sacred cows, arranged marriages, Bollywood movies, cab drivers, turbans, temples, stone deities, honoured family traditions, good education, capacity for hard work, samosas and tandoori.

According to Mrs. Shashi Tripathi, High Commissioner of India in Canada,“I know that Indo-Canadians are very well integrated in Canada. They are making important contributions to the country’s development in every field. They occupy important and prestigious posts in politics, academics and in the bureaucracy and corporate sector in this country. Further, they are doing an excellent job in promoting India-Canada bilateral relations.”

There are close to one million people of Indian origin (not all originating from India) residing in Canada today, mainly in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and Montreal. Of these, about 400,000 are Sikhs, most of whom live in British Columbia. Because Sikhs were the first Indians to settle in Canada, they have a special importance in the history of Indian migration to Canada.

In 1897, Sikh soldiers who were attending Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London, United Kingdom (India was under British rule) travelled via British Columbia and were impressed by the possibility of the good earning potential offered by the province. The first migration of five Sikhs took place in 1903-1904 and by 1908 about 6000 Sikhs were working in the forest industry, railway construction and sawmills. Soon, however, resentment grew as British Columbians began to actively voice their objection to the infiltration of Asian workers. In 1908, a statute was passed where immigrants could only enter Canada by continuous journey from their homeland. This effectively put a stop to Indian migration as there was no such passage possible in those days.

In 1914, the famous Komagata Maru incident took place. The Japanese ship, with 376 Indians aboard, mainly Sikhs, sailed from Shanghai to Vancouver. The passengers were not allowed to disembark and were forced to leave Vancouver harbour after two months of intense hardship.

Integration into Canadian society was very slow in the early 1900’s and Sikhs settled in British Columbia formed their own religious, educational, social and political networks. In 1907 the Khalsa Diwan Society and in 1908 the first Sikh temple (gurdwara) were established in Vancouver. These institutions became centres of political and cultural activity necessitated by self-defensiveness in a hostile society.

Sikh families grew slowly over the next few decades especially as many males returned home to take part in the struggle to evict the British colonialists from India. An independent India was finally formed in 1947, the same year that Indo-Canadians were given the right to vote in Canada. In the 1950’s Canada eased the entry of some Indians as they were needed by the country for post-war rehabilitation work.

In 1961, there were only about 7000 Indians in Canada but by the1970s, after racial discrimination was formally removed from Canadian immigration legislation and the point system was introduced, the number jumped to around 70,000 with an influx of skilled workers and professionals from different parts of India.

Interestingly, today, Canada’s largest overseas immigration office is in New Delhi, the capital of India. Between 1998 and 2002, immigration from India has increased by 87 percent, from 15,388 people to 28,906. In the period 1997-2002, the composition of Indian immigration has undergone a shift with a 21 percent increase in the skilled worker category and a 19 percent decrease in the family category. The number of long term post-graduate Indian students studying in Canada has increased from 943 in 2000 to 1226 in 2001, a 30 percent jump.

Though progress is slower than it should be, given the growing influx of skilled and educated Indian immigrants each year, Indo-Canadians, after the initial struggle, are beginning to prosper in almost every field from business and franchising to I.T., teaching, real estate, banking and politics.

It is estimated that over 30 percent of Indo-Canadians have jobs in professional and managerial fields both in the government and the private sectors while 23 percent have jobs in manufacturing. As compared to other ethnic groups, Indians are most likely to have university degrees and the average annual income is reported to be either on par or up to 20 percent higher than the national average.

If you ask an Indo-Canadian why he or she chose to immigrate to Canada, ninety percent of the time the answer will be: to give the children a better life. Personal success, good education and close knit family life are the core of Indian society. Most Indians feel that Canada can offer them all this. This is corroborated by the Indian High Commissioner, who points out, “I believe Canada with its multicultural plural society, much like ours, provides a favourable climate for people of different religions, cultures and languages to settle down on a permanent basis with their families.”

Almost more than any other community, first generation Indo-Canadians have a deep and abiding love for the country of their birth, India. When the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, recently announced the country’s proposal to allow dual nationality for Indo-Canadians, there was a collective sigh of relief.

Nostalgic memories of the “motherland” and relatives back home, mainly for first generation Indo-Canadians, tends to manifest itself in a clinging to old traditions and religious tenets. The Canadian environment of tolerant multiculturalism is very conducive to this. Today, there are over a hundred temples and gurdwaras in Canada and hundreds of Indian associations.
Since first generation Indians tend to cling to their heritage, it is often a source of great distress when their children begin to adopt the ‘Canadian way of life’, for example, revealing westernized modes of dress and less regard for cultural and religious rituals. This has created emotional problems amongst Indo-Canadian youth and various organizations have been established, like the Council of Agencies Serving South Asians (CASSA), to help families resolve these problems.

Indians have a passion for politics. This was first nurtured when all cross sections of society came together in the 1940s to liberate their country from over 200 years of British rule.

In Canada, too, Indians have evolved as one of the most politically active ethnic groups, especially in the last 15 years. As a result, Canadian politicians are actively wooing the their vote resulting in a few clucks of disapproval from the national press which points out that the creation of such “vote banks” is more representative of electioneering tactics within India.

Recently, the Liberal Party of Canada had its knuckles rapped by four prominent British Columbian Liberal Party supporters. The statistics were startling. Indo-Canadians, about 15,000 of whom are Liberal Party members, together with Chinese Canadians, make up 75 percent of the 37,226 Liberal Party members in B.C. while they comprise only 15 percent of the population of the province. As compared to this, the white members form less than 20 percent of Liberal Party membership while comprising 75 percent of the province’s population.

British Colombian Sikh, Moe Sihota, was the first Indo-Canadian to become a Cabinet member in 1986. In 1991, another Sikh, Ujjal Dosanjh, was appointed the Premier of British Columbia, while a third Sikh, Herb Dhaliwal, was the Minister of Natural Resources in the Chretien government. In the 2003 landslide Liberal victory in Ontario, three Indo-Canadians were elected – Harinder Takhar, who is now Ontario’s Minister for Transportation, Vic Dhillon and Kuldip Kular.

Due to their increasing political standing and influence and relatively high personal wealth, Indo-Canadians are becoming prominently visible at political fund raising events and rallies. Associations like the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) in Toronto, with 750 members, play an important role in recognising, nurturing and promoting Indian enterprise.

According to Pradeep Sood, current president of the ICCC, Indians are making rapid strides in their contribution to the Canadian environment. Not only does the Chamber present annual awards to leading Indians in the fields of business, professionalism, social work, entrepeneurship and other categories, but it also provides a platform for Indians to join politics.

“Though we are a completely apolitical body,” emphasizes Sood, “We promote Indians for public office, not directly, but via the platform of our membership.”

Indian culture has also made its inroads into Canadian society with film directors like Deepa Mehta (Hollywood/Bollywood) and Booker nominee and author Rohinton Mistry (A Fine Balance) entering the mainstream. Indian cuisine and Indian style malls and bazaars selling ethnic goods have grabbed the attention of many Canadian consumers.

Though the struggle for acceptance has been long and hard, Indo-Canadians are coming into their own and beginning to earn the same respect they have in the United States where their skills and capacity for hard work have been rewarded both economically and personally. As a testimony to this, in October 2003, (former?) Prime Minister Jean Chretien paid a historic visit to Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh shrines. He also inaugurated a Canadian consulate general in Chandigarh, Punjab. In 1999, Canada released a postage stamp commemorating the hundred years of Sikh contribution to Canada. It would not be incorrect to say that Indo-Canadians are finally beginning to realize the Canadian Dream.



Prominent Indo-Canadians

ARTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

M.G.Vassanji – author and two time winner of the Giller Prize
Deepa Mehta – film maker; popular films include Bollywood/Hollywood, Earth and Fire
Rohinton Mistry – author and Booker prize nominee; best selling books include A Fine Balance and Family Matters.
Anita Rau Badami – author; popular books include Tamarind Mem and A Hero’s Walk
Lisa Ray – actress and model; star of Bollywood/Hollywood.
Ruby Bhatia – actress, model, veejay. She was Miss India Canada.
Russell Peters – South Asian-baiting stand up comedian who has gained worldwide fame
Haroon Siddiqui – award winning columnist for the Toronto Star.
Suhana Meharchand – TV anchor and news reporter at CBC
Raj Ahluwalia – CBC reporter


POLITICS & COMMUNITY

Herb Dhaliwal – Minister of Natural Resources
Ujjal Dosanjh – former Premier of British Columbia
Gurmant Singh Grewal – Member of Parliament
Gurbax Singh Malhi – Member of Parliament and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Labour
Deepak Obhrai – Member of Parliament
Rahim Jaffer – Member of Parliament
Akaash Maharaj – Liberal Party’s National Policy Chair
Mobina Jaffer – Senator and first Indo-Canadian woman to practise law in British Columbia
Colin D’Cunha – Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario
Sheila Basrur – Medical Officer of Health, Toronto Public Health Department
Pradeep Sood – President, Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce
Sunil V.Patel – President of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).