Insensitivity and ignorance have been part of Canada’s racist history. Immigrants, especially from the “visible minority” communities, not only faced racial discrimination in most aspects of their lives in Canada, but they could also discern reflections of bigotry and segregation in their labellings.
In the early part of the twentieth century, immigrants from the Indian subcontinent were all classified as “Hindoos.”
Komagatamaru passengers, dominated by Sikhs (340), Muslims (24) and Hindus (12), were all docketed as “Hindoos” by the authorities and the media of the time.
They were all British subjects, but the misspelled word “Hindoos” reveals ignorance and ethnocentric arrogance.
The “Hindoo” entitlement was carried on for a long time, not only by the government and the media but also by the Canadian public.
And for a brief duration in the early ’70s, during the extreme racist period, especially in Europe, here in Canada, Asian subcontinent migrants were stamped as “Pakis” by the born-racist Canadians of the redneck likes.
The tagging of immigrants as “Hindoos” and “Pakis” from the subcontinent was not merely for identification purposes, but in any event of hatred, the monikers often carried abusive connotations.
However, with more numbers filling the population demography of Canada over the years and with improved knowledge and understanding within the changing Canadian society, “Hindoos-Pakis” got some better grading in their designation.
The title “East Indian” was assigned and became prevalent in the overall multicultural Canadian population. This identification also distinguished migrants from India from Native Indians. The “East Indian” entitlement lasted till most recently, but it is occasionally still being used.
As the nomenclature process continued, the subsequent appellation was Indo-Canadian. This development happened even though migrants came to Canada from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.
But the metamorphosis was significant as the community got the hyphen between “Indo” and Canadian. As a matter of fact, Canadians from most other multicultural communities were hyphenated, too. The hyphen marked and recognized the distinctive cultural diversity of Canadian society.
However, there were ultra-nationalist Canadians, including some from the ethnic communities, who were against the hyphenated designation of Canadians. They were the ones who opposed Canada’s multicultural entity. Instead, they sought a melting pot of all cultures to fancy a composite Canadian culture. Many among the ethnic leaders, in their zeal for His Master’s Voice, opposed Pierre Trudeau’s introduction of the official Multicultural concept of Canada.
Till now, as an emerging ethnic community, all the identification labels, including the Indo-Canadian one, were assigned either by government authorities, media or the public in general.
But the scenario got changed.
In the ’70s, The Link newspaper, myself as its editor and publisher, along with several other groups representing immigrants from the sub-continent, took up the entitlement on themselves and started using South Asian Canadian expression.
Soon, this designation got easy acceptance from all levels of government, as they were also looking for the correct term for all those immigrants with roots in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan and other smaller states of the subcontinent.
The South-Asian-Canadian entitlement precisely and unequivocally represents all those new Canadians sharing the region’s related cultural, linguistic and religious values.
They include immigrants not coming directly from South Asian countries but from all over the world with roots in the Indian subcontinent.
Under this banner lies South Asia’s cultural and linguistic diversities, besides representing a joint ethnic force that adds its own chapter to fight for a racist-free Canada.
By Promod Puri
Promod Puri.com 