The Sikhs in Canada, 1911

Address to the Canadian Club (Toronto), December 28th, 1911, by Dr. Sunder Singh, editor of "The Aryan" Magazine (Victoria, BC) and official leader of a colony of four thousand Sikhs in British Columbia. 

Now, as to the movement of the Sikhs into Canada: The first Sikhs who came were the troopers who came over from the celebration of Queen Victoria's jubilee at London. They passed through this country; they saw this wonderful Dominion, and when they went home they spoke of the prairies which were just like the plains of the Punjab. Some enterprising men wanted to come to Canada. They are not like other people in India, their idea of God is different from that of the Hindu people.

They started to come over here. In 1905 a few came over; in 1906 a few more; in 1907 and 1908 a further number; but in 1909 all immigration from India was stopped. When they came over, a few went into different laboring occupations but not many as they are originally farmers and their intention was to settle on the land. Most of them in British Columbia and Alberta have bought land. The intention is to put them on the land so they may, as farmers, help to develop the country. Some of them clear the land and they do the roughest work as laborers. We find them engaged as dairy farmers, market gardeners, growing fruit, etc. 

They have adapted themselves to their new surroundings. How well they have done is expressed by Colonel Davidson, of Davidson and MacRae, one of the biggest employers of labor there, who says these Sikhs are the most efficient men he has. He employs three hundred and fifty men at Westminster, B.C. When they came they were unskilled; now they are getting responsible positions. Every time he goes to see them he finds their sheds far cleaner than before; and they are improved, are better physically since coming into this country. Their standard of living is higher, and they have made good. 

And I make this appeal to you, the people from Southern Europe, from Italy, the Chinese, the Japanese, are accorded better treatment. Is there any process of law or regulation which can be directly or indirectly used to strip a loyal British subject of his inherent right to travel or dwell in another part of the British Empire? The Sikhs reason that they can travel in the Sahara, in India, in China, in more or less every country of Europe, and why not in Canada? They go back to their villages and temples and they tell of Canada and how they are treated here. These are the people who have upheld the Union Jack, the flag which stands for equality and justice to all the races in the wide-flung domain of the British Empire. They are a people who are law-abiding and loyal; and their loyalty is not lip-loyalty, but is proven on the battlefield by their willing sacrifice. Bear with me, Gentlemen, when I say that a people who have been so loyal as the Sikhs might surely expect some deed of gratefulness from the other side.

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The Sikhs have fitted into the situation, and the prejudice against them is passing away. They have $2,000,000 invested in British Columbia; they have put every cent they had into land there, not like foreigners who come in to make a lot of money and go away with it; they are here to settle down and develop the country.

The Sikhs have shown their devotion to the British Empire in Tirah, in Tibet, in Afghanistan, in East Africa, in the Soudan, in Somaliland, and just at this moment Sikh troopers are being sent to fight your cause in Persia and the Abor country on the Northeast frontier of India. A people who show loyalty like this, surely Canada would not accord to them the same treatment as to those who are of different stock and character. They expect better treatment than foreigners. To lump them together with Japanese and Chinese as Orientals is absurd. They have the same thoughts and feelings as you and are not like the Orientals. You will bear with me, Gentlemen, when I say that this ill-treatment of the Sikhs in Canada is helping, in fact fanning, the unrest in India. 

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Your President was telling me that Sir Andrew Fraser was lecturing here four or five weeks ago, and he told a newspaper that the treatment received by the Sikhs in Canada was scandalous; that it was outrageous for them to be accorded the same treatment as the Japanese and Chinese. We hope that by bringing this question to the notice of the business men of Canada they will see that some justice is done to the Sikhs. Canada has a great future and it behooves the people of this country to have amicable relations with India. The two peoples should understand and know each other, so that this prejudice should be done away with. 

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The Sikhs have all along believed in British fair play and justice, and if that idea, on account of this treatment, were lost then it would be a very bad day. The people of India have all the time believed that when all was said and done British justice would be done to all the people of India and all the various tribes, that when they went to a British court they would get justice. In the same way it is for the people of Canada to see that justice is done in this case; that the wives and children that have been separated from these men are allowed to come. 

These men have been in this country six years; they worship the same God; they are law-abiding citizens; they have fitted into the situation here. It is well that the pledges given to the people of India by Queen Victoria should be remembered; that we hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the same obligations of duty which bind us to all our other subjects. These pledges were confirmed by the late King Edward, as well as by His Majesty King George V., who has won the homage and loyalty of all his Indian subjects by being crowned at Delhi. It is right and due that justice should be done to all these people. It would help to allay the present feeling in India; it would help to consolidate this great Empire. There are four thousand Sikhs over here in British Columbia in different occupations; they have adapted themselves to the work and to the different conditions in Canada.  

 

You admit Galicians, Italians, Greeks and other Southern European people who are aliens; but our people have been British subjects for generations, almost as long as Canada has been a part of the British Empire, for a hundred and fifty years. It is a household word among the Sikhs that England, Great Britain, and the Sikhs will hold together. I hope you will consider our rights and give us the same right as you give to any other people. (Applause.)