The South Asian community in British Columbia was first established in 1897. The first immigrants originated from Punjab, British India, a northern region and state in modern-day India and Pakistan. Punjabis originally settled in rural British Columbia at the turn of the twentieth century, working in the forestry and agricultural industries.
As their numbers grew, anti-"Hindu" sentiment increased among the Europeans living in the province thus preventing them from voting in 1908. Originally, Indian settlement was predominantly male; large numbers of women and children began arriving in the mid-20th century. In 1947, South Asians were given the right to vote, therefore permitting their entry into British Columbian political life.
In the late 20th century, many South Asians transitioned from living in rural areas of the province into living in urban areas as the economic vitality of the forestry industry declined.
History
1897 to 1906
The first persons of South Asian origin to visit British Columbia were soldiers transiting from India to the United Kingdom. They went through in 1897 and 1902, the former during the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria and the latter when Edward VII was crowned as king.Walton-Roberts, Margaret. 1998. "Three Readings of the Turban: Sikh Identity in Greater Vancouver" (Archive). In Urban Geography, Vol. 19: 4, June. - DOI 10.2747/0272-3638.19.4.311 - Available at Academia.edu and at ResearchGate. p. 316. The Punjabis who did not stay in Canada returned home and spread the word about life in Canada.Das, p. 4 (Archive). Additional British Indians, soldiers stationed in East Asia, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, traveled after the Boxer Rebellion period. Many of them arrived in Canada.Das, p. 3 (Archive).
The Indians who had participated in the Diamond Jubilee and Chinese both had given positive information regarding Canada, convincing Indians in China to immigrate to Canada.Lal, p. 17. Some of these early pioneers remained in the province and by 1900 were around 100 South Asians in the Lower Mainland. Most of these early settlers were male Sikh Punjabis thus becoming the first South Asian-origin group to move to Canada. They settled in British Columbia with the wish to find jobs."Country Brief – Canada" (Archive). Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. p. 3/7. Retrieved on October 21, 2014. "The vast majority of Vancouver Indians are of Sikh Punjabi origin."
At the turn of the 20th century new restrictions on Chinese immigrants caused their immigration figures to decline. Steamship lines began recruiting Indians to make up for the loss of business from the Chinese. There was a job shortage in the agricultural sector, and the Fraser River Canners' Association and the Kootchang Fruit Growers' Association asked the Canadian government to abolish immigration restrictions on persons working as domestic servants and agricultural workers and to allow increased immigration. Letters from persons settling in Canada gave persons still in India encouragement to move to Canada, and there was an advertising campaign to promote British Columbia as an immigration destination.Singh, Hira, p. 94 (Archive).
Hoshiarpur and Jullundur in Punjab were the areas from which the largest groups of initial immigrants originated. This was due to a crisis in the region at the time; peasants in Jullundur became tenants had gone into debt after losing control of their land due to the concept of private property and cash taxation established during British colonization.Singh, Hira, p. 97 (Archive)-98 (Archive). Facing rising debts, many individuals emigrated from Jullundur and Hoshiarpur to Canada.Singh, Hira, p. 98 (Archive). Other three major points of origin were Amritsar, Ferozpur, and Ludhiana.Lal, p. 29. The vast majority came from the Doaba and Malwa areas while relatively few came from Majha and some emigrated from the United States and other areas in the British Commonwealth. In the coming decades, the differentiation between Doaba and Malwa-originating persons continued to be an issue even as it had decreased in importance in the Punjab".Ames and Inglis, "Tradition and Change in British Columbia Sikh Life," p. 78.
William Lyon Mackenzie King, the Deputy Minister of Labour, concluded that, "exploitative ventures of some East Indian immigration agents in British Columbia" and "misleading literature by certain individuals" were the primary reasons why persons of Indian origin immigrated to Canada to be the most important causes of Indian immigration to Canada; King had been tasked to discover why persons of Indian origin were immigrating to Canada. However, the report did not take into account other factors which convinced people to leave Punjab,Lal, p. 24. including the promotion of social mobility and a lack of stratification in Sikhism as well as a lack of stigma against migration.Lal, p. 28.
A notable moment in early South Asian Canadian history in British Columbia was in 1902 when Punjabi Sikh settlers first arrived in Golden, British Columbia to work at the Columbia River Lumber Company. This was a theme amongst most early Punjabi settlers in Canada to find work in the agricultural and forestry sectors in British Columbia."Country Brief – Canada" (Archive). Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. p. 4/7. Retrieved on October 21, 2014. "Emigrants from India today enjoy success in all fields within the economy while there are some concentration in British Columbia in agriculture and forestry." Punjabis became a prominent ethnic group within the sawmill workforce in British Columbia almost immediately after initial arrival to Canada.Nayar, The Punjabis in British Columbia, p. 28. "In fact, early in the twentieth century, when many Chinese and Japanese men were working in sawmills, lumber labour had become associated with ethnicity."
The early settlers in Golden built the first Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) in Canada and North America in 1905, which would later be destroyed by fire in 1926. The second Gurdwara to be built in Canada was in 1908 in Kitsilano (Vancouver), aimed at serving a growing number of Punjabi Sikh settlers who worked at nearby sawmills along False Creek at the time. The Gurdwara would later close and be demolished in 1970, with the temple society relocating to the newly built Gurdwara on Ross Street, in South Vancouver. The third Gurdwara to be built in Canada was the Gur Sikh Temple, located in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Built in 1911, it is the oldest existing Gurdwara in the country and the continent, and was designated as a national historic site of Canada in 2002.
The first large contingent of South Asians first arrived in 1904; nearly all were Punjabi Sikhs originating from the Chinese cities of Guangzhou (Canton), Hong Kong, and Shanghai.Lal, p. 16.Ames, and Inglis, "Conflict and Change in British Columbia Sikh Family Life," p. 17. These first settlers began to work in the forestry industry and congregated around sawmills along the Fraser River, including settlements such as Fraser Mills and Queensborough; the former in present-day Coquitlam, with the later situated in New Westminster. Small towns on Vancouver Island including Paldi were prominent sites for early South Asian settlement (primarily Punjabi Sikhs) that revolved around the sawmill industry, while a minority also found employment in agriculture in the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. Out of these sites, today, both Queensborough and Abbotsford still retain a large South Asian community, each forming around 30% of the local population.
1907 to 1920
A large increase in Indian settlement occurred in 1906 and 1907 as nearly 4,800 individuals from South Asia arrived in Canada. Many immigrants initially settled rural areas, and there they worked in Canada's forestry industry.Nayar, The Punjabis in British Columbia, p. xiv. "In effect, the study examines the "twice-migration" of the Punjabi community - the migration from India to rural Canada and then the internal migration from rural to urban Canada."Pontellini, Michaela. "The History of Punjabis in British Columbia" (Archive) (book review). Vancouver Weekly. Retrieved on October 18, 2014. As of 1908 there were about 5,179 persons of Indian origin in Canada, primarily Punjabi settlers all concentrated in British Columbia forming 1.6 percent of the provincial population at the time,Koehn, p. 5. of which many of whom would ultimately migrate south to the United States,Das, p. 15 (Archive). with some heading back to British India or British Hong Kong as the 1911 Canadian Census later revealed the South Asian Canadian population in British Columbia had declined to 2,342 persons or 0.6 percent of the provincial population.
Anti-Indian sentiment among the white population increased as the numbers of South Asians increased. The persons already in British Columbia had already felt anti-Chinese and anti-Japanese sentiment, which had been responsible for 1907 riots investigated by the Canadian government. Nevertheless, many Indians continued to arrive on the shores of British Columbia through 1908; in effect, this renewed the hostile feeling of the Canadian people towards East and South Asians.Das, p. 8 (Archive).
Kitsilano, a community straddling False Creek in Vancouver also played host to a large contingent of Sikh settlers and in 1908 was the site of the second-oldest Gurdwara (Sikh temple) to be constructed in Canada and North America, three years after the oldest Gurdwara in the country and continent opened in Golden. The third-oldest Gurdwara (Gur Sikh Temple) to be built in Canada and North America, and the oldest existing Gurdwara in the country and continent was built in Abbotsford in 1911. Later, the fourth Gurdwara to be built Canada was established in 1912 in Victoria on Topaz Avenue, while the fifth soon was built at the Fraser Mills (Coquitlam) settlement in 1913, followed a few years later by the sixth at the Queensborough settlement (1919), and the seventh at the Paldi settlement (1919).
Europeans stated that the increase in Indians during this period was depressing wages, and the employment situation became a job shortage. Trade unions and the Victoria Trade and Labour Council protested the immigration influx. The authorities acted due to pressure from white persons; the federal government instituted immigration restrictions against persons of Indian origin.Singh, Hira, p. 95 (). Later, Indo-Canadians opposed a 1909 attempt by British authorities to move those in British Columbia to British Honduras, modern day Belize.
In 1908 the British Columbia government passed a law preventing East Indian men from voting. Because eligibility for federal elections originated from provincial voting lists, East Indian men were unable to vote in federal elections.Nayar, The Punjabis in British Columbia, page 15. Restrictions were placed despite the British government's concerns that anti-British sentiment would grow back in India, and that anti-British forces would take advantage of these sentiments. In addition the Canadian government had enacted a $200 head tax and de facto blocked significant immigration from India by establishing the continuous journey regulation - a rule requiring immigrants to take a continuous journey from their country of origin to Canada. At the time there was no continuous route between India and Canada. There were also measures that prevented wives and children of Indians already resident in Canada from going to Canada. Beginning in 1909 the annual numbers of Indians immigration to Canada did not go above 80 and this did not change until the mid-20th century immigration reforms.