A Note On Asian Indian Women In
British Columbia 1900-1935
MAHINDER DOMAN

I

l

sian Indians in British Columbia are relatively recent immigrants.
The earliest recorded history of their presence dates their arrival around the
mid-1800s when merchants, sailors, and mercantilists briefly sojourned. 1 As
time passed, retired Sikh soldiers came to view the reported beauty and
vastness of the British Empire's newly settled colony as they travelled en route
to India after having attended Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
celebrations. These travellers sent inviting reports on Canada and its
prospective wealth to their friends and relatives. Around the same time, some
steamship companies, particularly the CPR,stirred up interest in emigration
to Canada among tne people of the Punjab. According to Johnston, the Sikhs
in 1904 were "encouraged by Hong Kong agents of the Canadian Pacific
Railway who were seeking to replace steerage traffic lost after the Canadian
government had raised the head tax on Chinese immigrants." 2 Slowly, and
sometimes in small groups, men who were assumed to be "Hindu," arrived in
British Columbia. 3 No women came.
Sometime early in the century working-class Sikh men came to Victoria
and Vancouver. They left behind them temporarily their families and friends
in the state of Punjab, an agricultural area whichlies in the north of India,
bordering on Pakistan. Mainly these pioneers came to British Columbia to
take advantage of the opportunity to earn large amounts of money, at least
compared to the amount they could earn in India. Others who were
adventurous simply wanted to make a new home in a part of the British
Empire which promised no forms of discrimination.
However, in 1904, British Columbia, even though it was part of the
British Empire, did not welcome the 258 Asian Indian men. In fact, much to
the dismay of the immigrants, overt anti-Asian feelings were conspicuous.
According to Samuel Raj, "local politicians denounced the East Indian
immigrants as a burden to the city" and proclaimed that they were
Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro, Eds., Not Just Pin Money
Victoria: Camosun College 1984

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Asian Indian Women

"destructive of the British way of life in the province ... and breeders of
disease." 4 The local newspapers of the day in both Victoria and Vancouver
were similarly unfriendly as they "maligned" the Sikhs. 5 In sensational
language, press captions urged action to restrict Indian immigration: "Get rid
of Hindus at whatever cost." 6
Although anti-Asian feeling was overt, Indian immigration which
continued slowly but decisively was restrained only indirectly as a result of
immigration laws. A "Continous Voyage Order," originally issued to prevent
the Japanese from emigrating to Canada from Hawaii, affected Indian
immigration. The Order in Council said that "the Governor-General in
Council may ... prohibit the landing ... of any immigrants who have come to
Canada otherwise than by continuous journey from the country of which they
are natives . . ."7
Indians could not comply with the order since there were no steamship
companies providing direct service from India to Canada. To prevent a court
challenge, a new Immigration Act (1910) was introduced. 8 In its terms was an
order that all Asian immigrants, with the exception of the Japanese and
Chinese, had to have the sum of $200.00 with them when they disembarked in
Canada. Some years later a regulation to stop the arrival of skilled and
unskilled labour affected the Sikh community.
However, despite these setbacks, around 1910 many Indian men had
decided to settle permanently in British Columbia so they began to discuss the
coming of the women and the children. A great deal of conflict with the larger
society arose around this issue which took almost fifteen years to resolve.
White Canadian society took the position that two wrongs did not make a
right: since the admission of Indian males had been a wrong, the admission of
women could not right the situation at all. In the newspapers it was put this
way: "[For] the comfort and happiness of the generations that are to succeed
us, we must not permit their women to come in at all." 9 Clearly, it was hoped
that the men who wanted families would return to the Punjab or else remain
in Canada without fathering successive generations. The larger society viewed
Indian women merely as instruments of reproduction. Apparently only white
women could be, to use the rhetoric of maternal feminism, virtuous moral
influences who, by their presence, would build stable families for British
Columbia.
And yet the women came. By 1910 three of the Sikh elite had wives
present with them. Nothing is written about the women in their own right.
Instead they are noted in passing: "Mrs. Sundar Singh and Mrs. Teja Singh
came to Canada with their husbands. Mrs. Uday Ram arrived on February
10, 1910, and was admitted having fulfilled the requirements." 10 Both Teja
Singh and Sundar Singh had been trained at India House in London,
England, so they were no strangers to British public opinion or mores.
Although the Indian community unanimously supported the
immigration of Asian Indian women, not many white Canadians agreed with
them. Indian women, who were British subjects, certainly did not have the
freedom of the British Empire since they were more or less barred from
Canada. However, some people in Eastern Canada responded to Indian
women's plight and found support in British Columbia in Reverend Hall and

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Isabella Ross Broad. These people, along with Dr. Sundar Singh, were
responsible "for creating a favourable climate in university circles and clubs,
such as the Empire Club and the Canadian Club." 11
Dr. Sundar Singh met with Bessie Pullen-Burry in her travels across
Canada in 1911 during her stay in Victoria. Ile asked her "to represent the
case of the Sikhs in [her] writings to the people of England." She did that on
one page of From Halifax to Vancouver where she assured him of her "entire
sympathy." His argument was summarized as follows: he said that "[m]any
of them were old soldiers of the Empire; they were faithful to the British Raj;
and having acquired a sufficiency wished their wives to join them .... he
hoped, in view of the fact that the Sikhs were subjects of the Empire, this
privilege would eventually be extended to them." 12
If Raj is right, then "Hall and especially Broad made considerable impact
on the church-going Christians," 13 but, ultimately, they were not successful.
"Where it mattered most, west of the Rockies, even the Ministerial
Association voted to keep the East Indian women out, lest a "Hindu colony"
emerge in a Christian country. 14 Furthermore, the National Council of
Women also voted to keep out the Asian women. 15
And yet the women came. Late in 1910, two priests returned to India to
bring their wives and two small children to British Columbia. However, their
coming was not a matter of course; instead they arrived in Canada as an
exception to the rule: " ... wives of Bhag Singh and Balwant Singh and their
children arrived in Vancouver on January 22, 1912, with their returning
husbands. The husbands were allowed to return to their homes as they had
Canadian domicile but the wives and children were detained for deportation.
They were freed on bail later. Their plight was taken up by the entire East
Indian community and their sympathizers and it became the object of many
deliberations in several places in Canada as well as in London, England, and
New Delhi, India. After several months of uncertainty, the families'
nightmare came to an end with invervention by Parliament." 16 Happily,
Mrs. Balwant Singh gave birth to the first Indian child born in British
Columbia, a son, who still lives in Duncan, BC. 17
The Immigration officials had yet another way of making immigration to
Canada difficult for women. Lest more men return to India to accompany
their wives to Canada in the hopes that clemency for their families would
follow, the Immigration Department refused to issue the very identity
certificates which the men required to re-enter Canada. And yet a woman
came. In 1911, Hira Singh returned from India with his wife and child. Mr.
Singh was permitted to enter, but his wife and child were held for deportation.
The immigration ban had been overturned in the case of Bhag Singh and
Balwant Singh and so it was again, after a vigorous protest from the Indian
community. Mrs. Hira Singh and her young child were another exception.
The fight to keep open the doors of immigration for Indians applied also
to men. They too challenged discriminatory laws. The famous Komagata
Marn incident resulted in closing the door on Indian immigration to British
Columbia. Johnston described the incident: "In May, 1914, 400 Sikhs left for
BC by chartered ship, resolved to claim their rights to equal treatment with
white citizens of the British Empire and force entry into Canada. They were

102 Asian Indian Women

anchored off Vancouver for over two months, enduring extreme physical
deprivation, and harassment by Immigration officals, but defying federal
deportation orders, even when the Canadian government attempted to
enforce them with a gunboat. The leaders of the group ... were finally
persuaded to return to India. They were then full of revolutionary fervour
against the Raj."18
·
But the women's case was to have a better hearing, at least officially.
After years of facing contrived rules and policies fabricated to justify the
exclusion of women, they were to be allowed to enter Canada. At the Imperial
War Conference, 1917-19, the Indian government secured an agreement
which permitted Asian Indian women to enter Canada. Following that
agreement, however, only a few women entered. None came in 1920. Only
eleven women and nine children entered in the three years from 1921 to
I 923. 19
As more women entered in succeeding years, 20 some of them joined their
husbands in the small community named Paldi, near Duncan, on Vancouver
Island. Many of the women were told by their husbands to leave their Indian
clothing and jewellery behind them. As the accompanying photograph makes
clear, the women adapted Western styles of dress to their own cultural
demands even in 1933 or 1934. In the new settlement, community life was
closely structured to resemble village life in India, so the women lived a very
cloistered life and communicated with the larger society only through their
husbands, and ultimately, their children. However, that was not all bad since
amongst the women of the community there existed a familial
interdependency and a fierce loyalty. 21 Since these women almost never
associated with people of the larger society and certainly did not drive cars or
enjoy individual mobility, the community members who were not family
members seemed to be so over time. When children spoke of Massi or Phuah
or Tiyee or Mahmi, the title was both literal and figurative. 22
My mother, with one child, joined her husband in Pal di in 1927. She was
always reluctant to talk about her life and feelings in those early days in
British Columbia. Sustained by her religion and her community, she did what
she had to do: she worked hard to feed her children, to look after the house
and her husband and neighbours. Thirty or forty others did the same. She was
willing to admit, however, that Western style food preparation made her legs
ache. Accustomed to squatting on the ground at home in India, she had to
stand to prepare meals in Paldi.
When I was a child I asked my mother why she did not speak English,
and as an adult I asked again. She said she did not have time. If she had had
time, there were no classes available to her anyway, she said. Besides, the men
took care of "outside" things, so the new language was their responsibility.
Since neither women nor men of the Asian Indian community had the
franchise until 1947, my mother did not have the incentive of citizenship
responsibility to motivate her. Other Indian women pioneers substantiated
my mother's observations. 23
Most of the women who first came to British Columbia are now dead.
Those who remain are elderly and in frail health. Only oral history can save
their observations about adapting to life in a province in which they knew

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they were unwanted citizens. However, in their own community the fight to
have them in Canada took precedence over male political rights such as the
franchise. 24

First women and children residents, Paldi, BC, c.1934.

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Asian Indian Women

Footnotes
1. Adrian C. Mayer, A Report of the East Indian Community in Vancouver
(Institute of Social and Economic Research: UBC, 1959).
2. Hugh Johnston, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh Challenge to
Canada's Colour Bar (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1979): 2.
3. Quite obviously the white Canadians lacked the understanding of the term
"Hindu" which refers to one of India's largest religious groups. The relevant
comparison here would be to call every Caucasian person a Protestant. Sikhism is a
reformed religion founded by Guru Nanak in the 15th century, A.O.
4. Samuel Raj, "Some Aspects of East Indian Struggle in Canada, 1905-1947" in
Visible Minorities and Multiculturalism, edited by K. Victor Ujimoto and Gordon
Kirabayashi (Toronto: Butterworth, 1980): 67.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Norman Buchignani and Doreen Indra, "The Political Organization of South
Asians in Canada, 1904-1920" in Ethnicity, Power and Politics in Canada, edited by
Jorgen Dahlie and Tissa Fernando: 215.
9. Raj: 73.
10. Johnston: 12.
11. Raj: 72; Johnston: 13.
12. Bessie Pullen-Burry, From Halifax to Vancouver (London: Mills and Boon,
1912): 347
13. Raj: 73.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid., p. 79.
17. Hardial Singh Atwal.
18. Johnston: flyleaf.
19. Raj: 73.
20. Only about 400 Indian women immigrated to Canada before WW II. Michae!
Ames, "Conflict and Change in British Columbia Sikh Family Life," BC Studies, No.
20, Winter '73-74: 17.
21. Oral history: my mother.
22. These titles are the names of female relatives who are younger than the mother,
on the father's side, or an aunt on the mother's side.
23. Mahinder Doman, Assessment: Integration of Non-English Speaking Asian
Indian Women (Victoria, BC, 1983, unpublished).
24. Raj: 74.