The Ghadar movement was an Indian Nationalist movement that grew out of a need to destroy the oppressive, Economic, Social, Legal and Racial limits thrust upon the Indian immigrants in the early 20th century North American West Coast. In the early 1900s, a few thousand South Asian pioneers, around 95% of them Punjabi Sikhs, voyaged mainly to British Columbia and California to seek economic opportunity. Over there they met with an inability to own land, were confined to all male labour gangs, denied justice and inaccurately categorized into an inferior and immutable ethnic group. These experiences led them to believe that the British Empire was pure exploitation and that Indians were a unified group that needed strong,independent representation. They aimed to dissemble British colonial oppression, and all means, including violence were used by these immigrants to achieve their means. This response, loose in organization but unified in spirit, was called Ghadar, literally meaning Rebellion in Punjabi. The ideology of Ghadar was later adopted by many leading activists in India, but the initial inspiration for one of India’s most prolific movements grew out of the suffering Indians faced by British Imperial immigration Policies.
The Ghadar party in many ways was a response to the Economic Hardships created towards the Sikhs by Oppressive British Immigration Policies. An example of Economic hardships thrust upon Indian immigrants was the Alien Land Law of California. The Alien Land Law essentially stated that no person of non-European decent could own land in the United States. Over 90% of the Indian immigrants that came to California in the early 1900s were Sikhs from the agricultural region of Punjab in Northwestern India. These S...
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... Nationalists in North America”, 1908-1918 BC Studies 1988
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Karen Loenard, Punjabi Farmers and California’s Alien Land Law, Agricultural History. October 1985
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Historically, Canada has held a world renowned reputation as nation with a magnanimous ideological approach to providing asylum to those individuals subjected to marginalization and persecution in their homeland – regardless of their nation of origin (Ismaili, 2011, p.89 & 92). Indeed, providing sanctuary to refugees who would otherwise experience significant hardships ranging from blatant discrimination and racism to torture and genocide, has very much become an institutionalized aspect of Canadian society. However, recent changes to Canada’s immigration policy delineated in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Bill C-31 may have perhaps put this ideology in peril (Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, 2001).
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In the year 1957, Canada elected its first Prime minister without English or French root, John Diefenbaker. While growing up in the city of Toronto, because of his German name, he was often teased. [1] He grew up as an outcast, and so he was able to relate to the discrimination and inequality many of the minorities in Canada felt. This essay will attempt to answer the question: To what extent did Prime Minister John Diefenbaker help promote equality to the minority communities. . The minorities in this time period were the women, aboriginals, and immigrants. During his time as the Prime Minister, he was able to help protect the rights of this group because many of their rights were being abused by the society. Diefenbaker also helped the minorities to stand up for themselves and other groups. Diefenbaker was able to bring positive change to the minority communities by making an official Bill of Rights and appointing people of discriminated groups to the parliament while other members did not.
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Labour leaders in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s were strongly opposed to the idea of Asians immigrating to Canada. In “Constructing the Great Menace” by David Goutor, it outlines the oppression of Asians by labour leaders which does not conclude that labour leaders hated all immigration and had a prejudice against all racialized groups. The unionists’ main argument for this opposition is based on the stereotype that Asians were claimed to have “accepted low wages and degraded working conditions” thus proving that they will diminish the standard of living for Canadian workers. These Labour Leaders were prejudice to Asians in an effort to supposedly protect Canadian workers and their jobs. However, it is not fair to say that labour
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More immigration lead to racism and fear among both English Canadians who believed immigrants were taking away their jobs and French Canadians who feared that immigrants may potentially dominate their culture. These misconceptions and fears lead the Canadian government to declare new regulations that restricted the immigration of Asian and eastern, and southern European descents as well as Jewish immigrants. Canada gave more preference to descendants of both Britain and Western Europe. Policies were then developed to grant access to the best immigrants (as it was called) who were mainly whites that possessed a wealth of skills and benefits but to exclude the non whites who we...
Under British rule in India, the British were harshly oppressive and only interested in exploiting products from India for their own use, causing many Indians to become extremely poor. They became so oppressed they were on the verge of violent civil disobedience, when Gandhi appeared to negotiate with the British threw non-violent tactics such as sit-ins and hunger strikes. The people were supportive on Gandhi and were set to become violent if anything happened to him. Things were resolved without violence.
Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.
Robert, Jean C. “The Deportation of the Acadians: 1755-1762.” Canada in the Making. Canadiana. 2005. http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/specifique/deportation_e.html#boundaries (accessed Feb. 20, 2012).
Mclntyre, Tobi. "History of Canadian immigration policy : Canadian Geographic Magazine January/February 2001." History of Canadian immigration policy : Canadian Geographic Magazine January/February 2001. 2001. 19 Nov. 2013 .
... Ed. W. Gordon West and Ruth Morris. Toronto, Canada: A Canadian Scholar? Press, 2000.
There is a distinct difference between popular Indian nationalism, that is the nation believing in a state independent of Britain, and Indian nationalist movements, for example the Muslim League or the Hindu revivalist movement. These movements fought for independence but were far more religiously orientated and were fighting in their own interests. Although Indian nationalism initially found expression in the Mutiny of 1857, its deve...