Sikh History in Canada & Decolonised Museums | Sharn Kaur

In episode 8 of the ਸੋਚ podcast, I have the pleasure of talking to Sharnjit Kaur, a PhD Candidate at University of British Columba focusing on museums & critical race theory, a co-ordinator at the South Asian Studies Institute, instructor at the University of Fraser Valley and co-curator of the Sikh Heritage Museum located in the National Historic Gur Sikh Temple - the official name of the gurdwara. 

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We first start with getting to know a little bit more about Sharn, her family history, her interest in Sikh history, her dissertation on the Nihangs of Ranjit Singh’s court, working at the University of the Fraser Valley, getting involved with the National Historic Gur Sikh Temple, her curatory work and her current PhD. 

We discuss the age old question of diasporic communities - identity and then move on to discuss the decolonised space that is the National Historic Gur Sikh Temple Museum, and the history of the Gurughar itself, along with Sikhs in academia. 

Then we dive into the history of Sikhs in Canada starting with why did Canadian immigration policy and public opinion go through so many ups and downs? Sharn provides a brilliant and critical analysis of this short but extremely pivotal period of six years - complexities  of census taking, oral histories of Sikh and Dalit settlements in British Columbia in the late 1890s, jobs, long hair and gender norms, cremation and “the other”.  This is before breaking down the history of the Gur Sikh Temple of Abbotsford BC and its connection to the Ghadr movement.

We then discuss the Komagata Maru incident. However, we start with a Canadian court case in November 1913 where a judge overruled the deportation of 38 Punjabi Sikhs who had arrived to Canada on the Panama Maru. It was the victory of passengers of the Panama Maru that encouraged the sailing of the Komagata Maru in the following year. The Komagata Maru sailed from British Hong Kong, via Shanghai, China, and Yokohama, Japan, to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on 4 April 1914, carrying just over 300 passengers from Punjab province in British India. The ship had been hired by Gurdit Singh Sandhu, a Singaporean businessman who wanted to circumvent Canada anti-immigration laws by hiring a boat to sail from Calcutta to Vancouver. 

We discuss Gurdit Singh Sandhu and his opinion of the Ghadr movement, Bhagwan Singh and his rallying of the people of the Komagata Maru whilst the ship was in Hong Kong and a breakdown of who, what, when and where of the Ghadr movement, along with its parallels to the Tractor2Twitter movement today.

We discuss the legacy and impact of the Komagata Maru incident, how it impacted immigration policies then and now, World War I, the hypocrisy of the British Empire and the importance of historians, in particular,  Hugh J. M. Johnston. 

We move on to discuss the period between Komagata Maru and the Second World War, migration patterns and how South Asian and East Asians, along with the help of workers unions, fought for the right to vote for over fourty years. 

We discuss the role of caste and the perpetuity of privilege in early Sikh settlement to Canada, the need to portray the facts as they are and what is special about Canada that seems to incubate Sikh identity. 

We discuss why there is such an interest from Sikh Canadians in their history and what is special about Canada that seems to incubate this spirit? We end the podcast discussing what led to the establishment of the Sikh Heritage Museum, why it was important for the museum to be built and how Sharn got involved.