Indian Immigration to North America # 2
Indian Immigration to North America # 2
More than 90% of early Indian immigrants to North America were Sikhs and they faced open discrimination in Canada and USA. Fifty percent of the Sikhs who migrated to the US had worked in the British Army and were genuinely proud of their military tradition. Earlier, the British had fought several wars (known as the Anglo-Sikh wars) against the Sikhs in India and while the British eventually emerged victorious, the wars took a toll. After the first Indian war of independence in 1857, the British recruited a substantial number of Sikhs into the British army and eventually due to their outstanding military skills, the Sikhs became an integral and the crucial part of the British Army in India. Despite promoting to the Sikhs in the army, the British were uncomfortable with the Sikhs especially if they were not under their supervision. The Sikh migration to US and Canada made the British extremely uncomfortable and they believed that the expatriate Sikhs would eventually organize a rebellion to overthrow the British Empire. While the British, the Canadians and Americans had their differences, they were racially, religiously, and culturally the same which led to cooperation between the British and the Americans to cooperate with respect to dealing with the Sikhs and the other members of the Indian community.
The Sikhs hoped that in North America they would be treated with respect and dignity but when they landed in British Columbia in Canada, they had a rude awakening. The White settlers in America and Canada had little knowledge of brown skinned Indians and classified all of them as Hindus when most of them were Sikhs. They also feared that the Indians would not only take away their jobs by willing to work for less but would also ignite rebellion in North America and this mindset was mostly influenced by the prevailing British mindset. Eventually this took an ominous turn and led to the phrase “The Hindu Menace”.
The Indian immigrants came to British Columbia, California, and Washington and with public opinion tuning against Indians the US government began to legislate laws that would prohibit non-white immigration and this trend would continue for another 50 years until the Immigration and Naturalization laws came into effect in 1965.
Although most of the Indian immigrants were laborers there were quite a few leading intellectuals with strong political views, and they mostly came from the Bengali and Punjabi community.
Partition of Bengal in 1905
The partition of Bengal in 1905 caused a lot of distress, disenchantment and anger among the Hindus who increasingly believed that the British partitioned to divide the Hindus and Muslims. The British maintained that they portioned for administrative efficiency as Bengal was the most populous of all the provinces at that time. After the partition, there were a lot of protest within Bengal, and concerned that such protests - whether at Bengal or other areas such as Punjab could eventually lead to a rebellion the British introduced the Prevention of Seditious act law in 1907. This act required that any public meetings with more than twenty people present need approval from the Police Commissioner.
The two most active Anti-British groups at that time in Northern India were Punjabis and Bengalis. The intellectuals and leaders withing these groups realized that their cause of achieving freedom to India would be difficult to attain with such laws and decided to leave India and fight the battle from overseas
Punjab Land Alienation Act, 1900
The British passed the Punjab Land Alienation Act in 1900 and this allowed for the transfer of property to the government if the deceased had no heirs and the government could sell the property to anyone. This caused lot of resentment among the landowners and led to lot of protests and agitations lead by Ajit Singh who was also related to Bhagat Singh. The protest had the backing of Lala Lajpat Rai and this led to the deportation of both Lala Lajpat Rai and Ajit Singh. (Lala Lajpat Rai came to US and spent several years whereas Ajit Singh spent 36 years in Iran)
Russia- Japanese War (1904-1905)
During the early 1900s both Russia and Japan had huge territorial ambitions and wanted to control Manchuria and Korea, and this resulted in the Russia-Japanese War in 1904. Japan emerged victorious in the war and forced Russia to retreat. Until this time, no Asian nation had defeated a European nation in a war. The defeat of Russia changed everyone’s perception and people of Asia realized that it is possible to defeat a European nation in a war. The mindset of a lot of Indians changed after the war and they also realized that it is possible to overthrow the British. This possibility motivated agitations and protests in India. More protests lead to more arrests and more desire for freedom, and this contributed to several Indian intellectuals leaving India and going overseas to organize the protests from overseas.
Similarity Between the American Blacks Struggle for Freedom and the Indian Struggle
Several Indian intellectuals in the US saw the progress made by Blacks after slavery and also realized that the economic and social conditions of the Indians (especially the untouchables) were quite like the Blacks in the USA. They also saw progress blacks made in the USA socially, and financially after the Civil War and realized that progress in India would be possible only through independence from the British.
