East in West
By Mowahid Hussain Shah
Visiting the West coast of Canada in the Province of British Columbia (BC), one sees palpable signs of the East. On landing at Vancouver Airport, there are signs in the Chinese language – unusual for a city in the Western Hemisphere – to facilitate the huge number of Chinese there.
In mid-city, there is a Chinese cultural center. 19 th century Chinese labor was pivotal in building the Trans-Continental Railroad, which connected Canada from coast to coast. Parenthetically, the specter of French Quebec seceding has not completely abated.
Visible, too, in Vancouver are Sikhs. In fact, there is a Punjabi Market. There, I happened to meet a Sikh who was thrilled when he learned that I hailed from Lahore, and, at a restaurant there, he insisted on treating to tea and samosa. On the wall hung a huge smiling portrait of the immortal Rafi. Sikhs first came to BC in 1904, some as farmers, and never left, despite suffering xenophobic bigotry as far back as 1914 when passengers on the ship SS KomagataMaru, mostly Sikhs and some Muslims, were denied entry at Vancouver. Sikhs were disenfranchised in 1907 (Chinese had lost the right to vote in 1874.) It was not until 1947 that BC permitted Indians and Chinese to vote. On the main road now to Vancouver Airport stands a sizeable mosque; alongside it is a gurdwara.
BC’s Pacific coast location lends it a distinctive Asia-Pacific nexus. BC was once populated with a vibrant indigenous native community who were devastated when the area was colonized by the British crown, including and not limited to, seizure of land, conversion to Christianity, changing of native names to English names, and disruption and dismantling of their culture, language, and heritage. Smallpox, which European colonizers carried with them, infected and exterminated much of the native population. Now, there is remorse about the past and they are respectfully called First Nations, meaning that they were the first to be there. Totem poles depicting native craft abound in the island city of Victoria, which is the capital of BC. There, in the Royal BC Museum, much of an entire floor is dedicated to the history and heritage of First Nations.
Justin Trudeau, the new Canadian Prime Minister, has set a refreshingprecedent of welcoming Syrian refugees and he is not above also in dancing to the beat of bhangra tunes. It is another matter whether the Canadians are enthusiastic or ambivalent about the stance of the young premier.
Muslims in Vancouver (many Iranians) form a diverse community, although not as sizeable as the estimated 425,000 Toronto Muslims.
With a cricket field, the aura of England permeates Victoria. Afghanistan has left its imprint in Victoria, too, where a war memorial in front of the BC Parliament building commemorates Canadians fallen there.
Nearly 13,000 miles from Lahore was yet another reminder how interconnected the world is, however much some would like to compartmentalize themselves. A testament to the quality of Pakistani textiles lay in the hotel towels in Victoria that carried the label "Made in Pakistan." So, far away from home, one is not truly far from home.
