THE CURSE OF BEING NRI!
According to Statistics Canada, in 2001, there were 713,330 Canadians who classified themselves as being of Indian origin and I’m sure the number is well over a million now. For a country with a total population of 33, 390, 141, a million Indians is a lot of Indians to have. Out of this population, 42 % are Hindus, 39 % are Sikh and the remainder are Muslim or Christian. Vancouver is the third largest city in Canada and majority of Indians in Vancouver are Punjabis.
So far, being in Vancouver for 6 months, I have been struggling to understand this ‘apni’ Indian community. Most noticeably, I have come to describe myself as East Indian for calling myself an Indian doesn’t quite strike the right chord. The term Indian in Canada or the whole of North America has been used to refer to the Aboriginal Canadians or the natives who are racially and culturally quite distinct from the Indo-Canadians/East Indians. I have also learnt to call the people of Chinese origin ‘meethe’ (chini) and the police ‘mamu’. My Punjabi has improved more than my English and I know all songs by Harbhajan Mann and Juggy D by now. I find signboards in written in Punjabi quite normal and have learnt not to get over-excited on passing Gurudwaras when I go places on the bus. I could tell you the names and frequencies of all 3 Indian radio stations that I tune into regularly. I know of at least 10 stores where I could find Vico turmeric ayurvedic cream or the Hide and Seek cookies. I am proud to know that there is a life size statue of Mahatma Gandhi in my university. I am not surprised when people assume that Punjabi is the official language of India and I have come to accept that a samosa costs a dollar when you could get 10 in India for the same price. Sigh!
In spite of this Indian spirit all around me, I don’t quite feel at home. Perhaps it’s the people. The so called NRI’s is altogether a different breed. They are brown, they have seen Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, they observe you from head to toe the way your old neighbor aunty does before you leave for a friend’s birthday party, they could recite the Aarti (never mind the missing phrases half way through) and they could turn up in kurtas and saris during Diwali celebrations. Yet, they are not Indians. Most of them have never been to India and cannot speak any Indian language. Many of their parents’ have never been to India and the India that their grandparents remember is quite different now than what it used to be 40-50 years back. We actually have some good roads and great educational institutions. The image of India that my generation of Indo-Canadians carry is somehow outdated and blatantly wrong. The Indian students I have had a chance to hang out with, essentially through the South Asian Student Associations of the university are a strange hybrid. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that I do not enjoy their company. I felt they are biased against other non-Indian ethnicities and tend to clump together in their own groups avoiding any ‘outsider’. They neither act Indian nor Canadian and are obviously going through an identity crisis.
I cannot blame them for their state either. Racial discrimination is still an issue in North America. Immigrants, up till now allegedly face widespread racism from local white Canadians. Tracing back the history, on May 23rd, 1914, 376 British subjects, (12 Hindus, 24 Muslims and 340 Sikhs) of Indian origin arrived in Vancouver harbor aboard the Komagata Maru, seeking to enter Canada. 352 of the passengers were denied entry and forced to depart on July 23rd, 1914. A plaque stands at the Gateway to the Pacific in Downtown Vancouver to commemorate the unfortunate incident of racial discrimination. The hostile laws declared that an Indian should have $200 in person on him to enter Canada when an average Indian only earned 10 cents a day. Only in 1962, did Canada announce a new policy free of racial, religious or national discrimination. Since then the demographics have altered radically and the 1980s saw the mergence of a new community with a positive and confident outlook. Given the historic record of ignorance and discrimination, I can understand how some young Canadians shy away from their Indian identity.
At the same time, I feel incredibly lucky to be able to find everything Indian. Maybe I am not experienced enough to conclude judgments, but I hope that my opinion changes with time as I interact and understand more. For now, I will go back to the paneer and naan waiting in the refrigerator
Nidhi Panwar
Feb 14th, 2008
