Haj to Utopia

Оглавление

Maia Ramnath. Haj to Utopia

Отрывок из книги

Haj to Utopia

Edited by Edmund Burke III, Kenneth Pomeranz, and Patricia Seed

.....

The writer of one such letter began by exhorting fellow Sikhs not to stand for the whites’ expropriation of the Golden Temple and Khalsa College back home—a foreshadowing for the returned Ghadarites who flowed into and radicalized the Babar Akali mobilizations in the 1920s. He then proceeded to convey his New World perspective: “Now I will write about this country and what we see with our own eyes. The country belonged formerly to the Canadians but the English conquered it four hundred years ago. The original inhabitants now are not allowed to walk in the streets and they go about the country like wandering tribes. They do not possess an inch of land but subsist by fishing on the sea. In our country there is no sea. What shall we do?”59

It is quite striking that he draws an implicit analogy between the plight of indigenous Canadians and his own Punjabi people, who nevertheless from one sentence to the next seem to have grown less landlocked: “This pride in the Feringhis will uproot us and throw us into salt sea water, and no trace of the name Bharat will be left ”; then, “Sikhs, Hindus and Muhammadans all will be treated alike. Brother, the means of salvation is this. Educate all your children, boys and girls. Hindus, Muhammadans and Sikhs must cultivate love among themselves and then the work will gradually be accomplished. Read to all what I have written and also the paper I am sending. The paper may be read by anybody, but do not give the letter to anyone. Burn it after you have gone through it yourself and read it to others. The paper may be read by anyone; there is nothing to fear on that account as the paper is printed in America and the English cannot stop it.” 60

.....