The Conference on Kurdish Unity and Common Stance was recently concluded in Qamishli, North-East Syria. Over 400 delegates from various parts of Sy
INDIA-BORN CANADIAN WRITERS. Dr. Stephen Gill
The French were the early Europeans who settled in Canada around St. Lawrence Valley. They called themselves Canadiens. The word Canada appears to have originated from an Iroquoian expression Kanata that means village. In 1760, the British co
In the following decades, immigration from Britain continued increasing their population. This resulted in a clear division between French and English. Upper Canada, mostly Ontario today, became English-speaking and Lower Canada, Quebec became French-speaking.
In 1841, both colonies or regions were reunited as Canada East and Canada West. In 1867, the Act of Confederation was passed that laid the foundation of modern Canada. Obviously, Canada is two to three hundred years old. From 1946 to 1950 Canada openly favored immigration from Britain, America and Northwestern Europe. By 1960, Canada relaxed its policies to admit immigrants from Hong Kong, Pakistan and India.
Canada is not as old as the civilization of India is , and immigration from India is not that old either. On the other hand, more than five thousand-year-old civilization of India has become a medley of contradictions, fascinations and fables. Every inch of the earth where this civilization exists and every brick of its every castle, and pilgrimage conceals tales in the womb of its historical secrecy. India is a land that beams with the dawn of advancements and also screams under deep-rooted stigmas. It is a land of noble laureates, world scholars, philosophers and sages. It is also a land of the darkest spots of ignorance, miseries , and prejudices. The country has developed its own distinctive lifestyle. Writers and poets do not have to go far to find wells to draw the water of their motivation. These wells are everywhere in every imaginable form in a composite civilization that is a cultural mosaic of humans who embrace diversity in every belief.
When the people from this composite civilization of India touch new harbors , their diversity becomes more diversified. The mixture of the life they leave behind and the life they face produce a child of wonder in literature. Canada, a cosmopolitan society, alive and vibrant, is a United Nations in the microcosm. The material that these new Canadian writers acquire becomes more unique. Their writings reflect a blending of the experiences, traditions and values of the countries of their birth and adoption. This mosaic nature has and will enrich Canadian literature, giving it a universal dimension.
Immigration from India began with the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the early new comers were the Sikhs who worked in the sawmill industry. They numbered a few thousands. The local Canadians had a hostile attitude towards them. This attitude became more hostile after the sad incident of the Komagatu Maru ship that carried 376 Indians to the harbor of Vancouver, B.C. in 1914. To block their entry, Canada passed a law to accept only those who come directly from India by a ship that did not stop on the way. Because it was not possible to undertake a long voyage, immigration almost stopped. The immigration laws were substantially liberalized in 1962 and 1967. Consequently, in addition to the Sikhs, immigrants started coming from other parts of India. From 1990, immigrants from India started becoming a prosperous minority in Canada and began to be accepted more than they were in the former decades. The emergence of India-born immigrant writers on the literary scene is a phenomenon from the late sixties.
Canada and India resemble each other in several ways. One of them is their democratic constitutions. Another is their multicultural nature that shapes nearly every facet of their lives. In Canada, more than one hundred and fifty languages are spoken and understood and more than two hundred and fifty ethnic media, including electronic, exist. Today Canada is in the same situation in which Alexandria and Byzantium stood, which helped them grow culturally wealthy. Byzantium flourished for more than a thousand years from 330 AD to about 1400 in the Eastern Roman Empire. The location of Byzantium provided the city with some excellent advantages. Byzantium emperors gave a home to refugee scholars and found time to build up lending libraries. It was a cosmopolitan society full of vitality, a halfway house between the east and the west.
Canada is also becoming a halfway house. The contributions of India-born writers have grown in strength and visibility since the sixties. Among those who write primarily in Urdu or Panjabi languages, include Ravinder Ravi, Rasha, Gurcharan Rampuri, Balbir Singh Momi, Balbir Sanghera , Ajmer Rode, Iqbal Gill, Tarlochan Singh Gill, and Sadhu Binning. Sadhu Binning has entered into the English sector by translating his own Panjabi poetry in a volume, titled No More Watno Dur. Swapna Shail and Jagmohan Humar write poetry mostly in Hindi. Panjabi and Urdu poets crowd the market. Gurcharan Rampuri is a leading Panjabi poet and Balbir Singh Momi is a leading short story writer. A flood of Panjabi and Urdu publications in Canada provide encouragement to these poets and writers. Among the emerging poets of Panjabi and Urdu, the name of Solomon Naz can be safely included. These writers are being published in the countries of their birth and also in Canada. They reflect a Canadian perspective in their work. Though living in Canada, several Panjabi and Urdu poets write about the countries of their birth. They are like the writers of Canada in pioneering days, who wrote patriotic poems to glorify England and its military might.
Ajmer Rode and Tarlochan Singh Gill have written in English also. Ajmer Rode has degrees from Panjabi University and from the University of Waterloo. He came to Canada in 1966. His collections, include Poems at my Doorstep, and Surti. In 1994, he received the Best Overseas Punjabi Author Award from the Languages Department in Punjab, India, and the Outstanding Literary Achievement Award from Rode Heritage Committee, Canada in 2000. Canadian writers who were born in India and write mostly in English, include Bharati Mukherjee, Rohinton Mistry, Stephen Gill, Uma Parameswaran, Saros Cowasjee, S. Padmanab, Lino Leitao, Sophia Mustafa, M. Chaubey, Shiv Chopra, S. Padmanab, and Kuldip Gill. Bharati Mukherjee has moved to the United States. Sophia Mustafa after living in Tanzania for years, has moved to Canada. Lino Leitao went to East Africa from India before settling in Canada.
The elements that emerge in several India-born writers are religion and India or racial tensions. The writers who have ventilated racial tension, include Bharati Mukerjee and Stephen Gill. Bharati Mukherjee's Darkness, a collection of short stories, is largely based on the lives of immigrants from the subcontinent of India. The author states in her introduction, "In the Indian immigrant community I saw a family of shared grievances. The purely Canadian stories in the collection were difficult to write and even more painful to live through. They are uneasy stories about expatriation." Ratan, a character in Mukherjee's AThe World According to Hsu@ says "In Toronto, she was not Canadian, not even Indian. She was something called, after the imported idiom of London, a Paki. And for Pakis, Toronto was hell." The story is set around Toronto, where racism appears once in a while on the street. Usually, the stories of Bharati Mukherjee revolve mostly around alienation and plight of women in India.
Bharati Mukherjee was born in Calcutta on July 27, 1940. In 1947, she moved to Britain for a few years with her parents at the age of eight. She got her bachelor=s degree from Calcutta University in 1959 and her master=s in Ancient Indian Culture from the University of Baroda in 1961. She received a scholarship from the University of Iowa and finished her M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 1963, and doctorate in English and Comparative Literature in 1969. In 1963, while a student, she met Clark Blaise, a Canadian student from Harvard, and got married within weeks. Clark Blaise is also a writer.
Her books, include The Tiger's Daughter (Houghton, 1972); Wife, (Houghton, 1975); Kautilya's Concept of Diplomacy: A New Interpretation ( Minerva, 1976); (With Blaise) Days and Nights in Calcutta (nonfiction, Doubleday: Garden City, New York, 1977); An Invisible Woman ( McClelland & Stewart, 1981); Darkness ( Penguin, 1985); (With Blaise) The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy ( Viking, 1987); The Middleman and Other Stories ( Grove, 1988); Jasmine ( Grove, 1989); Political Culture and Leadership in India (nonfiction South Asia, 1991); Regionalism in Indian Perspective (nonfiction, South Asia, 1992); The Holder of the World ( Knopf: New York City, 1993); Leave It to Me (A.A. Knopf: New York City, 1997).
Another writer who has ventilated racial tension is Stephen Gill. He wrote about it in his novel Immigrant and also in some poems. Stephen Gill came to Canada in late 60=s from England for his studies. He went to England from Ethiopia, and to Ethiopia from India. His first novel Why was released by Vesta Publications Ltd. in 1976. This thought-provoking novel illustrates the frustrations and anguish of the protagonist who moves in and out of love affairs with married women, regretting all the while that it was morally wrong. Why it happens again and again sets the tone of the story. The locations shift from Ottawa and Montreal to Ethiopia and India, giving insights into the way of life, the socio-political structure, the educational system and moral values of Ethiopia.
The Loyalist City , set in Saint John, New Brunswick, is Stephen Gill=s third novel. Released by Vesta in 1979, the novel is about the days when Canada had freshly emerged from the status of a British colony. The tension in this novel revolves around pride in the birth of a new nation, and affection for Britain, the Mother Country.
It is Stephen Gill's second novel Immigrant that is the focus of critics and readers. The novel "does a fine job portraying a new Canadian's plight. The problems, language barriers, cultural discrepancies and a longing for the mother country can easily be seen in the strife faced by any new person in any new country.@1 In the story, "Gill has Reghu come into contact with a number of recent immigrants who express the full spectrum of sentiment one would expect from newcomers unfairly treated. Some are bitter, some are hurt"2. The novel Asensitively conveys the aspirations and fears of Reghu as he struggles to establish a new life in a hostile environment. Gill's story also touches on Canadian racial prejudices as he provides insights into the attitudes and views of natives and newcomers. Stephen Gill, a milti-talented and sensitive gentleman, has created an informative and powerful portrait of Canadian immigrants' experiences in the 1970s.”3
Lino Leitao, a short story writer, points out that ABy accentuating only one side of the story, Mr. Gill has looked at the speck in Canada=s eye, while he has ignored the log in India=s eye. Mr. Gill, who comes from India, knows well the prevalent prejudices that are in India=s caste ridden society. If Mr. Gill were to expose both sides of the coin, then Immigrant would have read like George Orwell=s story ADown and Out in Paris and London@. He further states, AI think Mr. Gill realizes this flaw and as such conveys the message through Immigrant that the better understanding of mankind can be achieved by rooting out ignorance. To Mr. Gill ignorance is the root of all prejudices among mankind.@4
In 1974, Stephen Gill released his collection of fourteen short stories, titled Life=s Vagaries. AThere are no traditional heroes or villains in his short stories; only real people reacting to the basic situations which are to be found in all corners of this global village.@5 This collection of fourteen stories Aencompasses many themes in numerous settings. The stories demonstrate that people in various parts of the world have the same hopes, fears, problems and ambitions. In other words, life is similar throughout the world. Readers who like short stories will be pleasantly entertained by Life=s Vagaries.@6
If Stephen Gill focuses on the frustrations of the immigrants in the sixties, Rohinton Mistry revives the Parsi community of Bombay. Rohinton Mistry, a Parsi and also a prominent writer, was born in Bombay in 1952 and moved to Canada in 1975. He started writing stories in 1983. Penguin Books Canada released his collection of short stories, titled Tales from Firozsha Baag that portray compassionately the tenants of an apartment building in Bombay. His first novel Such a Long Journey, also set in Bombay about an Indian Parsi family, is rich in symbolism and characterization. The family is deeply disrupted by the war in Bangladesh for independence. The novel won the Governor General=s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and W.H. Smith/Books in Canada=s First Novel Award.
Rohinton Mistry=s novel A Fine Balance, published by McClelland & Steward in 1995, is also set in India. In Family Matters, like Mistry himself and his several stories, the main characters are Parsi, members of a fringe religious community in India who follow the faith as laid down by the prophet Zoroaster. Mistry says that Family Matters is "not autobiographical." Though the story takes place in Bombay, many of the challenges the main characters face are universal, the resolutions they come to sharply and recognizably human: You don't have to be Parsi or Indian to identify with his characters and the dilemmas they face.7
Another writer from a Parsi (Zorastrian) background is Saros Cowasjee, a professor emeritus at the University of Regina. He was born In Secundrabad on 12th of July in 1931, had his master=s degree from Agra University in 1955 and a doctorate from Leeds in 1960. Before moving to Canada in 1963, he worked as an assistant editor with the Times of India, Bombay, for two years. He has published several critical studies, novels and short stories. The fiction of Saros Cowasjee include Goodbye to Elsa, Untouchable, Coolie, The Assistant Professor , Stories and Sketches, Nude Therapy , and several critical studies, including Modern Indian Short Stories.
The front cover of Goodbye to Elsa states that the novel is the story of a man=s essential loneliness and his desperate attempt to overcome it with an overdose of sex. The back cover quotes Khushwant Singh, a celebrated writer of India, who says ACowasjee knows how to tell a story and handles his language admirably.@
Whereas Rohinton Mistry fictionalizes the Parsi community he knew back home, Lino Leitao fictionalizes Goans. With his insight into his own people and his understanding of their best and worst, he portrays his compatriots just as they are in a way that is unique and unforgettable. The tales of Lino Leitao draw sensitive and informative portraits of the Goans who have settled in Canada.
Lino Leitao was born in Goa, a former Portugese colony, now a part of India. He was educated in India and Canada. He taught for years in Uganda. When Asians were forced to leave that country by Adi Amin, he came to Canada. He has been teaching in Canada for years. He has authored The Gift of the Holy Cross ( a novel, England: Peepal Tree Press, 1999); Six Tales ( Vesta Publications 1980; Goa Tales ( Vesta Publications, 1977) and Collected Short Tales ( New York: Carleton Press, 1972).
Another writer that came from Africa, like Lino Leitao, is Sophia Mustafa. From Gurdaspur, Panjab, where she was born, she went to Africa with her parents to live permanently. She came to Canada in 1989. She authored The Tanganyka Way, a novel about the political development of that nation. It is a story of the three momentous years in Tanganyika=s history from 1958 to 1961 which went from colonial rule to independence on December 9, 1961. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1961. In 2002 her novel based in Kenya and Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, was published in Canada, titled In the Shadow of Kirinyaga.
Anita Rau Badami, in comparison with Rohinton Mistry and Lino Leitao, is relatively biographical in her main work Tamarind Mem that was published by Penguin Viking Books in 1996. The novel is about the relationship between a daughter and her mother. Angela Kozminuk slides her appraising eyes on the novel in The Peak :
ATamarind Mem is a wonderful novel with poetic, playful prose. Set between India and Calgary, the story alternates between the memories of two protagonists -- mother and daughter -- trying to make sense of their past of living in various railway colonies of India, but with vastly different recollections.
ABadami's debut novel has been receiving critical acclaim and she is being hailed as a promising new Canadian voice. Badami is now dealing with the fallout of all the publicity surrounding Mem and she is also working on a follow-up novel set in Vancouver.@8
The story of Anita Rau Badami=s second novel, the Hero=s Walk , is set in Toturpuram, a small city in the Bay of Bengal, India. The novel was published in Canada by Knopf in 2000. Anita Rau Badami was born in the eastern state of Orissa and came to Canada in 1991. She had a bachelor=s degree from the University of Madras, and studied journalism at Sophia College in Bombay. She wrote for a number of years for publications in India.
Another writer who draws inspiration from the fount of India is Uma Parameswaren. She was born in Tamilnadu (Madras), and had her B.A. from Jabalpur, Nagpur. She had a diploma in journalism and M.A from Indiana University, and an M.A in creative writing and a doctorate from Michigan State University. Married to a mathematician, she has been living in Winnipeg since 1966. She is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and a critic. Her books, include The Door I Shut Behind Me ( Madras: East-West, 1990); Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees ( play , 1988); Trishanku ( 1987); Cyclic Hope Cyclic Pain ( 1972).What Was Always Her (collections of short stories); and Mangoes on the Maple Tree (novel). She is a recipient of Caribe Manitoba Playwriting Competition( 1989), Canadian Authors Association Annual Fiction Competition (1968), and others.
What Was Always Hers, published by Broken Jaw Press, Canada, is a collection of short stories that won the New Muse Award in 1999. In these stories, the Indian values of Uma Parameswaren weave her ideas, myths, traditions and global views. The same hands weave the fabrics of her first novel Mangoes on the Maple Tree. Polly Bird puts it in a better way:
AThis is Parameswaran's first novel and third book of fiction. This intriguing book spans twenty days in the life of an Indo-Canadian family and sets the action against the 1997 flood in Winnipeg. Parameswaran brings to the story her background as an Indian who has lived in Winnipeg since 1966 as well as her expertise as Professor of English at the University of Winnipeg. It is this understanding of both countries and cultures that inform this work. The novel traces the events through the extended family showing how they each come to terms with the crises they face and how their understanding of themselves grows as they learn to live in Canada.”9
India is the motivating force also for the poems in Trishanku and her play Meera. The poems in Uma Parameswaran's Trishanku (1988) are " the voices of men and women from India living in Canada as exiles, expatriates, or immigrants, with memories in the past. But these memories do not keep either the actors of this poetic drama or the readers in the past. They are evoked to explain and define the lives of the speakers as they try to survive as individuals and as a community in the new and bewildering land"10. Her play Meera, a dance drama, is about Krishna, a Hindu god. The play was produced and directed by Rubena Sinha for the Hindu Society of Manitoba on 2nd of April in 1972. Meera, a poet, occupies a sacred place in the history of the Hindus. Meera developed a deep and passionate devotion for Krishna, the eighth avtar (incarnation) of the god Vishnu.
Another writer who draws inspiration from India is Asok Mathur, though not exactly the way that Uma Parameswaren does. He is known for his first novel Once Upon an Elephant that is a modern retelling of the creation of Ganesh who is the elephant-headed Hindu deity. Asok Mathur was born in Bhopal and came to Canada with his family in 1962 when he was one year old. He studied journalism and worked as a photojournalist with some small newspapers in Alberta. He has a master=s degree from the University of Calgary.
The only writer who is deeply involved with the problems of minorities and also with peace and bloodshed is Stephen Gill. In addition to fiction and critical studies, he writes analytical articles on human rights situations in Pakistan and India. He is known as a poet of social concerns. Though most of his work is in English, he writes poetry occasionally in Urdu, Panjabi and Hindi languages. Some of his Urdu/Hindi poems have been put to music and sung by a famous Pakistani singer in an album called Aman that means peace in English. His English collections of poems, include The Dove of Peace, Songs for Harmony, Divergent Shades and Shrine. He is a recipient of three honorary doctorates and other honors, including the Queen=s Golden Jubilee Medal (Canada);Pegasus International Poetry for Peace Award (Texas); and Sahir Award of Honor (India). He is known as a poet of peace and harmony. Professor of English Literature at an American University, Dr. John Gormon says that AAs in Whitman, there=s a freewheeling Hegelian mysticism afoot in the poetry of Stephen Gill.@11 Former head of the English Department of Ottawa University, Dr. Frank Tierney says, Athere is in Tennyson=s poem and Mr. Gill=s volume a hierarchy of values. The first and most important is, as John Henry Newman insisted, growth within. This growth requires spiritual priority. This principle leads man to personal, national and international harmony through an understanding that comes from love.@12 In addition to these comments, there are the comments of Patricia Prime from New Zealand, a well recognized name also in India for her perceptively critical evaluation of Indian literature. She says that Stephen Gill is at Athe forefront of contemporary Indian poets writing in English.@ She adds: AStephen Gill=s Shrine is a volume of complex and skillful poetry, with a good ear married to some fine ideas. The luxuriant textures and rhythms of Gill=s work point to a conviction that language is a repository of images charged with mystery and possibility.@ She concludes:
Astrong poems, taut and visually sharp while at the same time being intensely lyrical. They are individual poems. Gill's gift of language, the immediacy of his wit and word-play combined with a command of imagery which not only captures his readers in a freeze-frame, but hustles them through time and space to another dimension, places him in the forefront of contemporary Indian poets writing in English.”13
Shiv Chopra, a veterinarian, is another writer from India who is involved with religion. He represents Hindu thoughts when he praises the woman in her many roles in his book The Wondrous Virgin that was released by Vesta Publications in 1983. The poems in this volume are based on a Vedantic concept of woman. He also gives talks and contributes to religious publications from the point of Hinduism.
Mahendra P. Chaubey is involved with Hindu philosophy rather more deeply than Shiv Chopra is. He presents his poetry like a sage. In his book From Known to Unknown, he discusses in prose serious subjects like nature of mind, fear and power, and why man is unhappy. From Darkness to Light is in the same vein, though it is in poetic form. Even here he talks on life and how to be happy. Similar is another of his poetry books, titled From Fear to Freedom. His writing is the result of his desire to find the truth about life and unhappiness. Mahendra P. Chaubey holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo and also studied at Oxford and McGill University. He teaches at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec.
Another poet who borrows from the east is Kuldip Gill. She does it in Dharma Rasa, a winner of a BC 2000 Book Award. ARasa theory, part of Indian genre theory and Sanskrit poetics, describes an elaborate typology of nine essences or emotions, ranging from adbh (wonder) to raudra (fury) to karuna (sorrow) to santa (serenity). This first collection of poetry of Kuldip Gill is rich with these emotions.@14. Kuldip Gill was born in Faridkot, Panjab and came to Canada in 1939. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology from University of British Columbia, and teaches at the University College of the Fraser Valley.
A poet who cannot be put into the pigeonholes of India or religion is Padmanab. He is universal as far as subject and style is concerned. The prominent collections of poems of S. Padmanab, a medical doctor, include A Separate Life, Ages of Bird, and Songs of the Slave. AHe has a way with words and uses them with restraint verging on reticence.@15 His writes highly crafted poetry. He knows how to use tools to chisel imagery to produce a hypnotic effect. AIn cold, concise language, filled with effective, if at time crude imagery, he explores the natural world from the heavens to the seas and delves into the depths of man himself. Many of his themes are frankly sexual and are treated in the same dispassionate manner in which a fish is caught.@16
S. Padmanab was born in 1938 in Banglore. He has appeared in several publications and for some time he was associate editor of Grain.
Most Canadian writers of South Asia are myth-breakers. There have been myths in India that in Canada money is in abundance as if it grows on trees and sex is free and plentiful. But the immigrants find a different way of life here. Most India-born writers are involved with religion in one way or the other. Rohinton Mistry writes mostly about Parsees and Lino Leitao about Christian Goans. For Stephen Gill peace is the religion that is the base of life here and after death. Stephen Gill=s philosophy of peace is the outcome of the bloodshed that he witnessed when he was growing up in India. People were killing one another during the partition of India in the name of their god. He decided to leave India to escape the horror of religious fanaticism. He says, Afear as a wolf of painful emotions kept emerging again and again from the bushes of helplessness in the wasteland of time. It kept disturbing the peace of my nights, particularly whenever I heard about riots from my compatriots in Canada. Even when the wolf was asleep, the thorns of the scars bothered me.”17
Religion has been and will remain a rock on which the edifice of great works of art is built. John Milton=s Paradise Lost, based on the Bible, is still a great piece of poetry. In order to produce something that is good and great, it is important to write about what is close to the writer.
Religion is close to the people of India and it remains close when they come to Canada, a Byzantium and Alexandria of today that is becoming a halfway house between the east and the west.
Writers from India adjust well in Canada that promotes multiculturalism through laws and active means. Multiculturalism is not just a concept that grows under the shades of compulsions. In Canada, it is a planned way that the early master of Canadian destiny devised thoughtfully. Canada has becomes a choice place to immigrate largely because of her recognition of peaceful co-existence and human rights. The muscles of these recognitions continuously guide the Canadian garden to grow the fruits of the best living conditions. This reduces the wasteland of the unnecessary tension between and among religious and ethnic groups. This is the Canadian way for the free development of every culture, language and religion, working together to achieve a higher form of the principles of freedom and democracy, equality and justice. This is the blueprint that structures the Canadian identity and this is the blueprint to structure the rest of the emerging world, including the country of birth of Canadian writers. Cultural pluralism is an enriching factor that provides a base for the experiences on which the world can build a future and add zest to life. Multiculturalism is the spirit of sharing-- the spirit for knowledge to be widened to the boundaries of other creeds. Multiculturalism is also the opening of the eyes to the beauties of other places. Ultimately, it brings health to a nation--to the life of a community, and to every citizen.
This is the result of the multicultural environment that Canada has produced a premier of Indian origin. There are several members of the parliament who were born in India. One is a Sikh with his turban who has been sitting in the parliament for the last three elections. Rohinton Mistry has won highest literary awards, though he is a Parsi and writes about Paris community. One can visit the malls in metropolises to see the proofs of multiculturalism that has been thriving in Canada. The flowers of multiculturalism cannot bloom without the water of tolerance. Canada though a young nation, provides an example to the centuries-old civilization of India to be more tolerant to attain more peace and prosperity. This message forms the pivot of Stephen Gill=s poetry, prose and talks. This is the pivot of Lester B. Pearson=s dream that he promoted in Canada. He received the Nobel Prize for his work. This is the pivot of Mahatma Gandhi=s dream that he promoted in India. He received bullets for his work.
Most India-born Canadian writers are highly educated. Rohinton Mistry, an award-winning writer, worked for a bank when he came to Canada. Saros Cowasjee, another Parsi, has been with the University of Regina as a professor of English. Uma Pameswaran is also a professor with the University of Winnipeg. Stephen Gill has been a teacher, and a book publisher. Padmanab is a medical doctor, Lino Leitao is a teacher, Shiv Chopra is a veterinarian and Mahendra Chaubey is a professor.
India-born writers have not learned to exploit sex or violence to provide spice to their writing. They have faith in their art. They believe in their art and draw motivation from the fount of their rich Indian heritage and often blend it with the new heritage of Canada. Considering the time element since the opening of the migration to Indians, and also considering their percentage, India-born Canadian writers are in an encouraging situation, and will keep growing in a more encouraging situation in the future.
WORKS CITED
*1Westcott, W.F. Christian Monitor, November 2, 1980
*2Conte, Christy. Canadian Book Review Annual, 1990, page 169
*3Nugget Book Reviews, Feb. 16, 1979
*4Asian Tribune, The. Page 4, August 15, 1980
*5 Dewar, Russ. Manag. Ed. The Standard-Freeholder, Preface to Life’s Vagaries, Vesta, 1974
*6Durrell, Robert. Temiskaming Speaker, Canada, May 12, 1976
*7Richards, Linda. January Magazine, March 2003
*8Kozminuk, Angela. Simon Fraser University Newspaper, volume 94, issue 6, Oct.7, 1996
*9Bird, Polly. Online review
*10Rustomji, Roshni. TSAR, p. 86, vol. 7, no.2
*11Gormon, Dr. John in Preface to Songs for Harmony, Vesta, 1992
*12Tierney, Dr. Prof. Frank. Canadian India Times, Nov. 15, 1973.
*13Prime, Patricia. The Mawaheb International, June 2000, and Canopy, vol. Xv11, 39 & 40, July 2000
*14 from the author’s web page
*15Ghosh, Hilton. Song of the Slave, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Aug. 28, 1977, page 5
*16Leadlay, David G. Canadian Book Review, 1978, page 146
*17Glimpses, page 17, Vesta 2004; India Journal, Dec. 25, 1998
A recipient of several awards, Stephen Gill has authored more than twenty books, including fiction literary criticism and collections of poems. His poetry and prose have appeared in more than four hundred and fifty publications. He writes mostly about social concerns and against bloodshed and wars.
In 1841, both colonies or regions were reunited as Canada East and Canada West. In 1867, the Act of Confederation was passed that laid the foundation of modern Canada. Obviously, Canada is two to three hundred years old. From 1946 to 1950 Canada openly favored immigration from Britain, America and Northwestern Europe. By 1960, Canada relaxed its policies to admit immigrants from Hong Kong, Pakistan and India.
Canada is not as old as the civilization of India is , and immigration from India is not that old either. On the other hand, more than five thousand-year-old civilization of India has become a medley of contradictions, fascinations and fables. Every inch of the earth where this civilization exists and every brick of its every castle, and pilgrimage conceals tales in the womb of its historical secrecy. India is a land that beams with the dawn of advancements and also screams under deep-rooted stigmas. It is a land of noble laureates, world scholars, philosophers and sages. It is also a land of the darkest spots of ignorance, miseries , and prejudices. The country has developed its own distinctive lifestyle. Writers and poets do not have to go far to find wells to draw the water of their motivation. These wells are everywhere in every imaginable form in a composite civilization that is a cultural mosaic of humans who embrace diversity in every belief.
When the people from this composite civilization of India touch new harbors , their diversity becomes more diversified. The mixture of the life they leave behind and the life they face produce a child of wonder in literature. Canada, a cosmopolitan society, alive and vibrant, is a United Nations in the microcosm. The material that these new Canadian writers acquire becomes more unique. Their writings reflect a blending of the experiences, traditions and values of the countries of their birth and adoption. This mosaic nature has and will enrich Canadian literature, giving it a universal dimension.
Immigration from India began with the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of the early new comers were the Sikhs who worked in the sawmill industry. They numbered a few thousands. The local Canadians had a hostile attitude towards them. This attitude became more hostile after the sad incident of the Komagatu Maru ship that carried 376 Indians to the harbor of Vancouver, B.C. in 1914. To block their entry, Canada passed a law to accept only those who come directly from India by a ship that did not stop on the way. Because it was not possible to undertake a long voyage, immigration almost stopped. The immigration laws were substantially liberalized in 1962 and 1967. Consequently, in addition to the Sikhs, immigrants started coming from other parts of India. From 1990, immigrants from India started becoming a prosperous minority in Canada and began to be accepted more than they were in the former decades. The emergence of India-born immigrant writers on the literary scene is a phenomenon from the late sixties.
Canada and India resemble each other in several ways. One of them is their democratic constitutions. Another is their multicultural nature that shapes nearly every facet of their lives. In Canada, more than one hundred and fifty languages are spoken and understood and more than two hundred and fifty ethnic media, including electronic, exist. Today Canada is in the same situation in which Alexandria and Byzantium stood, which helped them grow culturally wealthy. Byzantium flourished for more than a thousand years from 330 AD to about 1400 in the Eastern Roman Empire. The location of Byzantium provided the city with some excellent advantages. Byzantium emperors gave a home to refugee scholars and found time to build up lending libraries. It was a cosmopolitan society full of vitality, a halfway house between the east and the west.
Canada is also becoming a halfway house. The contributions of India-born writers have grown in strength and visibility since the sixties. Among those who write primarily in Urdu or Panjabi languages, include Ravinder Ravi, Rasha, Gurcharan Rampuri, Balbir Singh Momi, Balbir Sanghera , Ajmer Rode, Iqbal Gill, Tarlochan Singh Gill, and Sadhu Binning. Sadhu Binning has entered into the English sector by translating his own Panjabi poetry in a volume, titled No More Watno Dur. Swapna Shail and Jagmohan Humar write poetry mostly in Hindi. Panjabi and Urdu poets crowd the market. Gurcharan Rampuri is a leading Panjabi poet and Balbir Singh Momi is a leading short story writer. A flood of Panjabi and Urdu publications in Canada provide encouragement to these poets and writers. Among the emerging poets of Panjabi and Urdu, the name of Solomon Naz can be safely included. These writers are being published in the countries of their birth and also in Canada. They reflect a Canadian perspective in their work. Though living in Canada, several Panjabi and Urdu poets write about the countries of their birth. They are like the writers of Canada in pioneering days, who wrote patriotic poems to glorify England and its military might.
Ajmer Rode and Tarlochan Singh Gill have written in English also. Ajmer Rode has degrees from Panjabi University and from the University of Waterloo. He came to Canada in 1966. His collections, include Poems at my Doorstep, and Surti. In 1994, he received the Best Overseas Punjabi Author Award from the Languages Department in Punjab, India, and the Outstanding Literary Achievement Award from Rode Heritage Committee, Canada in 2000. Canadian writers who were born in India and write mostly in English, include Bharati Mukherjee, Rohinton Mistry, Stephen Gill, Uma Parameswaran, Saros Cowasjee, S. Padmanab, Lino Leitao, Sophia Mustafa, M. Chaubey, Shiv Chopra, S. Padmanab, and Kuldip Gill. Bharati Mukherjee has moved to the United States. Sophia Mustafa after living in Tanzania for years, has moved to Canada. Lino Leitao went to East Africa from India before settling in Canada.
The elements that emerge in several India-born writers are religion and India or racial tensions. The writers who have ventilated racial tension, include Bharati Mukerjee and Stephen Gill. Bharati Mukherjee's Darkness, a collection of short stories, is largely based on the lives of immigrants from the subcontinent of India. The author states in her introduction, "In the Indian immigrant community I saw a family of shared grievances. The purely Canadian stories in the collection were difficult to write and even more painful to live through. They are uneasy stories about expatriation." Ratan, a character in Mukherjee's AThe World According to Hsu@ says "In Toronto, she was not Canadian, not even Indian. She was something called, after the imported idiom of London, a Paki. And for Pakis, Toronto was hell." The story is set around Toronto, where racism appears once in a while on the street. Usually, the stories of Bharati Mukherjee revolve mostly around alienation and plight of women in India.
Bharati Mukherjee was born in Calcutta on July 27, 1940. In 1947, she moved to Britain for a few years with her parents at the age of eight. She got her bachelor=s degree from Calcutta University in 1959 and her master=s in Ancient Indian Culture from the University of Baroda in 1961. She received a scholarship from the University of Iowa and finished her M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 1963, and doctorate in English and Comparative Literature in 1969. In 1963, while a student, she met Clark Blaise, a Canadian student from Harvard, and got married within weeks. Clark Blaise is also a writer.
Her books, include The Tiger's Daughter (Houghton, 1972); Wife, (Houghton, 1975); Kautilya's Concept of Diplomacy: A New Interpretation ( Minerva, 1976); (With Blaise) Days and Nights in Calcutta (nonfiction, Doubleday: Garden City, New York, 1977); An Invisible Woman ( McClelland & Stewart, 1981); Darkness ( Penguin, 1985); (With Blaise) The Sorrow and the Terror: The Haunting Legacy of the Air India Tragedy ( Viking, 1987); The Middleman and Other Stories ( Grove, 1988); Jasmine ( Grove, 1989); Political Culture and Leadership in India (nonfiction South Asia, 1991); Regionalism in Indian Perspective (nonfiction, South Asia, 1992); The Holder of the World ( Knopf: New York City, 1993); Leave It to Me (A.A. Knopf: New York City, 1997).
Another writer who has ventilated racial tension is Stephen Gill. He wrote about it in his novel Immigrant and also in some poems. Stephen Gill came to Canada in late 60=s from England for his studies. He went to England from Ethiopia, and to Ethiopia from India. His first novel Why was released by Vesta Publications Ltd. in 1976. This thought-provoking novel illustrates the frustrations and anguish of the protagonist who moves in and out of love affairs with married women, regretting all the while that it was morally wrong. Why it happens again and again sets the tone of the story. The locations shift from Ottawa and Montreal to Ethiopia and India, giving insights into the way of life, the socio-political structure, the educational system and moral values of Ethiopia.
The Loyalist City , set in Saint John, New Brunswick, is Stephen Gill=s third novel. Released by Vesta in 1979, the novel is about the days when Canada had freshly emerged from the status of a British colony. The tension in this novel revolves around pride in the birth of a new nation, and affection for Britain, the Mother Country.
It is Stephen Gill's second novel Immigrant that is the focus of critics and readers. The novel "does a fine job portraying a new Canadian's plight. The problems, language barriers, cultural discrepancies and a longing for the mother country can easily be seen in the strife faced by any new person in any new country.@1 In the story, "Gill has Reghu come into contact with a number of recent immigrants who express the full spectrum of sentiment one would expect from newcomers unfairly treated. Some are bitter, some are hurt"2. The novel Asensitively conveys the aspirations and fears of Reghu as he struggles to establish a new life in a hostile environment. Gill's story also touches on Canadian racial prejudices as he provides insights into the attitudes and views of natives and newcomers. Stephen Gill, a milti-talented and sensitive gentleman, has created an informative and powerful portrait of Canadian immigrants' experiences in the 1970s.”3
Lino Leitao, a short story writer, points out that ABy accentuating only one side of the story, Mr. Gill has looked at the speck in Canada=s eye, while he has ignored the log in India=s eye. Mr. Gill, who comes from India, knows well the prevalent prejudices that are in India=s caste ridden society. If Mr. Gill were to expose both sides of the coin, then Immigrant would have read like George Orwell=s story ADown and Out in Paris and London@. He further states, AI think Mr. Gill realizes this flaw and as such conveys the message through Immigrant that the better understanding of mankind can be achieved by rooting out ignorance. To Mr. Gill ignorance is the root of all prejudices among mankind.@4
In 1974, Stephen Gill released his collection of fourteen short stories, titled Life=s Vagaries. AThere are no traditional heroes or villains in his short stories; only real people reacting to the basic situations which are to be found in all corners of this global village.@5 This collection of fourteen stories Aencompasses many themes in numerous settings. The stories demonstrate that people in various parts of the world have the same hopes, fears, problems and ambitions. In other words, life is similar throughout the world. Readers who like short stories will be pleasantly entertained by Life=s Vagaries.@6
If Stephen Gill focuses on the frustrations of the immigrants in the sixties, Rohinton Mistry revives the Parsi community of Bombay. Rohinton Mistry, a Parsi and also a prominent writer, was born in Bombay in 1952 and moved to Canada in 1975. He started writing stories in 1983. Penguin Books Canada released his collection of short stories, titled Tales from Firozsha Baag that portray compassionately the tenants of an apartment building in Bombay. His first novel Such a Long Journey, also set in Bombay about an Indian Parsi family, is rich in symbolism and characterization. The family is deeply disrupted by the war in Bangladesh for independence. The novel won the Governor General=s Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book, and W.H. Smith/Books in Canada=s First Novel Award.
Rohinton Mistry=s novel A Fine Balance, published by McClelland & Steward in 1995, is also set in India. In Family Matters, like Mistry himself and his several stories, the main characters are Parsi, members of a fringe religious community in India who follow the faith as laid down by the prophet Zoroaster. Mistry says that Family Matters is "not autobiographical." Though the story takes place in Bombay, many of the challenges the main characters face are universal, the resolutions they come to sharply and recognizably human: You don't have to be Parsi or Indian to identify with his characters and the dilemmas they face.7
Another writer from a Parsi (Zorastrian) background is Saros Cowasjee, a professor emeritus at the University of Regina. He was born In Secundrabad on 12th of July in 1931, had his master=s degree from Agra University in 1955 and a doctorate from Leeds in 1960. Before moving to Canada in 1963, he worked as an assistant editor with the Times of India, Bombay, for two years. He has published several critical studies, novels and short stories. The fiction of Saros Cowasjee include Goodbye to Elsa, Untouchable, Coolie, The Assistant Professor , Stories and Sketches, Nude Therapy , and several critical studies, including Modern Indian Short Stories.
The front cover of Goodbye to Elsa states that the novel is the story of a man=s essential loneliness and his desperate attempt to overcome it with an overdose of sex. The back cover quotes Khushwant Singh, a celebrated writer of India, who says ACowasjee knows how to tell a story and handles his language admirably.@
Whereas Rohinton Mistry fictionalizes the Parsi community he knew back home, Lino Leitao fictionalizes Goans. With his insight into his own people and his understanding of their best and worst, he portrays his compatriots just as they are in a way that is unique and unforgettable. The tales of Lino Leitao draw sensitive and informative portraits of the Goans who have settled in Canada.
Lino Leitao was born in Goa, a former Portugese colony, now a part of India. He was educated in India and Canada. He taught for years in Uganda. When Asians were forced to leave that country by Adi Amin, he came to Canada. He has been teaching in Canada for years. He has authored The Gift of the Holy Cross ( a novel, England: Peepal Tree Press, 1999); Six Tales ( Vesta Publications 1980; Goa Tales ( Vesta Publications, 1977) and Collected Short Tales ( New York: Carleton Press, 1972).
Another writer that came from Africa, like Lino Leitao, is Sophia Mustafa. From Gurdaspur, Panjab, where she was born, she went to Africa with her parents to live permanently. She came to Canada in 1989. She authored The Tanganyka Way, a novel about the political development of that nation. It is a story of the three momentous years in Tanganyika=s history from 1958 to 1961 which went from colonial rule to independence on December 9, 1961. It was published by Oxford University Press in 1961. In 2002 her novel based in Kenya and Abyssinia, now Ethiopia, was published in Canada, titled In the Shadow of Kirinyaga.
Anita Rau Badami, in comparison with Rohinton Mistry and Lino Leitao, is relatively biographical in her main work Tamarind Mem that was published by Penguin Viking Books in 1996. The novel is about the relationship between a daughter and her mother. Angela Kozminuk slides her appraising eyes on the novel in The Peak :
ATamarind Mem is a wonderful novel with poetic, playful prose. Set between India and Calgary, the story alternates between the memories of two protagonists -- mother and daughter -- trying to make sense of their past of living in various railway colonies of India, but with vastly different recollections.
ABadami's debut novel has been receiving critical acclaim and she is being hailed as a promising new Canadian voice. Badami is now dealing with the fallout of all the publicity surrounding Mem and she is also working on a follow-up novel set in Vancouver.@8
The story of Anita Rau Badami=s second novel, the Hero=s Walk , is set in Toturpuram, a small city in the Bay of Bengal, India. The novel was published in Canada by Knopf in 2000. Anita Rau Badami was born in the eastern state of Orissa and came to Canada in 1991. She had a bachelor=s degree from the University of Madras, and studied journalism at Sophia College in Bombay. She wrote for a number of years for publications in India.
Another writer who draws inspiration from the fount of India is Uma Parameswaren. She was born in Tamilnadu (Madras), and had her B.A. from Jabalpur, Nagpur. She had a diploma in journalism and M.A from Indiana University, and an M.A in creative writing and a doctorate from Michigan State University. Married to a mathematician, she has been living in Winnipeg since 1966. She is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and a critic. Her books, include The Door I Shut Behind Me ( Madras: East-West, 1990); Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees ( play , 1988); Trishanku ( 1987); Cyclic Hope Cyclic Pain ( 1972).What Was Always Her (collections of short stories); and Mangoes on the Maple Tree (novel). She is a recipient of Caribe Manitoba Playwriting Competition( 1989), Canadian Authors Association Annual Fiction Competition (1968), and others.
What Was Always Hers, published by Broken Jaw Press, Canada, is a collection of short stories that won the New Muse Award in 1999. In these stories, the Indian values of Uma Parameswaren weave her ideas, myths, traditions and global views. The same hands weave the fabrics of her first novel Mangoes on the Maple Tree. Polly Bird puts it in a better way:
AThis is Parameswaran's first novel and third book of fiction. This intriguing book spans twenty days in the life of an Indo-Canadian family and sets the action against the 1997 flood in Winnipeg. Parameswaran brings to the story her background as an Indian who has lived in Winnipeg since 1966 as well as her expertise as Professor of English at the University of Winnipeg. It is this understanding of both countries and cultures that inform this work. The novel traces the events through the extended family showing how they each come to terms with the crises they face and how their understanding of themselves grows as they learn to live in Canada.”9
India is the motivating force also for the poems in Trishanku and her play Meera. The poems in Uma Parameswaran's Trishanku (1988) are " the voices of men and women from India living in Canada as exiles, expatriates, or immigrants, with memories in the past. But these memories do not keep either the actors of this poetic drama or the readers in the past. They are evoked to explain and define the lives of the speakers as they try to survive as individuals and as a community in the new and bewildering land"10. Her play Meera, a dance drama, is about Krishna, a Hindu god. The play was produced and directed by Rubena Sinha for the Hindu Society of Manitoba on 2nd of April in 1972. Meera, a poet, occupies a sacred place in the history of the Hindus. Meera developed a deep and passionate devotion for Krishna, the eighth avtar (incarnation) of the god Vishnu.
Another writer who draws inspiration from India is Asok Mathur, though not exactly the way that Uma Parameswaren does. He is known for his first novel Once Upon an Elephant that is a modern retelling of the creation of Ganesh who is the elephant-headed Hindu deity. Asok Mathur was born in Bhopal and came to Canada with his family in 1962 when he was one year old. He studied journalism and worked as a photojournalist with some small newspapers in Alberta. He has a master=s degree from the University of Calgary.
The only writer who is deeply involved with the problems of minorities and also with peace and bloodshed is Stephen Gill. In addition to fiction and critical studies, he writes analytical articles on human rights situations in Pakistan and India. He is known as a poet of social concerns. Though most of his work is in English, he writes poetry occasionally in Urdu, Panjabi and Hindi languages. Some of his Urdu/Hindi poems have been put to music and sung by a famous Pakistani singer in an album called Aman that means peace in English. His English collections of poems, include The Dove of Peace, Songs for Harmony, Divergent Shades and Shrine. He is a recipient of three honorary doctorates and other honors, including the Queen=s Golden Jubilee Medal (Canada);Pegasus International Poetry for Peace Award (Texas); and Sahir Award of Honor (India). He is known as a poet of peace and harmony. Professor of English Literature at an American University, Dr. John Gormon says that AAs in Whitman, there=s a freewheeling Hegelian mysticism afoot in the poetry of Stephen Gill.@11 Former head of the English Department of Ottawa University, Dr. Frank Tierney says, Athere is in Tennyson=s poem and Mr. Gill=s volume a hierarchy of values. The first and most important is, as John Henry Newman insisted, growth within. This growth requires spiritual priority. This principle leads man to personal, national and international harmony through an understanding that comes from love.@12 In addition to these comments, there are the comments of Patricia Prime from New Zealand, a well recognized name also in India for her perceptively critical evaluation of Indian literature. She says that Stephen Gill is at Athe forefront of contemporary Indian poets writing in English.@ She adds: AStephen Gill=s Shrine is a volume of complex and skillful poetry, with a good ear married to some fine ideas. The luxuriant textures and rhythms of Gill=s work point to a conviction that language is a repository of images charged with mystery and possibility.@ She concludes:
Astrong poems, taut and visually sharp while at the same time being intensely lyrical. They are individual poems. Gill's gift of language, the immediacy of his wit and word-play combined with a command of imagery which not only captures his readers in a freeze-frame, but hustles them through time and space to another dimension, places him in the forefront of contemporary Indian poets writing in English.”13
Shiv Chopra, a veterinarian, is another writer from India who is involved with religion. He represents Hindu thoughts when he praises the woman in her many roles in his book The Wondrous Virgin that was released by Vesta Publications in 1983. The poems in this volume are based on a Vedantic concept of woman. He also gives talks and contributes to religious publications from the point of Hinduism.
Mahendra P. Chaubey is involved with Hindu philosophy rather more deeply than Shiv Chopra is. He presents his poetry like a sage. In his book From Known to Unknown, he discusses in prose serious subjects like nature of mind, fear and power, and why man is unhappy. From Darkness to Light is in the same vein, though it is in poetic form. Even here he talks on life and how to be happy. Similar is another of his poetry books, titled From Fear to Freedom. His writing is the result of his desire to find the truth about life and unhappiness. Mahendra P. Chaubey holds a doctorate in Theoretical Physics from the State University of New York at Buffalo and also studied at Oxford and McGill University. He teaches at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec.
Another poet who borrows from the east is Kuldip Gill. She does it in Dharma Rasa, a winner of a BC 2000 Book Award. ARasa theory, part of Indian genre theory and Sanskrit poetics, describes an elaborate typology of nine essences or emotions, ranging from adbh (wonder) to raudra (fury) to karuna (sorrow) to santa (serenity). This first collection of poetry of Kuldip Gill is rich with these emotions.@14. Kuldip Gill was born in Faridkot, Panjab and came to Canada in 1939. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology from University of British Columbia, and teaches at the University College of the Fraser Valley.
A poet who cannot be put into the pigeonholes of India or religion is Padmanab. He is universal as far as subject and style is concerned. The prominent collections of poems of S. Padmanab, a medical doctor, include A Separate Life, Ages of Bird, and Songs of the Slave. AHe has a way with words and uses them with restraint verging on reticence.@15 His writes highly crafted poetry. He knows how to use tools to chisel imagery to produce a hypnotic effect. AIn cold, concise language, filled with effective, if at time crude imagery, he explores the natural world from the heavens to the seas and delves into the depths of man himself. Many of his themes are frankly sexual and are treated in the same dispassionate manner in which a fish is caught.@16
S. Padmanab was born in 1938 in Banglore. He has appeared in several publications and for some time he was associate editor of Grain.
Most Canadian writers of South Asia are myth-breakers. There have been myths in India that in Canada money is in abundance as if it grows on trees and sex is free and plentiful. But the immigrants find a different way of life here. Most India-born writers are involved with religion in one way or the other. Rohinton Mistry writes mostly about Parsees and Lino Leitao about Christian Goans. For Stephen Gill peace is the religion that is the base of life here and after death. Stephen Gill=s philosophy of peace is the outcome of the bloodshed that he witnessed when he was growing up in India. People were killing one another during the partition of India in the name of their god. He decided to leave India to escape the horror of religious fanaticism. He says, Afear as a wolf of painful emotions kept emerging again and again from the bushes of helplessness in the wasteland of time. It kept disturbing the peace of my nights, particularly whenever I heard about riots from my compatriots in Canada. Even when the wolf was asleep, the thorns of the scars bothered me.”17
Religion has been and will remain a rock on which the edifice of great works of art is built. John Milton=s Paradise Lost, based on the Bible, is still a great piece of poetry. In order to produce something that is good and great, it is important to write about what is close to the writer.
Religion is close to the people of India and it remains close when they come to Canada, a Byzantium and Alexandria of today that is becoming a halfway house between the east and the west.
Writers from India adjust well in Canada that promotes multiculturalism through laws and active means. Multiculturalism is not just a concept that grows under the shades of compulsions. In Canada, it is a planned way that the early master of Canadian destiny devised thoughtfully. Canada has becomes a choice place to immigrate largely because of her recognition of peaceful co-existence and human rights. The muscles of these recognitions continuously guide the Canadian garden to grow the fruits of the best living conditions. This reduces the wasteland of the unnecessary tension between and among religious and ethnic groups. This is the Canadian way for the free development of every culture, language and religion, working together to achieve a higher form of the principles of freedom and democracy, equality and justice. This is the blueprint that structures the Canadian identity and this is the blueprint to structure the rest of the emerging world, including the country of birth of Canadian writers. Cultural pluralism is an enriching factor that provides a base for the experiences on which the world can build a future and add zest to life. Multiculturalism is the spirit of sharing-- the spirit for knowledge to be widened to the boundaries of other creeds. Multiculturalism is also the opening of the eyes to the beauties of other places. Ultimately, it brings health to a nation--to the life of a community, and to every citizen.
This is the result of the multicultural environment that Canada has produced a premier of Indian origin. There are several members of the parliament who were born in India. One is a Sikh with his turban who has been sitting in the parliament for the last three elections. Rohinton Mistry has won highest literary awards, though he is a Parsi and writes about Paris community. One can visit the malls in metropolises to see the proofs of multiculturalism that has been thriving in Canada. The flowers of multiculturalism cannot bloom without the water of tolerance. Canada though a young nation, provides an example to the centuries-old civilization of India to be more tolerant to attain more peace and prosperity. This message forms the pivot of Stephen Gill=s poetry, prose and talks. This is the pivot of Lester B. Pearson=s dream that he promoted in Canada. He received the Nobel Prize for his work. This is the pivot of Mahatma Gandhi=s dream that he promoted in India. He received bullets for his work.
Most India-born Canadian writers are highly educated. Rohinton Mistry, an award-winning writer, worked for a bank when he came to Canada. Saros Cowasjee, another Parsi, has been with the University of Regina as a professor of English. Uma Pameswaran is also a professor with the University of Winnipeg. Stephen Gill has been a teacher, and a book publisher. Padmanab is a medical doctor, Lino Leitao is a teacher, Shiv Chopra is a veterinarian and Mahendra Chaubey is a professor.
India-born writers have not learned to exploit sex or violence to provide spice to their writing. They have faith in their art. They believe in their art and draw motivation from the fount of their rich Indian heritage and often blend it with the new heritage of Canada. Considering the time element since the opening of the migration to Indians, and also considering their percentage, India-born Canadian writers are in an encouraging situation, and will keep growing in a more encouraging situation in the future.
WORKS CITED
*1Westcott, W.F. Christian Monitor, November 2, 1980
*2Conte, Christy. Canadian Book Review Annual, 1990, page 169
*3Nugget Book Reviews, Feb. 16, 1979
*4Asian Tribune, The. Page 4, August 15, 1980
*5 Dewar, Russ. Manag. Ed. The Standard-Freeholder, Preface to Life’s Vagaries, Vesta, 1974
*6Durrell, Robert. Temiskaming Speaker, Canada, May 12, 1976
*7Richards, Linda. January Magazine, March 2003
*8Kozminuk, Angela. Simon Fraser University Newspaper, volume 94, issue 6, Oct.7, 1996
*9Bird, Polly. Online review
*10Rustomji, Roshni. TSAR, p. 86, vol. 7, no.2
*11Gormon, Dr. John in Preface to Songs for Harmony, Vesta, 1992
*12Tierney, Dr. Prof. Frank. Canadian India Times, Nov. 15, 1973.
*13Prime, Patricia. The Mawaheb International, June 2000, and Canopy, vol. Xv11, 39 & 40, July 2000
*14 from the author’s web page
*15Ghosh, Hilton. Song of the Slave, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Aug. 28, 1977, page 5
*16Leadlay, David G. Canadian Book Review, 1978, page 146
*17Glimpses, page 17, Vesta 2004; India Journal, Dec. 25, 1998
A recipient of several awards, Stephen Gill has authored more than twenty books, including fiction literary criticism and collections of poems. His poetry and prose have appeared in more than four hundred and fifty publications. He writes mostly about social concerns and against bloodshed and wars.
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