Strong sense of Punjabi identity created by the Punjabi pioneers in California got its first major shock with the partition of India in 1947. Punjabi Muslims Hindus and Sikhs who have been living as members of an extended family sharing their joys and sufferings in an alien land suddenly found themselves divided as Indians and Pakistanis because of division of their country. Recent political developments in Indian Punjab created a further split among the Punjabi diaspora in California and the historic Sikh Temple of Stockton is no longer a popular rendezvous of Muslim Hindu and Sikh Punjabis. Perhaps the only Gurdwara in the world where visitors sat on chairs and ate Prasad in plates with spoons and paper napkins provided by the management quickly fell in line with other Gurdwaras as a result of management passing under the control of pro-Khalistani Clements. Under the changed circumstances focus has shifted from the common Punjabi identity to the reconstruction of Hindu Muslim and Sikh identities Establishment of charts of Hindu and Sikh studies in the Canadian and American Universities has provided further fillip to this process of reconstruction of communal identities. It was during my participation in one of the conferences organized by hte newly established chair of Sikh studies at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor that I came across an interesting study by Prof Karen Leonard Making Ethnic Choices California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans Temple University Press Philadelphia 1992. Since Prof Leonard’s paper attracted considerable scholarly attention i thought of going deeper into the issues which have resulted into of identity among the second generation of Punjabis born out of the wedlock of pioneer Punjabis and Mexican women Karen Leonard who is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Irvine was considerate enough to introduce me to her major project and some of her friends who formed subject scholarly studies
A careful perusal of the findings of Prof Leonard shows that the pioneer Punjabis who decided to make the Imperial Valley their home faced many difficulties created by the host communities and the federal laws which did not allow them to bring their wives or own any lands. Known 4s they are for their spirit of adventure and enterprise these Punjabi pioneers were not discouraged and soon overcame the legal hurdles first by marrying Mexican women whom they found culturally and ethnically more compatible than the Anglos and later Owning the lands through proxy cither in the name of their Mexican wives or children How quickly the Punjabis had adopted themselves to their new home a mini Punjab is evident from the description of the valley in their letters to relatives back home Karen thus quotes Puna Singh who moved to northern California in 1924:
On arriving in the Sacramento Valley one could not help but be reminded of the Punjab Fertile fields Stretched across the flat valley to the foothills lying far in the distance. Most of the jobs available were agricultural and {found many Punjabis already working throughout the area. (p.34)
She quotes another Punjabi pioneer who wrote about this new Land of Five Rivers and found striking similarities between the two In my story the Land of Five Rivers was Sacramento Valley. The river Sutlej was Feather River. There is of the four rivers American Bear Yuba and Sacramento. My Bhakhra (Dam) the Oroville Dam My Govind Sagar the Oroville Lake. The city of Anandpur Sahib the nearby town of Paradise. The Shivalik the Sierra foothills There was Naina Devi our Mount Shasta And yes the Jawala mukhi the Lassen Volcanic Park. Obviously I was carried away by my imagination. Yet the reality was not left far behind. The water like the water in the Punjab had the same urge to run downward the distant hills had the same charm. The fire in Jawala mukhi and the Volcano has the same way to bum things. (p.35) While the Punjabi pioneers were mainly responsible for converting the desert along the Mexican border cast of San Diego into fertile valley the host community did not accept them as welcome members of the society Because of their own cultural complexes and Punjabi life styles these men lived in groups cooked together washed their laundry in public the way they were doing in Punjab and invited ridicule from the locals. However they took consolation that they were not alone to suffer discrimination since the Chinese and the Japanese were also facing similar opposition and ridicule from the local Anglos and Americans One reason for the Punjabis being disliked was that they were prepared to accept much lower wages and by living in groups in most frugal manner and still save and send money back home This attitude of the Punjabis and also that of the Chinese and Japanese created hostility among the local white labor who generally demanded much higher wages Karens study shows that there were very few women In the imperial valley in the early years. On the basis of census she mentions that there were 8900 males compared to 4691 females. Among the females there was not a single Punjabi woman while among 88 Chinese there were only two women after making some money through hard work men thought of settling and started looking for brides. While the Swiss got mail order brides the Japanese got picture brides. Arrival of the first Japanese women is thus described by Karen:
When the talk got around that Mr. Masanori Moriyama the father of melon growers decided to take a wife from his native land after he made a fortune the bachelors became excited. Because in those days there was Tit a single married man so it was all bachelors’ households. Then the day came for Mr.
Murayama’s bride to arrive About 200 farmers who heard this abandoned their spades and hoes and rushed to the station and waited anxiously for the train to arrive she was the first Japanese woman they would see since they came to America so it was no wonder the expression in their eyes changed. Finally the train arrived and the bridge got off the train. The groom who had been waiting hurriedly put his new bride on the buggy; sitting on the driver’s seat he whipped the horse once and the horse stained (rotting. At the moment a cry of banzai rose. But the horse and the driver were surprised by the roar and speeded the pace. The delicious crowd did not wake up from their dreams easily and they ran after the buggy. (p p 40-41).
Article extracted from this publication >> June 24, 1994
