Pure Punjabi in British Columbia

Pure Punjabi in British Columbia
Saeed Naqvi

The ferry from the mainland to Victoria prepares you for the astonishing remnants of the Empire at the "Edge of the World". Mounted on the main deck is the Queen's photograph.

There are more surprises once you land in Victoria, capital of British Columbia, the third largest of Canada's ten provinces. As you check into the Empress Hotel, the bellboy directs you to Kipling's, the restaurant named after Rudyard Kipling, who loved the place. For relaxed afternoon tea, The Bengal Lounge, with its heavy, leather sofas, is recommended. This memorial to the second city of the Empire (Calcutta, naturally) has two, shiny, stone elephants at the entrance, a Bengal tiger skin on the wall. Even a 19th century ``punkha'' has been suspended from the ceiling.

Attached to the Empress, on another level, is the Charles Dickens Pub, which, quite frankly, is not half as English the Sticky Wicket, two blocks away where the pub sign is a batsman in full flow. Cricket in Canada?In this western tip of the world's second largest country, surrounded on three sides by the Pacific, Arctic and the Atlantic Oceans, encompassing one of the world's coldest regions, one would expect the shops to be full of woollens manufactured in Canada. But, finding ourselves somewhat underclad for the nip in the air, when we enter the premier clothes shop on the main street, the elegant elderly lady, almost English in her accent, announces in despair "our stocks from Scotland have not arrived".

From my room in the Empress, I have a view of the harbour, of course, but also a larger-than-life statue of Queen Victoria in front of the Parliament House and the premier's office which are illuminated at night. In fact, the Parliament building resembles the Victoria memorial in Calcutta.

It is against this elaborate, colonial, British background that the occupation of the Premier's chair by Ujjal Singh Dosangh from Phagwara, near Jullunder, takes your breath away. "Of course I speak in Punjabi as well as in English at home," he bursts out in chaste Punjabi. Then, in ample demonstration of his virtuosity, he surprises you with faultless Hindi.

A willing suspension of disbelief is required to cope with the drama that unfolds before your eyes. Seated on a red leather upholstered swivel chair, leaning over the files, is this man from the Punjab. "The name of the village Dosanjh Kalan," he furnishes the detail, peering above his metal rimmed spectacles, even as a very busy looking Maureen Parkhouse, one of his secretaries, whispers something to him. "Oh, the cabinet meeting," he exclaims as a series of officials in dark suits flit in and out. "Well, we shall have to delay the cabinet meeting," he says with a ring of authority. "After all these friends have come from very far away," he points to us.

By now the se-ating arrangement for the interview has been finalised. My first question to him is about the astonishing contrast, the delicious irony in this most Anglaise of outposts having a first generation immigrant, a peasant farmer from the Punjab as its 33rd premier and the first ever from India. He is one of the three lakh Indians in British Columbia. "I am still a farmer at heart," he says. "When I came to this country at the age of 21, lumbering was the business -- I worked in a saw mill."

Dosanjh fits well into Salman Rushdie's list of Midnight's Children. He was born in Dosanjh Kalan in 1947. His primary education was in the village school where his father was a teacher. Like most starry-eyed Punjabi young men in the 1960s, he too set his eyes on "England". At the age of 17 he landed in London but within four years had obtained a visa for Canada.A serious back injury caused him to give up strenuous physical labour at the saw mill. He attained a law degree at the University of British Columbia and established a law practice in Vancouver in 1979. He was then 32 and already "happily married to Raminder". They have three sons. "the children, of course, are by sheer peer pressure, much more Canadian" he records with satisfaction. "But the other day my son, Aseem, said to me that he instinctively finds Bhangra the most rhythmic dance form".

In 1991, he was elected an MLA from a constituency in Vancouver. In 1995, was a minister responsible for human rights, sports and multiculturalism. Did he have to cope with racism on his way to the top? "There is some degree of racism on the margins in every society," he reflects. "But basically it is the fairness of the Canadians and their system and the inherent justice in all democracies that makes it possible for someone like myself to reach this position".

A revolution is afoot where the rights of the First Nations as the original inhabitants of Canada are called are being gradually restored, the wrongs of history being righted. ``This is the strength of democracy.'' That is why India's future is secure. He plans to visit India soon and revive an old idea to establish special ties between Punjab and British Columbia. What about special ties with India? "That I shall contemplate when I hold office in Ottawa!''