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Garma
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Asian - American Heritage - Punjabis in Canada, a chronology. . 1908 - Vancouver, B.C. First Gurdwara (Temple) 1908 On January 19, 1908, the first Gurdwara Sahib in Canada was officially opened at 1866 West Second Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. Bhai Balwant Singh Ji was honored to be the first GRANTHI. The Gurdwara Sahib served the greater Vancouver Sikh community until a new Gurdwara was built and occupied on April 25, 1970 at a different site. The first Gurwara property was sold for $100,000 to build the bigger, present, Gurdwara. It was very unfortunate to lose the earlier historic Sikh monument. (Source: Khalasa Diwan Society, British Columbia) 1908
- The following one-paragraph
report appeared in the San Francisco Call for October 16, 1908
1911 - Holt, California There were no organized societies of Sikhs in the United States until 1910. In 1911, Sandar Basakha Singh and Jawala Singh arranged for a meeting to take place in Holt, near Stockton, to form a Sikhs Unit. A committee was appointed to raise money for the construction of a temple. 1912 - Stockton (California) Gurdwara, (Temple) The land was purchased on South Grant Street in September, 1912. The small frame house already standing on this lot was used as a Gurdwara (temple). Guru Granth Sahib was installed and Gurdwara started in 1912. Also in 1912 the Sikh religious flag - Nishan Sahib hoisted for the first time. Baba Vasakha Singh and Baba Jawala Singh Thathian (Amritsar) were the first Granthies. 1913 - WRESTLING (March 1913) "Dodan Singh the Hindu and Eddie O'Connell will not meet in a wrestling match here on the evening of March 28. The lid was suddenly clamped on the proposition yesterday when Sheriff Burns notified the manager of the Hindu that O'Connell would not be permitted to wrestle in this city. The sheriff takes this stand because he thinks that the Portland wrestler is not on the square and while he does not object to a good clean wrestling match, his faith in O'Connell appears to be exceedingly limited." SOURCE: The Daily Astorian. Column: "Water Under the Bridge" compiled by Bonnie Oathes of March 16, 1988 dated 75 years ago. WRESTLING "According to Bill Wootton, the Hindus were most known for their prowess and agility in wrestling, back in the days when wrestling was "real honest-to-goodness wrestling." They were light heavyweight champions. They used scientific holds and used their science and ability to get in and out of the holds." SOURCE: The Daily Astorian. Oregon Centennial,1873-1973. April 26,1973. (p.913) 1913 April 23, 1913 - Gadar Party first meeting. First Revolt Against the British to Free India The first meeting of the party was held on April 23, 1913 in Astoria,
Oregon, (U.S.A.) The meeting was held in the Finnish Socialist Hall.
(source of photos: Finnish American Historical Society of the West. The Theater Finns. Walter Mattila, editor. Portland, Oregon. Finnish American Historical Society of the West. Publication v. 7, no. 2, 1972, p. 2 and 7.) (source: Liisa Penner, curator, Clatsop County Historial Society). According to writer Khuswant Singh, this was the first
revolt against the British to free India. He also noted that "although
nine out of ten of the rank and file of the Ghadar Party were Sikhs and
the centres of their activities were Sikh temples, since most of them,
were illiterate, most of the leaders were educated Hindus or Muslims. This
saved the Ghadar from becoming a militant Sikh movement. In fact, it
contributed - not a little - to make the Ghadar the most powerful
terrorist movement in the history of India's freedom movement as well as
the first one to rise above communal considerations." Further reading:
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