By Ashok Bhargava
A discussion on multiculturalism was organized in Surrey City hall. Here are my thoughts on multiculturalism in Canada.
This world is changing very fast due to migration, wars and economic opportunities.
We are caught in between a world that is dead and a world that is yet to be born, a world that seeks relief from discrimination, violence and hatred. A world that desperately desires peace and harmony.
Our challenges are how to move towards a tolerant and all-inclusive society collectively, to bridge the gaps that divide us and to find a common ground where we can nourish each other and grow together.
As you know – the basic idea of racism is to magnify the differences between people by characterizing non-whites as lesser human beings and to promote and maintain a system of exploitation. Whereas the idea of multiculturalism is to accept the differences between people with an acknowledgment characterized by understanding, equality, and dignity.
Racism elicits hatred and distrust and precludes any attempt to understand its victims. Whereas multiculturalism elicits tolerance and harmony and attempts to change our social behavior.
To begin with, let me tell you who I am. I am a non-vegetarian Hindu, married to a Filipina, a roman catholic. Our children are Indo-Filipino-Canadians. I am a graduate of Manitoba university and I retired as a senior financial officer from the province of British Columbia with a passion for creative writing, volunteering and Bollywood music. I studied Hindi and Punjabi while English is the only language spoken at our home of a mixed race, multilingual, multi religious and multicultural family. I love curried food, tacos, burritos, pizza, hamburgers and fries. I love yoga, meditation and Sanskrit shlokas. What am I?
Am I a South Asian, East Indian, Indo-Canadian or Pakistan origin? It is a mixture of lovely contradictions?
My parents taught me that the trees, animals, birds, rivers, the sun and the moon are all God. They taught me that the observer, me, and the observed, the universe are intimately entwined and if we do not see ourselves in others, then there is no beauty to being human.
I am not going to indulge in an academic analysis of political maneuvering of antiracism and accomplishments of multiculturalism. Rather I am going to share some of the experiences I have had over the past fifty years of my life in Canada for you to contemplate and to reach your own decisions.
Back in 1975, I was invited to a house party in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I was the only colored person there. There I encountered someone who wanted to know why people like me were taking jobs away from white people and ripping Canada by sending money back home. He complained that we smelled bad and lacked good manners. My host intervened and apologized on his behalf.
So when someone like him tries and circumscribe me into narrow boxes with their biased, xenophobic take on a specific group of people, it makes me wonder what kind of person they are, and do they even see me the way I do?
Let’s not romanticize multiculturalism in Canada. I see the poverty, helplessness, and violence against indigenous people, Asians, and Africans who are denied equality.
I wake up to the news of Muslims and Sikhs killed on the streets or in their places of worship. Whenever the policies are twisted into narrow rules and regulations we can’t expect them to erase racism or to promote harmony.
Another incident happened in 1990 in Prince George. A white man holding a bottle of beer in his hand walked up to me and asked if he could join me. I was impressed that he wanted to sit with me when there were so many other seats available in the bar. Soon after he sat down he said “Why the heck we wanted to have turbans in the RCMP? Don’t you think those who don’t respect Canadian institutions should be deported to where they belonged?”
He was angry with Baltej Singh Dhillon, a new immigrant from Malaysia, who applied to join the RCMP in 1988 and met the entrance requirements. He was asked if he would give up wearing his turban in favour of the Stetson hat. He challenged RCMP’s iconic dress code, a strong Canadian cultural symbol of a predominantly white organization at that time, and won.
This change incited acrimony across the country. This raised issues around cultural classes. Other examples of cultural clashes are kirpan in schools, naqab and hijab, helmets etc.
In order to avoid an unpleasant discussion with a stranger in a bar, I said I agree with deporting any Canadian who champions any sort of socio-cultural change and the judges of the Supreme court of Canada for upholding freedom of religion. He didn’t like my answer and shouted I was a disgusting Paki. I wondered if many Canadians are really open-minded people. We need to change our thinking that the microcosm and the macrocosm are linked in an infinite beautiful cycle, that is we are all ONE.
I believe accepting our differences can create a society that would illuminate and inspire our lives. Our identity is not static, it changes with our space, perceptions, and environment within our ever-changing world.
Sometimes I am rather pessimistic about the future of multiculturalism. In this age of information, social media is often used to mislead and indoctrinate people. People are so busy taking their selfies and writing their stories that they have no time to notice what is happening around them. They don’t pay attention to policies that invite resentment because they ignore local traditions, values, and culture. We should defend the beauty and relevance of existing societies and stop social media and politicians from misleading the masses.
We need to ask a question if the policies of erasing racism provide enough thrust to move society into peaceful and harmonious multiculturalism or create different set of problems like kirpan in schools and niqab, hijab, Burka in work places.
