ABSTRACT
The history of Indian migration to Canada goes back to the colonial enterprise of the mid- and late-19th century. Indians in Canada comprise the second-largest Asian and non-white community after the Chinese and have a unique experience of being, becoming, and belonging. Being the colonial subject of the British Empire, during the reign of Queen Victoria (1858), Indians were supposed to enshrine equal rights throughout the Empire but that did not work in practice because of the existing racial inequalities. Indians were subject to various discriminatory practices because of their racial and cultural differences in Canadian society. Starting from the colonial exclusionary immigrant policies to contemporary post/Multicultural policies shaped the psyches and experiences of assimilation and exclusion of the Indian community from mainstream white Canadian society. The present postcolonial reading critically analyses a brief history of the immigrant policies of Canada and how those policies affected the migration of non-white to Canada with special reference to the Indian diaspora. It also underscores how race played a vital role in engineering immigrant policies to exclude certain nationalities till the recent past because they did not look like the Canadian, the white. It also critiques the reprehensible reasons behind the introduction of Multiculturalism as state policies and immigrant policies that have shaped the Indians’ and other non-white communities’ experiences in Canadian society. And amidst these “ideal policies” how did the racist sentiments and leadership negotiate and function, which further contributed to the sparks of the racist attacks and discriminations against the coloured Canadians/immigrants in the post-multicultural Canadian society?
