Location
The Canadian Sikh population is the second largest in the Sikh diaspora, after the British. Initially, Sikhs settled in the Pacific Coast province of British Columbia, but since the 1950s, they have distributed themselves across the country, locating themselves in every province and in every major urban center. Like other immigrant groups in the last half-century, they have been drawn to the largest cities of the three provinces that have enjoyed the greatest economic growth: Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Unlike most groups, however, they have established themselves in slightly greater numbers in British Columbia than in the central Canadian province of Ontario. More than one-third of Canada’s Sikhs live in metropolitan Vancouver, British Columbia; another one-third are in metropolitan Toronto, Ontario; and one-twelfth can be found in the combined populations of the Alberta cities of Calgary and Edmonton. The suburban municipalities of Surrey in greater Vancouver and...
Keywords
- South Asian Community
- Holy Book
- Taxi Industry
- Economic Immigrant
- Royal Canadian Mount Police
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Ames, M. M., & Inglis, J. (1973). Conflict and change in British Columbia Sikh family life. B.C. Studies, 20(Winter).
Barrier, N. G., & Dusenbury, V. A. (Eds.). (1989). The Sikh diaspora: Migration and the experience beyond Punjab. Columbia, MO: South Asia Books.
Buchignani, N., & Indra, D. (1985). Continuous journey: A social history of South Asians in Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Cole, W. O., & Sambhi, P. S. (1978). The Sikhs: Their religious belief and practices. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Dhillon, M. S. (1981). A history book of the Sikhs in Canada and California. Vancouver: Shiromani Akali Dal Association of Canada.
Gosal, S. S. (1993). The quest for justice: Enforcing the right to wear the 5Ks. In J. Bali (Ed.), Sikhs in Ontario. Toronto: Ontario Society of Sikhs.
Grewal, J. S. (1990). The Sikhs of Punjab. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jeffrey, R. (1994). What’s happened to India? Punjab, ethnic conflict and the test for federalism. New York: Holmes & Meyer.
Johnston, H. (1979). The voyage of the Komagata Maru: The Sikh challenge to Canada’s colour bar. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Johnston, H. (1984). The East Indians in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association.
Johnston, H. (1988a). The development of the Punjabi community in Vancouver since 1960. Canadian Ethnic Studies, xx, 1–19.
Johnston, H. (1988b). Patterns of Sikh migration to Canada. In J. T. O’Connell et al. (Eds.), Sikh history and religion in the twentieth century (pp. 296–313). Toronto: University of Toronto Centre for South Asian Studies.
Johnston, H. (2001). Sikhism and secular authority. In M. Van Die & D. Lyon (Eds.), Religion and public life in Canada (pp. 346–362). Toronto University-of Toronto Press.
Judge, P. S. (1993). Punjabis in Canada, a study of formation of an ethnic community. Delhi: Chanakya Publications.
McLeod, W. H. (1976). The Evolution of the Sikh community: Five essays. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Puri, H. K. (1993). Ghadar movement: Ideology, organization, strategy. Amritsar, India: Guru Nanak Dev University.
Shackle, C. (1988). Some observations on the evolution of modern standard Punjabi. In J. T. O’Connell et al. (Eds.), Sikh history and religion in the twentieth century (pp. 101–109). Toronto: University of Toronto Centre for South Asian Studies.
Sharma, K. A. (1998). The ongoing journey: Indian migration to Canada. New Delhi: Nice.
Singh, M. (1981). Indo-Canadians in Greater Vancouver: A socio economic survey. Vancouver: NACOI BC Chapter.
Singh, N. (1994). Canadian Sikhs: History, religion, and culture of Sikhs in North America. Nepean, Canada: Canadian Sikh Studies Institute.
Tatla, D. S. (1999). The Sikh diaspora: The search for statehood. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Johnston, H. (2005). Sikhs in Canada. In: Ember, M., Ember, C.R., Skoggard, I. (eds) Encyclopedia of Diasporas. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_110
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_110
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-0-306-48321-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-29904-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawReference Module Humanities and Social Sciences