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THIRD SPACE: AN INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATION OF SOUTH ÁSIAN DIASPORA IN CANADA
SOUTH ASIAN DIASPORIC COMMUNITIES IN CANADA
As of 2016, 1,963,330 Canadians have South Asian geographical origins,
constituting 5.6% of the Canadian population.® Additionally, a large influx
of South Asian immigrants is joining the growing number of temporary
resident categories (holding valid study and work permits) and is bolstering
the economic, social, cultural and political standing of the diaspora.
The term “South Asia” is commonly used in North American media, politics
and academia to refer to ethnic groups of people with originations from the
nation-states of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Pakistan and Sri-Lanka.° But this
term often overlooks the multidimensionality of the identities of its diasporas
across the globe — oversimplifying the national, cultural and linguistic
belongings of its members to one dominated by discourses of the Indian
diaspora. Such domination often leads to homogenization of diverse identities
prevalent within the pan South Asian diaspora. Nation-states in South Asia
share borders, culture, traditions, sensibilities owing to regional politics,
colonial history and physical similarities, and a postcolonial imagination of
“national spaces” and “homeland”’ that have roots in century-old cultural
encounters which constitutes a pan-ethnic diasporic identity.
Most of the South Asian diaspora in Canada follow religions such as Sikhism,
Hinduism and Islam. They speak different South Asian languages — but Hindi,
Punjabi and English are observed to be the most common ones. This diaspora,
especially the Indian one, has provincial identities that go beyond their
national ones, e.g. Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayali, Punjabi, Tamil, and
Telugu, and these provincial identities are based on different languages and
cultural practices particular to their regions. Indian identity and knowledge of
Hindi and English often blur these differences. The Pakistani diaspora, which
primarily speaks Urdu, is easily able to communicate with Hindi/Punjabi
speakers due to vocational similarity in languages. The Bangladeshi and the
Sri-Lankan diasporas have their own unique cultural identities, but their
postcolonial identities inextricably link them with a larger South Asian one.
The Canadian Sikh community is one of the biggest sub-diasporas within
the larger Indian and even broader South Asian one — they can be traced
back as the first South Asian migrants to come to Canada — as early as 1897.8
Often South Asian minority narrative in Canada is spearheaded by this
5 National Household Survey, Statistics Canada, 2011.
° Anouck Carsignol, The Construction, Mobilization and Limits of South Asianism in North
America, South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, Vol. 10 (2014),
https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3766 (accessed 2 March 2020).
Monisha Gupta et al., Rethinking South Asian Diaspora Studies, Cultural Dynamics, Vol. 19,
No. 2-3, 125-140, 2007.
Arrivals and Departures, The Colonies and India, 5 June 1897,
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/35686721/ (accessed 10 March 2020).
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