Download entire Journal volume [PDF] - Global and International ...

JPS 16.2 268
Singh, Teja Singh, Chagan Vairaj Varma, Dr. Sundar Singh and is set against the
backdrop of Canadian racism and the saga of the Komogata Maru. Gould
highlights the introduction and increasing involvement of a „new breed‟ of
middle class Sikhs from the east coast (e.g. Teja Singh) who shared the
intellectual and political sensibilities of a growing number of New England
Americans, and the establishment of new organizational and economic
institutions such as the Khalsa Diwan Society and local gurdwaras.
If Chapter 4 identified how the presence of east coast Sikhs helped to focus
the South Asian community‟s attention on the issues of immigration and racism,
and introduced the institutional vehicles through which the community could be
mobilized, the White backlash and the introduction of various measures to
counter „seditious‟ activities by Sikhs is taken up in Chapter 5 „Intensification of
Community Awareness‟. Gould documents the employment of spies to keep tabs
on the activities of Sikhs on both sides of the border, and argues that such
attention was increasingly directed to South Asian students and intellectuals.
Moreover, Gould notes that the Sikh peasantry in North American was starting to
interact with revolutionary individuals. The result of this interaction brought to
light an awareness of the connection between the treatment of South Asians in
North America and the evils of colonialism (146).
In excess of eighty pages, Chapter 6 „Ghadr‟ is the longest chapter in the
volume. The chapter is largely descriptive, as the bulk of it is devoted to
revealing biographies of key players (e.g. Har Dayal, Sohan Singh Bhakna,
Taraknath Das) in the Ghadr movement. Gould is strong here at identifying
important links to other world events that shaped the trajectory of Ghadr, and the
chapter as a whole offers a good summary of an otherwise complex network of
people, events, and political and intellectual sensibilities.
Chapter 7 „From Taraknath to Lajpat Rai‟ moves the reader to the east coast
and the arrival of Lajpat Rai, which, according to Gould, was “for all practical
purposes, the beginning of the „India Lobby‟” (231). In Gould‟s analysis, the
radical sensibilities of Ghadr were superseded by a more moderate political
stance and affiliation with liberals and liberalism in New York. For Gould, Rai‟s
success on the east coast was his ability to “acquire a voice in the New York
media and academia” which provided a conduit to the mainstream political
establishment. (256) In Chapter 8 „Let the Lobbying Begin!‟ Gould provides a
balanced assessment of the South Asian mode of reaction to the Thind decision
(1923) which “ruled that Indians are not “White” and therefore, like all other
Asians not entitled to American citizenship” (263) and the counter reaction by
those who supported the decision. Gould focuses his analysis on the activities of
such „lobbyists‟ as J. J. Singh, Anup Singh, and Syud Hossain. Here again,
Gould is careful to situate his analysis of the „India Lobby‟ within the broader
historical and political contexts of world events (e.g. Gandhi‟s Salt March,
WWII, Japanese ascendancy) Chapter 9 „The Propaganda Wars‟ documents the
British initiative to influence American public opinion vis-à-vis Indian
nationalism in India and thereby attempt to defuse those same sympathetic voices