Canadian Race Relations Foundation

In this biography, Johnston and the book's subject, Tara Singh Bains, trace Bains' origins in the Sikh culture of Punjab, India through his immigration to and life in Canada (British Columbia), ending with his return to India after retirement. While shedding light on the inner workings of the Sikh community in Canada, this book also serves to illustrate the experience of an immigrant and visible minority in the process of encountering and adapting to Canadian culture.

Tara Singh arrived in Canada in 1953 unprepared for the objections of his sister's family to his beard and turban. He was never affected by the clash of cultures more deeply than in those first few months with his Canadian relatives. In the background lay the attitudes of white society, but the emotional confrontation was with his sister and nephews. They lived within a community that was just beginning to gain acceptance in Canada, and they took nothing for granted. The Khalsa Diwan Society had secured the vote for Indo-Canadians only six years earlier, after lobbying federal and provincial politicians for over a decade. Indo-Canadians had been the targets of discriminatory immigration regulations for forty-five years, and they still were... (p.254)