"As numbers have grown . . . there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."

From the National Post (Party puts the spotlight on Desi culture by Katie Rook, October 25):

A more pronounced confidence among Indo-Canadian youth in their roots does not surprise Arti Dhand, a professor of South Asian studies at the University of Toronto.

Prof. Dhand says attitudes toward Indian culture have certainly evolved in the 25 years she has lived in Canada.

"Twenty, 30 years ago, there was a huge pressure to conform to mainstream, white-Canadian lifestyle, to assimilate.

[Hyphenated Canadian: We can't have that now, can we? If immigrants assimilated English-speaking Canadians might actually share a common culture and identity. Oh, the horror! The horror!]

"As numbers have grown and associations have grown, as [a new] generation is really coming into its own educationally, in terms of occupations and so forth, there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."

[Hyphenated Canadian: Goody.]

Prof. Dhand celebrated Diwali last Saturday with her family in Toronto. Of the nine guests her son invited to the park for fire-crackers, none was Desi.

[Hyphenated Canadian: On the one hand, I think it's good that Indo-Canadians are socializing with other Canadians, because one of my fears is that large-scale non-white immigration will lead to a racially-balkanized society. If whites and non-whites are socializing and getting along, that bodes well for social harmony. On the other hand, I don't want to assimilate to Indian culture. I have no problem wishing people who celebrate Diwali well, but I wouldn't want to live in a Canada where Diwali was as important as Christmas. I don't want Canada to lose its European identity. I don't want to see Canada's European heritage reduced to being just one minority culture out of many.]

"You'd be astonished at the number of people who came up to us and said, 'Happy Diwali' and shook our hands and congratulated us," she says.

"This is the wonderful thing about being in Canada. There really is a culture of predominantly of wanting to celebrate and participate in each other's major events."

[Hyphenated Canadian: I don't like this statement at all. It's presumptuous, because the professor makes it sound as if all holidays are of equal importance in Canada. I don't want to be part of a mix-and-match culture where foreign celebrations like Diwali are considered as important as traditional Canadian holidays like Christmas.]

[. . .]

Read all of Katie Rook's article.

Do most white Canadians realize how quickly immigration is changing this country? Are they prepared for those changes? Are they ready to wake up one morning and realize that they are now the minority? Is this what they want? Why is this demographic transformation happening without any public debate?

See also:

India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?

New work of fiction based on real-world Indo-Canadian gangs in BC

Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident

Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration immigrants assimilation integration multiculturalism cultural diversity Indo-Canadians Indo-Canadian South Asian South Asians Desi culture Desis Diwali Hinduism