Paldi — Canada’s oldest Sikh settlement loses its sheen

Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, January 28

Paldi — the first Sikh enclave in Canada — named after its founder Mayo Singh’s native Paldi village in Hoshiarpur district has fallen on bad days and lost its sheen as the oldest Sikh settlement and a home to many Asians.

The once bustling British Columbian town was a testimony to the entrepreneurship of Mayo Singh — originally named Maiya Singh — and an epitome of Punjabis’ contribution to British Columbia’s culture and economy.

Mayo Singh was a Minhas Rajput Sikh hailing from Paldi village of Hoshiarpur district. As no one from the original settlers or their families, except for a few members of Mayo Singh’s family, live in this erstwhile “Mini Punjab”, it is called as the “Ghost Town” of Duncan, which used to brim with life till 1973-74. Paldi was a Sikh hamlet where Mayo Singh had helped more than 1,500 Punjabis, Sikhs and Chinese settle down and be a part of the then thriving lumber industry.

Mayo Singh had initially immigrated from Punjab to San Francisco in the US in 1906. From there he migrated to the Vancouver Island at the time when Canada’s racially discriminatory immigration laws did not allow Asian women to enter the country.

Initially, he worked hard in the local Fernridge mill till it closed down in 1912 and then set up his own lumber mill in a joint venture with fellow Punjabis who had preferred to stay put at the place even after the mill closed.

Gradually, he was not only able to run the lumber mill, but also founded a town and named it after his hometown.

A school was also set up in this Punjabi hamlet for children of Punjabi workers. The first gurdwara there was opened by Punjabi settlers in 1917 and it was renovated in 1928. Now, the gurdwara stands as a major landmark of Paldi which is visited by a number of tourists.

Though the town has lost the sheen of its past, the Sikhs of British Columbia are striving hard to preserve the old culture and the gurdwara in many ways. A ‘Jor Mela’ is organised every July to preserve the memory of a town, which was symbol of hard work.

“Mayo Singh was known as Santa Claus among jobless Punjabis for he gave work to whosoever landed in the BC from Punjab,” said Jaswant Deed, known Punjabi writer and former Assistant Director of Doordarshan, Jalandhar.