It is well known that at the end of 19th
and in the early 20th century, Sikhs started looking outward,
mainly towards South East Asia, China (including Hong Kong)
and even Australasia, followed soon by North America. However,
it is less known that at the same time, they also started
to migrate to Argentina. Be it because besides USA and Canada,
it was the only other prosperous country in the Americas,
or because although not English-speaking, Argentina had British
influence, especially in the industry, commerce and business.
Whatever the reason, it was a fascinating journey and Argentina
remains one of the few countries in the world (apart from
California and Canada), where out of the total number of Indian
immigrants, Sikhs formed an overwhelming majority. Trust a
Sikh to choose the farthest possible country from Punjab to
emigrate to!
In his book “Unfole Warke”, written in Punjabi,
the famous Baba Bhagat Singh Bilka writes that Sikhs came
to Argentina in 1910-11 and started working in the sugar mills
and railway workshops of Buenos Aires and Rosario up North.
The economic conditions, though poorer than North America,
were better than other Latin American countries and employment
was available. So no wonder that by 1925, Argentina became
the last destination for many Punjabis.
Sikhs left India in the hope of settling in USA via Calcutta,
Burma, Malaya, Indo-China, Japan, Panama but none of the countries
allowed them to disembark and hence some had to land in Chile
and move on to Argentina via Bolivia. Another group traveled
via Bombay, France, Cuba, Mexico, Panama and Brazil to reach
Argentina. One has to look at the World Atlas to realize the
magnitude of the distances they covered by ship, foot, train
or bus under totally alien conditions. It was no less an effort
than that of Columbus!
In and around 1930, several senior members of the global Ghadar
movement visited Argentina in places such as Rosario, Jujey,
Tucuman, Cordoba and Salta indicating widespread presence
of Sikhs in Central and North Argentina. Some of these aficionados
came to Argentina from Brazil. During the world gathering
of Ghadarites in Moscow, out of a total of 71 delegates, about
20% were from Argentina. To place in context, it has to be
noted that delegates from several countries particularly from
the British Commonwealth countries were denied passage to
Moscow..... |