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Johal Family Celebrates 100 Years in Canada

September 14th, 2006 by admin

This month, the extended Johal family celebrates the 100th anniversary of their beloved Gian Singh Johal’s (pictured right) incredible journey and arrival to Canada. A true pioneer, his footprints led their family of now close to 500 descendants on a path to this country a century ago. The Johal family has gone on to become one the largest Sikh families in British Columbia.

Today, his living descendants - his great, great, great grandchildren continue to uphold and honor his memory as well as their other early settlers who made incredible sacrifices to ensure a better life in Canada for the entire Johal family. A religious celebration will be held by the Johal family to honor Gian Singh’s memory on Friday September 22nd at 10 a.m., to Sunday, Sept. 24th. at the Guru Nanak Niwas Temple, No. 5 Road, Richmond.

“Babaji Gian Singh planted deep roots for our family in Canada a hundred years ago. It was important that the enormous sacrifices made by him and our other early settlers were not forgotten by our generation and those who follow us,” say Karen Johal-Dosanjh, a great grandniece of Gian Singh. “Our family is now flourishing in Canada, the US and England thanks to Babaji Gian Singh’s extra ordinary dream which has now been fulfilled.”

“Although the Johal family dynamic has changed today, a special bond and an immense sense of loyalty remains because of the deep roots he planted,” says Karen.
Because the Johal family has grown so much - reconnecting everyone on a regular basis was a challenge. A small group of family members worked to develop a family website which has now become a historic record, including a complete family tree, and personal stories posted daily. It has also become a way to share news about births, upcoming weddings and precious heritage and modern day photos. Today people are not generally willing to part with their rare vintage photos, but today’s technology is making this a reality. “I am seeing for the first time images of my late father that I never even knew existed. Everyday, we are all sharing a piece of our history with each other. The site has become priceless forum for all of us,” says Dosanjh.

Dosanjh sums up the philosophy behind this commemorative project. “At one point in time, our entire extended family all lived together in one house in India and ate from the very same pot. We hope to carry on that extraordinary sense of family and community that our ancestors created for us. It is such a strong and beautiful foundation for us to build our own family units upon.” Babaji Gian Singh has been described by those who were fortunate to know him as brilliant, adventurous, selfless, hard working, passionate, charismatic, and unconditionally devoted to his family and his faith. Today, hundreds of descendants of his brother Jawala Singh’s family are living proof of his own personal commitment and deep sacrifice. Like many of his countrymen, Babaji made the long and arduous journey via steamer ship from India to the promise of beautiful Vancouver in 1906. A husky and powerful man, some of his hobbies included sports such as wrestling, and owning and racing horses. Some of his ventures included operating a sawmill and of course, his innate love of farming.

In 1908, Babaji Gian Singh’s older brother Babaji Jawala Singh was ready to board a ship bound for Vancouver when he received an urgent telegraph to return home. It was then that Babaji Gian Singh made a vow to his brother that he would never marry and would treat his brother’s children as his very own.

He would work in Canada and send funds to help raise the children and maintain the family estate in India. He lived in Vancouver for a few years before moving to Calgary, where he owned and operated a farm for about 10 years. It was during his time in Alberta that he developed his intense love of horses.

To meet the financial needs of the family back home, he was forced to sell the farm and eventually moved back to Vancouver. In 1919, he finally returned to India and stayed there for approximately two years before returning to Canada. In the 1950s he returned once again to his cherished homeland India with intentions to remain there. However, the Canadian government initiated a quota system which allowed citizens to sponsor a direct family member in India for legal immigration. Babaji Gian Singh returned to
Canada knowing he could help his brother’s family further by sponsoring key members. Babaji Jawala Singh had five sons and at this time, they all had sons and daughters who were in many cases, already married with children of their own. The Johal family tree was flourishing! The two brothers planned to somehow bring one member of each of the five families to begin their lives in Canada - full of opportunity and freedom. They often described this decision using the metaphor of ‘five fingers on one hand.’ In essence this symbolized that we will all work hard together, each one of us will play an integral role and we will never forget that we all came from the same place. All of these men left behind their own families to help fulfill this ultimate dream.

In 1952, he sponsored the second youngest son Jagir Singh Johal and the second oldest son Chanan Singh Johal’s son Rasham Singh In 1956, he sponsored the youngest son Gurnam Singh Johal and in 1959, he took the final step to sponsor the remaining two family links - the eldest son Gujjar Singh Johal sent his eldest son Gurdev Singh and the middle son Najer Singh Johal sent his eldest son Gurcharan Singh.

With this, Babaji Gian Singh’s commitment was finally complete. It was up to these five members to carry on his pledge to support and eventually sponsor the entire Johal family still remaining in India - as he had done for them. Babaji Gian Singh was one of the original founding members of the Sikh society that built the 2nd Avenue Gurdawara in Vancouver. At that time, it was the gathering place for all the new Sikhs as there were very few Indo-Canadians in Canada. The Gurdawara provided a place for Sikhs to catch up on the latest news abroad, meet and greet new immigrants, and even to arrange many weddings! A true and devoted Sikh, Babaji Gian Singh never shaved and did Gurbhani (prayed) every day. It was in the act of climbing the stairs to reach the Gurdawara at the Sikh Temple in Victoria that he suffered a massive heart attack and succumbed his life to God in 1959.

His family is his greatest legacy. Today each branch of the symbolic ‘five fingers on one hand’ - the Johal family tree - is now gloriously represented in Canada, England, India and the United States.

Source: The Asian Star (www.theasianstar.com)

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