Long Before They Were 'Apparent Muslims,' Sikhs Were Targeted In U.S.

[HSD1]

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Early one morning last weekend, Amrik Singh Bal, 68, was standing along a stretch of highway in Fresno, Calif., waiting for a ride to work. Two white men pulled up beside him, hollering obscenities out their window.

The Fresno Bee reports that Bal, who is Sikh, has a white beard and was wearing a blue turban, tried crossing the street to get away when the men in the truck pulled a U-turn and drove into him, knocking him to the ground. They got out, launched punches into Bal's face and body, then sped off into the morning fog.

Bal is one of dozens of Sikh Americans attacked in recent years. Some scholars estimate there are about 100,000 Sikhs in the U.S. and 25 million worldwide. They have roots in the Punjab region of South Asia and practice a monotheistic religion based on the 15th century teachings of an Indian guru. The Sikh Coalition, a nonprofit legal group, has analyzed more than 140 actual or suspected hate crimes against Sikhs in the U.S. between 2001 and 2012. The group says that this past December alone, it received a surge of calls from Sikhs seeking legal help — three times as many as during the same time in 2014.

The Washington Post's Peter Holley details a long string of attacks following Sept. 11 when Sikhs in America were attacked because their assailants mistook them for Muslims: the shootings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis.; the beating of Inderjit Singh Mukker in a Chicago suburb after he was called "bin Laden"; the shooting of a Sikh store clerk in Grand Rapids, Mich., after he was accused of being a terrorist.

But while Sikh Americans have come under increased scrutiny in recent years owing to the misconception that they follow Islam, the history of Sikhs in America coming under attack begins long before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The first documented attack on Sikhs in the U.S. took place on Sept. 4, 1907, in Bellingham, Wash., a coastal city less than two hours north of Seattle. Three decades before, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese citizens from coming to the U.S., and tension between whites and various other immigrant groups was mounting. ("Have We a Dusky Peril?" wondered the Puget Sound American the year before the Bellingham attack.)

Just after midnight on Sept. 4, a mob of men descended upon the city's "Hindoo" immigrants, as some newspapers broadly referred to South Asians. (Newspapers of the day weren't particularly great at parsing minority identities or ethnicity.) "Religious Sikh men, who wore the dastar, a turban head covering that is a symbol of the Sikh faith, were especially targeted," Erika Lee writes in her book The Making of Asian America.

i

Darsh Singh, the first Sikh American to play basketball in the NCAA, became the subject of an Islamophobic meme earlier this year.

Most of the immigrants were Sikh men between ages 20 and 40 originally from Punjab. They had come to the States by way of Vancouver, B.C., traveling on British steamboats to Washington state to find work at lumber mills.

The mob — some newspapers at the time reported nearly 500 people — broke into the boardinghouses where Sikh workers were staying, pulling them from their beds and into the streets to beat them. Some of the Sikh men were robbed of gold and clothing, worth as much as $4,000 per man. The throng comprised white union men who worked in the lumber and milling industries and claimed the Sikhs were taking their jobs.

The mob's message was clear: Get out of town.

Bellingham's leaders and police stepped in and had the Sikh men corralled in a jail under City Hall for the night — for their own safety, it was said. No witnesses came forward, and no one was ever charged. At the time of the beatings, there were reportedly nine police present, according to a new documentary, titled We Are Not Strangers, produced by a Sikh temple near Bellingham.

The Seattle Morning Times argued the incident was "not a question of race, but of wages" and like many newspapers of that time, commiserated with the union members:

"When men who require meat to eat and real beds to sleep in are ousted from their employment to make room for vegetarians who can find the bliss of sleep in some filthy corner, it is rather difficult to say at what limit indignation ceases to be righteous."

And so, fearing for their lives, hundreds of Sikhs fled Bellingham. Many went by train south to Seattle and Oakland; some, north to Vancouver, B.C., where similar riots awaited them.

In fact, just three days after the Bellingham incident, Lee writes in her book, "Vancouver was ripped apart by a related anti-Asian riot that swept through the Chinese and Japanese quarters and left destruction in its wake." In Seattle, a week after Bellingham, a wire report headlined "Hindus Attempt to Slaughter Swedes" tells the story of a bizarre bar fight between "20 Swedes and a hundred 'Hindus' [who were] recently from Bellingham." Midfight, the Swedes, joined by a policeman and a one-legged man, barricaded themselves in a saloon until the so-called Hindus fled.

News reports following these attacks elsewhere in the country were often gleeful. "Every Hindu mill employee in the city has quit work, and nothing will persuade them to remain," a wire service reported. "They are fleeing to more congenial pastures of the North like flocks of sheep."

Decades later, those "congenial pastures" remain elusive for Sikh Americans. From unnamed Sikhs who suffered attacks on "Hindoos" to Inderjit Singh Mukker or Prakash Singh or Amrik Singh Bal, all attacked in recent years for being "Muslim," the justifications may have changed, but the violence is much the same.

http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/01/02/461479969/long-before-they-were-apparent-muslims-sikhs-were-targeted-in-u-s

[dalsingh101]

That picture in the paper of a bloke snake charming is something else....

 

Yeah, I have to admit, it made me smirk. 

[Ragmaala]

They were just insecure that they could not match the intelligence, hard-working attitude & strength of these East Indians/Hindus/Sikhs. Thus, they had to attack them to feel better about themselves. The same thing goes on these days.

[kdsingh80]

6 hours ago, Ragmaala said:

They were just insecure that they could not match the intelligence, hard-working attitude & strength of these East Indians/Hindus/Sikhs. Thus, they had to attack them to feel better about themselves. The same thing goes on these days.

So in Punjab , Haryana  and other places  where people who don't like UP ,Bihari's are afraid of them because of their hard work and strength?

[Ragmaala]

4 hours ago, kdsingh80 said:

So in Punjab , Haryana  and other places  where people who don't like UP ,Bihari's are afraid of them because of their hard work and strength?

Yes they are afraid of strong hard working muscular 8 pack abs UP, Bihari's .       /s

[DSG]

I think we need to be more vigilant .

Knowing what to do in situations where one/two against many get attacked upon/ cornered .

What do we do ?

Run, where to though ?

Try to speak to them ?

Fight them , take one out at least ?

I know its easy to write these things but when in a situation where thugs,bullies, idiots attack you for no reason ( i probably freeze  :) : ) :) and get beat )

What should we do ?

 

 

[dalsingh101]

8 minutes ago, DSG said:

I think we need to be more vigilant .

Knowing what to do in situations where one/two against many get attacked upon/ cornered .

What do we do ?

Run, where to though ?

Try to speak to them ?

Fight them , take one out at least ?

I know its easy to write these things but when in a situation where thugs,bullies, idiots attack you for no reason ( i probably freeze  :) : ) :) and get beat )

What should we do ?

 

 

Read this, it gives you a real life experience of these things. It helps if you have some mental anticipation of what you might face. Then the big question: Are you training? Even though training is in no way a guarantee of not getting your arse whooped, it has it's merits. And it's much better than not training. 

 

 

 

[paapiman]

1 hour ago, DSG said:

I think we need to be more vigilant .

Knowing what to do in situations where one/two against many get attacked upon/ cornered .

What do we do ?

Run, where to though ?

Try to speak to them ?

Fight them , take one out at least ?

I know its easy to write these things but when in a situation where thugs,bullies, idiots attack you for no reason ( i probably freeze  :) : ) :) and get beat )

What should we do ?

 

 

Bro, first and foremost, always do Ardaas to Maharaaj for protection, whenever you leave home.

In States/Countries where guns are legal, Sikhs need to arm themselves and Gurudwaras need to have armed guards. Along with that, they should take fire arm training courses, in order to effectively use those weapons.

Physical training and martial arts training (Shastar Vidya) are very crucial. They will help you to handle assault/hate crime situations. Be mentally prepared for a possible assault (especially for Sikhs in US, Canada, etc). If some people are about to attack you, try to talk out of the situation. It is possible in some cases (not always) that if you stay calm and humble, the situation might diffuse. Even, ignoring people can possibly help a person to get out of a difficult situation. 

Other things, which might help:

• Staying in your vehicle can keep one safe in certain situations
• Follow the same route to work
• Avoid going to unknown places at night
• Avoid going to places, where gangs gather up
• Always have a cell phone on you
• Call 911, if you feel threatened - better safe than sorry
• Stay indoors at night, especially for old people, children and women
• If you have to leave house at night, have some company, if possible
• Inform your family member(s), where you are going
• Stay vigilant 

 

Bhul chuk maaf

[HSD1]

Here is the original article attached to the snake charmer picture above if you cant read it.

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Puget Sound American, Sept. 16, 1906, p. 16

HAVE WE A DUSKY PERIL?

HINDU HORDES INVADING THE STATE

BELLINGHAM workmen are becoming excited over the arrival of East Indians in numbers across the Canadian border, and fear that the dusky Asiatics with their turbans will prove a worse menace to the working classes than the “Yellow Peril” that has so long threatened the Pacific Coast.

Hordes of Hindus have fastened their eyes on Bellingham and the northwestern part of the United States in general, and the vanguard of an invasion which, in the minds of many discerning people, threatens to overshadow the “yellow peril” has reached this city. Encamped in a weatherbeaten and patched building, just east of the E.K. Wood Lumber Company’s mill, within sight of passing hundreds every day, are more than a dozen swarthy sons of Hindustan. Thousands of worshippers of Brahma, Buddha, and other strange deities of India may soon press the soil of Washington.

It is on a peaceful mission these Asian tribes are bound, but they are counted as the enemies in the industrial warfare of the white man, and their coming is regarded with distrust by the average laboring man, who is carefully studying the cause and effect of the new immigration. It was only a few years ago that these men of Asia began leaving their primeval homes for North America, landing in British Columbia. Now there are more than 5,000 Hindus in the Canadian province, and they are regarded with such aversion by the industrial classes that the Ottawa government has been petitioned to take drastic measures to turn back this stream of humanity, which is becoming irresistible.

FLOODS OF HINDUS COMING

Investigation of Hindu immigration reveals the startling fact that more than 2,000 citizens of India have entered British Columbia in the last two months. This is enough to frighten any community where it is essential that white labor should prevail to insure continuous industrial and commercial advancement, and none realize this more than the British Columbia workman, who has asked his national government to exercise extraordinary power to repress the industrious Oriental.

Principally at the behest of the laboring classes, the federal superintendent of immigration in Canada has been sent to the province to investigate the situation thoroughly. As a result of these protests it is considered likely that the federal authorities will take advantage of the authority vested in the governor in council, which can, if it chooses, prohibit the entrance of any class of immigrants. Perhaps the chief reason why the Canadian government has proceeded slowly in championing the popular clamor is found in the fact that the Hindus are British citizens.

If the government does use its extraordinary powers, and Hindu immigration is effectually stopped, the United States will have to bear the brunt of the Indian immigration. Prevented from landing in Canada, the East Indians will come direct to America.

At the present time the majority of Hindus reach the Northwest on the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company lines and its pauper passengers have two chances to find a home. If they find nothing in British Columbia they can come to the United States, provided they pass the physical, mental, and contract labor prohibitions. If Canada shuts the Hindus out, Seattle, Portland, and Tacoma will become the chief ports of entry for the easterners in the Northwest.

STEAMSHIP LINES BUSY

The steamship companies calling at Puget Sound ports can be depended upon to work up a big business in the transportation of Hindus. They are not likely to be outdone by the steamship concerns of the Atlantic, which annually contract with various agents to transport tens of thousands of undesirable Europeans to the United tSates [sic]. Hindus are accorded the same privileges by the immigration laws of the United States as the people of the most favored nations; therefore, in view of Canada’s contemplated action, and even without that perspective, nothing, apparently, will prevent or seriously discourage Hindus from coming to this country by thousands.

Hindu immigration to the United States began early in January, 1906. On January 7 Linah Singh and Pola Singh walked over the boundary line at Blaine without previously passing the required examination for admission. Arriving in Bellingham afoot on the Great Northern Railway they were arrested and confined in the city jail. They were found to be unlawfully in the country and were deported via Sumas.

While in the local prison the Singhs exhibited several peculiarities of their far off home. They, of course, wore turbans, and threatened to die of starvation rather than eat food cooked by other people. They were finally induced to eat rice, but they devoured it sparingly.

NO UNCLEAN RICE

When they were given the opportunity to cook their own rice at the Sumas detention shed they ate big quantities of it. Rice is the principal food of their more fortunate countrymen in Bellingham, and it is said that seventeen men from the land of the cobra and the Bengal tiger surround the pot of rice cooked in the humble Oriental home near the E.K. Wood mill.

Two months after Linah and Pola came to Bellingham five other turbaned beings rode into the city on the Bellingham Bay & British Columbia Railway. They found employment digging ditches, but they did not like the work, and they quit to labor in the E.K. Wood lumber mill. The same liking for timber plants is shown by the majority of Hindus who have settled in the Northwest.

These were soon followed by others who, perhaps, were led to come here through the glowing accounts written by the pioneers. All have been examined by A.J. Ferrandini, the immigration inspector in charge at this port, and he is constantly looking for Hindus who have been rejected at the ports of entry or at the United States immigration headquarters at Vancouver…

NEW MOVEMENT…

Since the Singhs first ate rice in one of Uncle Sam’s prisons, more than 100 of their countrymen have entered the United States to the knowledge of the local immigration office and about an equal number has been denied admission. Admissions were refused to all who failed to pass the physical or mental examinations and to such as could not prove that they were not likely to become public charges or contract laborers.

The immigration offices are given the power to reject immigrants even though they find only an implication of contract labor. As an example, of the officers find that a relative or friend has informed the applicant that he can get work at a certain place that can be construed to mean contract labor and the application can be denied. If the applicant has been merely told that there is plenty of work in this country a construction of prohibition cannot be placed on the information. Frequently disease bars the Hindus. Some suffer from trachoma, and fifteen were rejected a week ago on this account. At Vancouver this year several rejected Indians were bound for Bellingham. Discretionary powers delegated to the officials are often used.

The Hindus who are in Bellingham are, on the whole, remarkably fine-looking men. This is due to the fact that many are ex-soldiers of the Indian army. Their acknowledge handsome appearance does not appeal to the employes [sic] of the mills where they find work and an effort is being made to oust them and this discourage future immigration to Bellingham. Unless the mill owners support the movement against the Orientals and decline to give them work, it will be hard to keep the undesirables out, for the reason that here they receive 50 cents more per day than they do in British Columbia, according to the local mill hands.

WHITES OPPOSE HINDUS

Work is plentiful in the mills, in fact, too plentiful, and this is responsible for the ease with which the foreigners have found employment. The scarcity of white men has led mills to accept the service of those whom American workers regard as a common enemy. They feel that wages will be reduced if suppressive measures are not taken in the beginning. They argue, also, that the presence of several scores or hundreds of Hindus in Bellingham will act as a brake on the city’s progress. A strong point against them, they say, is that they live cheaply and save their earnings to return to India to spend them.

The Bellingham Hindus are tall and well-formed and they stand erect. They seem to be intelligent and are polite, neat and clean. This is the opinion held by immigration officers, but it must be admitted that the Hindus here are of the lowest class. Of the seventeen said to be in Bellingham eleven have served as soldiers, according to Sanda, whose likeness appears on this page. Inspector Ferrandini says he found them honest and willing to reply to questions of examination. Many Japanese and Chinese who apply for admission are far from being so ready of tongue or so courteous.

The land of the Hindus harbors 300,000,000 souls, and it has been called “an epitome of the whole earth,” so varied is its physical characteristics. There the bull, the cow and the monkey are held sacred. In all there are about fifty tribes, which can be traced back to two or three original races. The Hindus form the largest part of the population, and their religion, Brahmanism, is therefore, chief. Of the other principal religions, Mohammedanism has 60,000,000 followers and Buddhism 8,000,000 believers.

Brahmanism dates back to 1200 B.C., and its sacred books, the Vodas, [sic] are the oldest literary documents known. They consist principally of hymns. Brahmanism was originally a philosophical religion, mingled with the worship of the powers of nature. Brahma was represented by four heads to indicate the four quarters of the globe. In practice, in the course of years, the religion became a system of idolatry, with cruel rites and hideous images.

The caste system, a part of the religion, became a grievous burden, and still is. In the first class are the priests. Warriors are next, followed by traders, and they by the common types.
________________________________________________________________

Keep the Hindus Out, Says Writer

Bellingham, Sept. 15, 1906.
Editor, American.
Having resided in India nine years and closely observed the habits of the Hindus, I consider their advent in this country very undesirable. They are strictly non-progressive and adhere to their old established customs with far more tenacity than either the Japanese or Chinese. Their code of morals is bad (from our point of view), and if allowed the freedom, which they naturally expect in America, they will eventually become troublesome. The most of them have been soldiers under the British government and are well-versed in the use of fire-arms. In conclusion, they have the habit of running amuck, when annoyed, in which case a number of innocent people get butchered. By all means keep them out.

G. PERINET

 

[HSD1]

This is the anniversary article from a local newspaper which gives a more thorough account of what actually happened that night. Strong parralles with what happened in Tulsa and other parts of the US later in the early 20th Century.

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BELLINGHAM — Hundreds of men huddled together all night in the stuffy basement of the city’s new red brick City Hall, worried the mob that had rousted them from their beds, hauled them from their jobs and stiffarmed them to the town jail would have worse in store for them as dawn broke.

The East Indian immigrants, mostly workers in area timber mills, were survivors of Bellingham’s second major race riot in two decades. On Sept. 4, 1907, roving gangs of thugs walked from mill to mill, from boarding house to boarding house, hauling out “Hindus,” roughing them up and ordering them to get out of town.

“Hindu” was the common label in Canada and the U.S. for all East Indians, though most early 20th century immigrants from India were Sikhs from the Punjab region.

The next day, city officials decried the use of force and hooliganism on the immigrants, fretting that Bellingham would get a reputation for lawlessness. But most people — judging by the words of city officials, business leaders and newspaper editors — were pleased with the result.

“While any good citizen must be unalterably opposed to the means employed,” editorialized The Reveille soon after the riot, “the result of the crusade against the Hindus cannot but cause a general and intense satisfaction.”

Within a couple of days, most of the city’s estimated 250 Indian immigrants had boarded trains for points north and south.

By the end of the week, an even larger body of thugs in Vancouver, B.C., emboldened by an anti-Asian rally there and, perhaps, Bellingham’s evictions, trashed the city’s Chinatown district. By the end of the year similar riots erupted along the Pacific Coast. Within a decade, the U.S. would pass restrictions barring most Asians from immigrating at all.

It would be nearly the end of the 20th century before significant numbers of East Indians would call Whatcom County home again.

“Bellingham and a few other places had a reputation as a place that wasn’t really welcoming to Asians,” said Paul Englesberg, director of the Asian American Curriculum and Research Project at Western Washington University.

It’s hard to say whether the men would have stayed in Whatcom County if the 1907 riot hadn’t forced them out, Englesberg said. Like many immigrant groups traveling to follow the work in canneries or timber mills, they might have moved anyway.

“It just seems in other communities, people who might have come originally as laborers set up various kinds of businesses. They get settled here and their kids settle here,” he said. “It seems like in this case, neither the Chinese nor the Sikhs had a chance to do that in Bellingham.”

LABOR FEARS FUEL RACISM

By 1907, hostility against Asian immigrants had long been brewing in the Pacific Northwest. Many of Bellingham’s residents could remember when the town’s Chinese immigrants had been thrown out in 1885. Asian immigrants provided cheap labor for the physically demanding fishing and timber jobs that fueled the booming economy. But white workers also feared the immigrants posed competition for jobs.

“It was a city going through an immense amount of social and physical change, and all these new people coming in, scrambling for jobs,” said Erika Lee, an associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota.

“American migrants coming from the East Coast felt a sense of privilege coming to the West. This was part of their pioneer journey. They were coming to make it,” Lee said. They were horrified at the idea of these jobs going to “unassimilable, really foreign, exotic people,” as East Indians were described in the racial hierarchy of the era.

Chinese immigration to the U.S. had been cut off in 1902, but immigrants from Japan, India and the Philippines were arriving to take their places in the region’s resource-based industries. South Asian migration was particularly sudden that year, Lee said, with about 600 East Indians arriving in the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 1907.

The tensions roiled into violence in the days leading up to Sept. 4, writes Joan Jensen in her 1988 book, “Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America.” Union representatives had warned mill owners to fire their East Indian workers by Labor Day, Sept. 2. A Labor Day parade drew a thousand union supporters to the streets of Bellingham, Jensen wrote, but the East Indian workers reported for work the following day nonetheless.

That night, police received reports of vandalism and assaults targeting East Indians, Jensen wrote, setting the scene for the next night’s riot.

‘THE MOB RAN AMUCK’

The town’s three newspapers chronicled the events of that Sept. 4 through lengthy and sometimes conflicting accounts. The descriptions also reflect an era when racism was considered respectable and white supremacy thought to be a mainstream, scientific fact.

According to newspaper accounts, the riots began about 10 p.m., when police were told a “drunken mob was on the rampage, baiting Hindus, destroying property as well.”

Jensen wrote that two East Indians had been knocked down and beaten while walking on C Street. One man tried to escape on a streetcar but was dragged off amid cries of “help drive out the cheap labor.”

The police chief and two officers left the station in the basement of City Hall, now the iconic red brick building that houses the Whatcom Museum of History & Art, and found the group “making no trouble” at C Street, the Bellingham Herald reported. But they heard cries from the tidal flats and found two boys throwing rocks at a naked East Indian man.

An officer handcuffed the boys, but he and the chief quickly released them. The chief later said he worried the mob would have become more violent had he kept the boys in custody. Some would later allege the police knew the riot was planned and had agreed to let it happen as long as no one was hurt.

Either way, the rioters apparently got the signal the police wouldn’t interfere. The group rousted East Indians from a second house on C Street, then another house on D Street, where their landlord turned his partially dressed tenants out into the street. The mob chased the men down the railroad tracks over Squalicum Creek, the city limits, and told them to never return.

“Finding the police unable to cope with the situation,” the Bellingham Herald reported, “the mob ran amuck. With whoops of glee they gathered together the Hindus of old town and escorted them to the station where Judge Williams’ old courtroom was turned over for their use and there the men from India were herded like so many cattle.”

The men were joined in the basement by 18 others who had been pulled off their jobs at Morrison Mill, on the waterfront at the foot of Laurel Street, and about a dozen more yanked from a house on Forest Street.

Descriptions vary of who made up the mob. Some reports say they were teens while others list them as boys and men of all ages. They don’t all appear to have been white. The Herald reported the mob included several Filipino and black men.

The mob met no resistance until they arrived at the gate of Bellingham Bay Lumber mill at the south end of Cornwall Avenue, demanding to be let in to collect the mill’s East Indian workers.

“The gatekeeper calmly pulled out a gun,” the Herald reported, “and said he would shoot the first man who tried to enter. “Not a man made a move.”

It’s unknown if the 35 men working the night shift inside knew they were the target of an anti-”Hindu” frenzy sweeping the town.

IMMIGRANTS SOUGHT MONEY FOR FREEDOM FIGHT

Many of the East Indian immigrants of the time were men in their 20s to 40s who hoped to earn some money for themselves and their families as well as raise money, collect weapons and return to India to fight the British, said Satpal Sidhu, a Whatcom County resident and leader at the Sikh temple Guru Nanak Gursikh Gurudwara.

Vancouver, B.C., was typically the first stop, and many were on their way to San Francisco, a center for Sikh revolutionaries.

“They were actually freedom fighters,” Sidhu said.

The men likely came from families who were struggling to hold onto their farms in India, Jensen said.

“Money lenders were starting to foreclose because times were hard,” Jensen said. “They needed a way to bring in extra money, so essentially, you exported your children.”

But while many mill owners hired East Indians in droves, the workmen got little respect from them. In the aftermath of the riots, one mill owner called them “the poorest workmen we have,” complaining, “We are forced to have men and cannot secure the proper number otherwise.”

Bellingham’s mill owners may have insisted they would rather have hired white men, but East Indian laborers developed a good reputation, said John Wunder, a history professor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who has studied the anti-Asian movement in the American West.

“The Indians were in good demand because they were known for their work excellence,” he said. “They were bright and they were coming from India — many of them could speak English.”

Labor would get a little scarcer that night of Sept. 4, 1907. Hardly discouraged by the guard’s shotgun at the gate of Bellingham Bay Lumber, the mob went around to the side of the property and broke through the fence. Workmen inside told the East Indian workers they should leave, “so the terrified Hindus were quickly collected together and shoved through the hole in the fence.”

Two of the workers were injured in the scuffle. One reportedly fell off a fence while trying to escape and was sent to the hospital. Another fell into the bay, was pulled out by the police and was delivered to the City Hall jail “covered with blood.”

Thirty-five men were taken from Bellingham Bay Lumber, each accompanied by two of the rioters. In their absence, the mill closed.

“The mob was wild with its success,” the Herald wrote, “and while dragging and shoving the unfortunate darkskinned workmen through the streets, yelled and sang songs at the top of their voices. Straight to the station they marched, shoving the thirtyfive with the others into the already stifling room.”

They were joined soon by about 20 more workers from the E.K. Wood Lumber Co., where Boulevard Park is today. By the end of the night, about 200 men were crowded into the basement of City Hall.

“It was one of the most weird sights ever witnessed in this city when the Hindus were marched through the streets,” the Herald reported. “The dusky men, some with little brass lamps, others with bundles, a few with telescopes, but nearly all with baggages of some kind; some clad only in long flowing nightshirts, others in ragged trousers, the collection of headgear included everything from battered derbys and straw sailors to turbans of every color of the rainbow, were hurried to the station. Some of the captives slunk along. Others marched with quiet dignity, but a few had to be dragged.”

CITY PROMISES PROTECTION

The physical treatment the men received was matched by the excoriation East Indians got in the popular press as a threat to Bellingham’s economic and social fabric. They’d work for much less money than white men, it was feared, undercutting their wages. They were so different, with their dark skin, turbaned heads and vegetarian diets, it was editorialized, that they could never contribute to American society.

“The Hindu is not a good citizen,” the Herald editorialized the day after the riots. “It would require centuries to assimilate him, and this country need not take the trouble.”

One newspaper, The American, ran a drawing on the front page the day after the riots, depicting two big-nosed, almond-eyed men in beards and turbans. A smaller drawing showed a robed man playing a flute, apparently charming a snake.

“This is the type of man driven from this city as a result of last night’s demonstration,” read the caption.

Despite the exotic descriptions, a photo of the crowded City Hall basement that night shows many men in suits. A few wore turbans, but most wore Western-style hats. Some were clean-shaven.

Some Sikhs in that era sacrificed their turbans and beards, which hold deep religious significance, for the chance to pass as dark-skinned Italians or Portuguese, Jensen said.

The next morning, the Bellingham City Council held an emergency meeting. Mayor Alfred L. Black, aware that the night’s melee against British subjects might have international implications, assured three English-speaking East Indian men brought up from the basement that the city would protect them. He deputized 50 special officers to help keep the peace.

“You may tell all of your associates,” Black reportedly told the men, “that the entire force of this city and of the state, if necessary, will be called on to protect you in doing anything that you may see fit in this city, so long as you abide by the laws.”

The sleepless night in the City Hall basement seems to have made more of an impression than the mayor’s promise of protection.

That day, most of the city’s East Indians would leave.

A JEERING SEND-OFF

The Reveille reported 135 people left on three trains the day after the riot. Larson mill, part of which is now Bloedel- Donovan Park, had escaped the riots and the following night ran a “Hindu crew” of about 14 men — guarded by 15 deputy sheriffs. But the only East Indian employees who reported to other mills were those looking for their last paychecks, often under police escort.

“Hallama, an employee at the (Bellingham Bay Lumber) Company came to the police station last night and asked to be allowed to stay there so that he would be safe,” the Reveille reported Sept. 6. “He is an Americanized Hindu who wears ordinary clothes and speaks fairly good English, and he declared that he voiced the sentiment of the entire colony when he said that they would leave today, as soon as they could draw their pay, and that no Hindu would ever come to Bellingham again.

“He said he and his brethren were certain that the mob would kill them if they remained here. The police, he said, would do the best they could, according to the belief of the Hindus, but the sons of India feared that they would be caught in dark streets some night when the police were not present and would be either badly slugged or killed outright. He said Bellingham was ‘no good place for a Hindu’ and that none of them would ever return to the city again.”

Many Bellingham residents reportedly lingered at the train station, gawking at the East Indians leaving on trains toward Vancouver, B.C., or Oakland, Calif.

“The crowd at the station offered no violence,” reported the Bellingham Herald the day after the riot, “and aside from jeering and the cries of ‘good’ and ‘don’t come back,’ that followed the train, there was no show of feeling.”

Many of the East Indian workmen’s homes were ransacked in their absence. The police said the mob took bank books, cash and several hundred dollars’ worth of gold jewelry. A mill owner said one of his East Indian workmen lost $200 in photography equipment.

“The places were also turned topsy-turvey,” the Herald reported, “and much valuable clothing and articles owned by the Orientals was destroyed that was not carried off.”

Meanwhile, the police arrested five men alleged to have helped start the riot on C Street and at Bellingham Bay Lumber Co. The men, including a “hack-driver” and a “shingleweaver,” faced a fine of $20 to $200 and jail time of 20 days to a year if convicted.

COUNCIL BLAMES MILL OWNERS

City leaders and editorialists feared the stink of lawlessness.

“This is a time for coolness of head,” warned an editorial in the American soon after the riot. “The law must be obeyed, and while it is desirable to get rid of the Hindus, it must not be done by violence and the shedding of blood.”

A few days after the riots against East Indians, the City Council issued its report on the matter. “Hindus,” they found, were mostly “peaceful and quiet” in Bellingham.

But in keeping with the racial rhetoric of the day, the council found that their manner of living was “demoralizing to family ties, and thus lowers not only the economic, but also the moral standards of the white workman.”

The council’s most sympathetic words were for the rioters.

The “spirit of the mob,” they found, “was not that of antagonism against the Hindu as an individual, but rather the spirit of self preservation, believing that the white worker through the presence of the Hindu, was being dragged down, and would eventually be forced to accept their standard of living.”

The council’s harshest words were for the mill owners who hired the East Indians.

“While we deplore the action of the mob in molesting an innocent people, we condemn the mill owners for introducing to this city a class whom they publicly state are undesirable, and to whom they would not grant the right of citizenship.”

The council’s report was silent on the actions of the police, and whether police should have given the rioters use of the city jail.

The resolution was passed by four of five councilmen. One, who objected to the description of the East Indians as “peaceful and quiet,” voted against it.

No one went to trial for the riots. The five arrested men were soon cleared of all charges.

No witnesses could be found to testify against them.

 

 

 

      http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article22195713.html

[samurai]

@DSG..If you are worried about it kicking off then start taking steps to be prepared for the worse case scenario. To be 'tyar bar tyar' is to be ready at any moment for when sh1t hits the fan. Training goes a long way but ultimately nothing can really prepare you for a situation where you are out numbered. So what can you do? Defo train, learn an art, if you do not have time, go on youtube and look at self defense vids (krav maga may be good), just practice. Try visualizing yourself in such a situation and think what you would do. (A bit like shadow boxing)..

Being put in that situation may not make you freeze but unleash the beast in you..lol

Also, 'tyar bar tyar' is not just for the physical battle but mental/spiritual battle too. The army of kalyug is also waiting patiently on those who are in their bhagti, the 5 chor are just around the corner ready to pounce when you least expect it.

p.s watch martial arts films..lol

[DSG]

I think training learning a form of self defense is good ( I dont think its about me specifically( i use to learn martial arts when i was younger and have some idea what i would do if confronted) , but the normal person out their, be they young , middle aged , old )

Obviously the older you get the less mobile and agile one becomes. I think is more about basics , knowing what to do things like 

1. Run to a well lit area 

2. Shout loudly for help

3. Always have a phone on you , call the Police or family for help

4. Depending on where you are , knock on peoples doors , make them come out

5. Grab what you can , dhanda, brick, stones etc..  

5. If in a car , dont come out , have a dhanda in the car always ( as a last resort)

6, For me the biggest "know how" remember waheguru all the time , ask, talk to waheguru in times of hard and good times , The help and guidance will definitely come when needed.

7. The last resort if outnumbered/ one to one then I agree let the beast be unleashed

 

Quote

p.s watch martial arts films..lol

I'm sure the above is from some kind of martial arts film i was in ...................... then I woke up    :) :) :)

 

[dalsingh101]

Quote

 i use to learn martial arts when i was younger and have some idea what i would do if confronted

 

Don't delude yourself. You have to work to keep your strength and abilities up. I used to be able to kick people in the head when I was younger, now I can barely get my leg up above my waist. lol

 

No excuse for not keeping physically fit through some form of training.  

 

What country are you in DSG?

[samurai]

@DSG..chal, i suppose we are all unique and different..

[DSG]

Quote

What country are you in DSG?

UK , Born and bread brummie :) :

[Lucky]

8 hours ago, DSG said:

UK , Born and bread brummie :) :

hey cool!  ..I was also born in brum but then at age 4, we moved away from Smethwick to whitey area. This was probably a good thing for me as it was the beginning of my underlying childhood search for some identity and the truth. However, I squandered over 35 years being drenched in maya.

[dalsingh101]

9 hours ago, DSG said:

UK , Born and bread brummie :) :

Man, if you're from B'ham you should know why it is important to train and be prepped more than anyone! lol

 

 

[Ragmaala]

5 hours ago, dalsingh101 said:

Man, if you're from B'ham you should know why it is important to train and be prepped more than anyone! lol

 

 

How come?

[DSG]

Quote

Man, if you're from B'ham you should know why it is important to train and be prepped more than anyone! lol

I know , my accent isnt strong enough , i think i need to train my accent then ............job done LOL

The point that I am trying to make is that over time , body wears out your mind says , punch, kick , kick to head  , body says ..oh no !! not any more buddy knee caps , ankles only (LOL :) :)

Even though training is good , I think we should be aware of other alternatives as well 

[dalsingh101]

9 hours ago, Gunahgar said:

How come?

That's where SP (Shere Panjab) originated from. They were the first ones to start to highlight and combat what is now known as grooming. They spread their parchaar around the rest of the UK. 

[paapiman]

On 3/1/2016 at 9:41 AM, paapiman said:

Bro, first and foremost, always do Ardaas to Maharaaj for protection, whenever you leave home.

Anytime before leaving home, one can do the Jaap, as mentioned below,

 

Bhul chuk maaf