“IPANA: South Asians in Solidarity.” 

Ajay Bhardwaj, PhD Candidate and Filmmaker, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia.

Abstract: ‘When is the diaspora enlisted for South Asia, and South Asia for diaspora?’ Historian Papiya Ghosh argues that the diaspora mediates South Asian nations just as the contours of the region inflect diasporic formations. While mapping the dynamics of these linkages, Ghosh underlines the role of class differences, cross racial solidarities, and political organisation of economic migrant labour in response to marginalisation and racism in shaping the “South Asian” diasporic identity. Biju Mathew, co founder of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), 1997 too argues that South Asians haven’t moved to the metropolis as ‘South Asians’, but as Indians, Pakistanis, Nepalis, Bangladeshis, and there are obvious ‘limits to South Asia-ness, unless re-articulated from within a strongly defined politics of class.’ Class politics makes South Asian workers transcend their national heritage and simultaneously link up with workers of all communities. South Asia-ness, thus, inhabits the intersection of class politics, anti racism organising and inter racial solidarity. 

In this paper I will discuss the work of Indian People’s Association of North America (IPANA), established in Montreal in 1975 just at a time Indian Prime minister Indira Gandhi had declared Emergency rule in India which the opposition parties described as a fascist dictatorship. IPANA’s most active chapters were in Montreal, Vancouver, New York, Toronto and Boston but I will focus on the work of the Vancouver chapter, and its evolution from IPANA, through Non- Resident Indians for Secularism and Democracy (NRISAD) in 1993, to South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD) in 2000. I will trace IPANA and its subsequent formations strong links with the left-wing politics in India and contextualise their work in Vancouver by referring to the politics and work of Indian Workers Association (IWA) UK, in 1950s-60s, Southall Black sisters in 1979 and South Asian leftist groups in North America like, Centre for Third World, Oakland California, and Forum of Indian Leftists (FOIL) in 1995. I will conclude by pointing out the limits to the constitution of a diaspora South Asian identity without bringing the issue of caste hierarchy on board that’s fundamental to its constitution.

Bio: Ajay Bhardwaj is a documentary filmmaker and a PhD candidate in the Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. He has been cinematically engaged with documenting stories of East Punjab, that resulted in a trilogy of documentaries located at the intersection of Dalit religiosity, performance traditions and memories of partition. He holds two master’s degrees in the fields of Political Science (JNU) and Mass Communications (MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia), New Delhi.