Canadians categorize Indo-Canadians as visible minorities, yet the histories of their communities remain invisible. In Jewels of the Qila, Hugh Johnston draws on memoirs and interviews, newspaper articles and photographs, to tell the story of three generations of a remarkable Sikh family and the communities they lived in and supported in both Canada and India. The Siddoos are Punjabi. Kapoor Singh, father and grandfather, arrived in British Columbia in 1912 and overcame racial prejudice and legal discrimination to transform himself from day labourer to lumber baron, publisher, philanthropist, and community leader. As he campaigned for citizenship and immigration rights for his people, he and his wife, Besant Kaur, fostered in their daughters a vision of service that, as adults, they fulfilled by establishing a family-run hospital in Punjab and by introducing a Westernized version of an Indian spiritual tradition to Canada. Jewels of the Qila is about long, bitter struggles rooted in prejudice, race, and empire and about friendships built on shared goals, values, and experiences. The Siddoos are the heart of the story, but their history tells a larger tale of an immigrant community’s triumphs and tribulations and the strong connections that Indo-Canadians continue to forge with their homeland. | Jewels of the Qila by Hugh J. M. Johnston, Paperback | Indigo Chapters | Jewels of the Qila by Hugh J.M. Johnston, Paperback | Indigo Chapters