Wk 3 "Shah" Passion, Violence, and Asserting Honor Notes

South Asian Migration to North America

South Asian migration to North America has been occurring since the 1790s, as part of a broader international movement of people.
Sailors, servants, peddlers, and merchants from Madras, Bombay, and Bengal were intermittently present in North American ports.
In the 1890s, Hindu and Buddhist spiritual teachers and anti-imperial crusaders, such as Swami Vivekananda, spoke at gatherings in cities like Boston and Chicago.
In 1897, turbaned Sikh royal artillerymen traveled across Canada after participating in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and encouraged other Punjabi soldiers to seek opportunities in North America.
In 1899, four Sikhs arrived in San Francisco, described as a "picturesque group" with one, Bakkshlled (sic) Singh, noted for his physical beauty.
These South Asian travelers were seen as cosmopolitan, adaptable, dashing, resourceful, and hardworking.
Punjabi men were particularly praised for their military self-discipline and masculine prowess.
Their demeanor, dress, beliefs, and habits were considered exotic and curious, but not generally threatening.

Shift in Perceptions

The positive perceptions of South Asian men shifted in the early 1900s with the arrival of over 9,000 migrants in British Columbia, Canada.
Many crossed into Washington and Oregon, and later migrated to Seattle and San Francisco.
South Asian male laborers found employment in orchards, farms, railroad construction, timber mills, and salmon canneries.
Concerns and fears arose, similar to those previously directed at Chinese and Japanese laborers.
Migration from Asia was characterized as an "invasion" and "subversion" that threatened European "civilization" in the West.
Fears included labor competition, interracial marriage, sexual seduction, disease, and immorality.
The idea of protecting white women and girls from Asian men led to miscegenation legislation.
From 1907 to 1913, South Asian men, once seen as exotic, became targets of mob violence in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.
Accusations of unfair labor competition and stories of indecent harassment of women and children circulated.
The defense of honor was used to assert that the presence of South Asian men demoralized white working families.

Encounters of Interracial Association

Two encounters illustrate the tension between attraction and fear that fueled violence:
Darrah Singh was shot dead in Vancouver in 1907, with English immigrant Edward Bowen arrested.
Rosa Domingo's body was found in California in 1913, and Said Ali Khan, who had courted her, was accused of her murder.
These murders were interpreted as crimes of passion and morality tales about the perils of stranger intimacy and interracial contact.
The possibility and fear of interracial associations were linked to dangerous consequences.
The presence of South Asian migrant men elicited fascination, interest, and anxiety.
The murders seemed to presage the potential disintegration of society with personal harm and social danger associated with them.

Mob Violence and Impunity

Mob violence targeted South Asian workers, with white men destroying bunkhouses, stealing possessions, and driving them out of town.
The violence was extreme and often unpunished, with vigilantes acting anonymously and victims forced to flee.
Political forces sought to portray the violence as infrequent, aberrant, and justified while a racialized and sexualized threat was identified instead of economic critiques.
The restoration of social order involved absolving the perpetrators of mob violence.
Public fear and incomprehension were redirected at the alleged actions that incited violence, justifying vengeance and racial subordination.

Fear of South Asian Strangers in Canada

Despite their small numbers, South Asian men attracted significant concern in Canada.
Immigration figures for South Asian men in British Columbia grew from a few dozen annually to over 2,000 in 1907 and 1908.
These numbers were small compared to overall immigration and the population of British Columbia.
Chinese and Japanese immigration also increased, but not as rapidly as Canadian and European immigration.
In 1911, South Asians were a small percentage of the overall population, yet they were met with disproportionate concern.
The vision of British Columbia as a “white settler” society predated the actual demographic shift.

Labor Unions and Capitalist Strategies

Labor unions in Canada urged the government to curtail immigration from India.
They warned of a “moral and industrial menace” and the threat to white workers’ living standards.
White labor unions clashed with capitalist strategies of labor recruitment and exploitation.
Transpacific shipping companies and corporations recruited Asian laborers to minimize commitments and avoid treating them as settlers.

Labor Leaders and Rumors

Labor leaders condemned South Asians’ "peculiar religious convictions, loathsome habits and obnoxious manner of living."
Rumors of sodomy and venereal disease were spread, echoing similar concerns about Chinese men.
Labor leaders feared that South Asians would associate with white residents and blend into the economic fabric.
They also feared that South Asians, as British imperial citizens, could demand broader recognition.
Canadian labor leaders warned of potential violence from the white Canadian "proletariat" if South Asian immigration continued.
This recalled campaigns against Chinese immigrants and immigration exclusions in other white settler colonies.
By 1906, the “hated Hindu” immigrant was added to the rhetoric of the dangerous "Asian."
These warnings foreshadowed the violence that began with “anti-Hindu” riots in Bellingham, Washington, in 1907.

Male Transients, Sexual Threats, and Mob Violence

Bellingham, Washington, was a boom town with a large lumber-processing industry, attracting laborers from various regions.
Many towns in coastal Washington and Oregon experienced rapid growth, with a workforce consisting largely of young, single males.
The economy was vulnerable to commodity prices and demand in distant markets.
The building boom in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake fueled demand for lumber products, creating economic anxieties regarding demand.

Bellingham Riots

On September 4, 1907, a mob of white men attacked South Asian workers in Bellingham, chasing them and destroying their possessions.
Police were complicit, “herding hundreds” of South Asians into the police station basement.
The city council defended the mob’s actions as motivated by “self preservation” rather than “personal hate or religious intolerance.”
Businessmen saw the hand of labor unions behind the riot and the driving out of South Asian men.
The violence was reframed as protecting white families from disreputable single men.
The Bellingham city council report blamed the “Hindu manner of living” for being “demoralizing to family ties” and lowering economic and moral standards.
This argument echoed debates against Chinese and Japanese immigrants.
A Bellingham newspaper reported that South Asian men had harassed women on the streets, fueling the violence.

International Press and Sexual Defamation

The violence in the international press was justified using a combination of economic competition and gender defamation.
Headlines differed in their sympathy, with some sympathizing with the victims and others vilifying them.
The London Times expressed suspicions of the charges of insulting white women, drawing parallels to lynching in the American South.
News reports emphasized fears of male strangers and the threat they posed to the public good.
Public thoroughfares were perceived as unsafe for women and children, exacerbating fears of sexual contact with South Asian men.

Spread of Violence

The violence aimed at South Asians spread throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Anti-Asian political meetings, clashes, and campaigns occurred in various cities.
South Asian workers fled Bellingham to find safety in Vancouver.

Labor and Imperial Ambitions

Imperial ambitions and capitalist interests in mobilizing labor clashed with political society's intent to limit membership rights and citizenship.
Riots, protests, and driving-out campaigns were local disturbances connected by shared perceptions of racial threat.
The British and American empires enabled the flow of workers and capital to energize trade and intensify production.

National Identity

In Canada, a shared identity coalesced around British origin.
Populist democratic groups used cartels and subsidies to control the influx of racialized workers.
The formation of white racial identity enforced national membership and limited opportunities for South Asian laborers.

Economic Disruption

In 1907, an economic contraction and bank panic resulted in significant disruption.
Industrial production dropped, imports decreased, and unemployment nearly tripled.
The depression caused a sharp decline in the demand for timber products, leading to layoffs and insecurity.
An anti-Asian parade organized by the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL) in Vancouver led to a mob destroying the businesses and lodging houses of Chinese and Japanese residents.

Defending Male Honor

In October 1907, Edward Bowen was arrested for the murder of Darrah Singh in Vancouver.
Bowen had met Singh in a saloon and later claimed that Singh had made unwanted sexual advances.

Saloon Encounters

Meeting in saloons was typical for transient workingmen, creating a borderlands zone for recreation and practical exchanges.
The conversations between Bowen and Singh turned to their current prospects.

Bowen's Account

Bowen claimed that Singh invited him to his room and began to make sexual advances.
Bowen said he shot Singh in response to the unwanted advances.

Testimony and Motives

The innkeeper described Singh as a gentleman, while Bowen claimed Singh forced himself onto him.
Another friend, Natha Singh, testified about Darrah Singh's plans to migrate to the United States, offering an alternative motive of robbery.
Darrah Singh had presented $200 in cash at the U.S. immigration office.
Bowen's defense attorneys argued that he was acting in self-defense and protecting his honor.

Community Response

Newspapers empathized with Bowen and justified his actions.
The legal arguments relied on Bowen’s vulnerability being similar to that of a woman.
The jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, and Bowen was sentenced to ten years in prison.

Persistent Suspicion

Despite the conviction, sexual suspicion of South Asian laborers persisted.
The perceived threat shifted from white female victims to white male victims, underscoring suspicions of interracial socializing.

Male Honor, Female Peril

The defense of white honor became a justification for anti–South Asian violence.
In 1909, white residents in Live Oak, California, drove out “Hindu” workers after allegations of indecent exposure.
In 1911, white men in Fair Oaks, California, led a raiding party on a “Hindu camp” and defended their actions as retaliation for harassing young girls.
Lynch mobs asserted “white masculine authority” and policed access to women.

Violence and Symbolism

South Asians were targeted for expulsion and erasure, unlike African Americans, whose exploitation was essential for the social order.
The removal of Asians was intended to punish landlords and business owners who hired them.
The driving-out mob created boundaries of presence through rituals of propriety and punishment.

Narratives in Oregon and California

In March 1910, a squabble in a saloon in St. Johns, Oregon, led to riots after allegations that South Asian men had harassed a white woman.
Labor newspapers characterized South Asian men as prone to sexually suggestive commentary.
In the trial, it was revealed that white men had also been harassing and humiliating South Asian men.

The Turban as a Focal Point

The turban became a symbol of cultural difference and a focal point of abuse and harassment.
The act of removing the turban was an act of ritualistic violence intended to humiliate and terrorize.
The stripping of turbans was a tactic developed in the field of intra-masculine homosocial competition and fear of “public emasculation.”
Harassment was intended to curb South Asian males’ presence in public space and punish them for claiming equality.

Racial Harassment

Racial harassment became an everyday practice, with high school boys ridiculing and grabbing turbans.
White Americans called South Asian men “ragheads” and described turbans as dirty and uncivilized.
The turban became a sign of immutable cultural difference and unwillingness to assimilate.

Gender Identity

The turban also betrayed anxieties about the gender identities of South Asian migrants.
Rumors circulated that South Asian women were disguised as men.
The masculine dress and comportment of South Asian men heightened anxieties about gender roles and behavior.
This threatened the naturalness of gender differentiation that justified gender inequality.

Gender Ambiguity

Gender ambiguity and the diminishment of gender distinctions underscored a world turned upside down.
Loose-fitting shirts, winter coats, and turbaned long hair became a uniform of South Asian workers.
Fears of gender ambiguity in the feminization of South Asian men or masculinization of South Asian women was expressed in taunts and mockery.
The racialization of gender reversal animated curiosity, anxiety, and eroticism.

Mass Mobilization

This created anxiety about a wholesale absence of respectable domestic culture and made it impossible to distinguish between the bunkhouse and the brothel in the South Asian migrant community.

Immigration and Political Tensions

The period from 1910 to 1914 witnessed heightened political tensions and controversy over the entry, political status, and economic privileges of Asian immigrants.
Accusations of bribery and favoritism in the Immigration Service were widespread.
Worries about high birthrates among Japanese picture brides and Japanese immigrant families dominating agriculture were featured in campaigns for the Alien Land Law.

Asian Exclusion

The “Asianization” of undesirable immigrants was a strategy of denying the entry of entire groups.
California Representative Denver S. Church led a campaign for exclusion of South Asian laborers.
Successive bills resulted in the 1917 Immigration Act’s “Asiatic Barred Zone,” which extended exclusion to the entire continent of Asia.

Public Perception

The article highlights the starkly negative shift in public perception and acceptance of south asians who immigrated to north america following earlier accounts of praise and admiration.

Representations in the Media

The labor magazine The White Man elaborated upon extreme representations of the sexual peril of South Asian migrants:
“Both Mohammedans and Hindus are notoriously addicted to unspeakable vices that take hold of degenerate and decadent peoples,” and they held “weird orgies” in their “settlements throughout the state.”
The labor magazine The White Man elaborated upon extreme representations of the sexual peril of South Asian migrants:
“Both Mohammedans and Hindus are notoriously addicted to unspeakable vices that take hold of degenerate and decadent peoples,” and they held “weird orgies” in their “settlements throughout the state.”

Murder of Rosa Domingo

Dire consequences of socializing between South Asian men and white women were highlighted in newspaper coverage of the murder of Rosa Domingo.