The Hindu Sabha Mandir temple within the Canadian metropolis of Brampton lies beside a busy highway in a suburb the place many houses are nonetheless strung with lights left over from Diwali. Standing over the parking zone, a 17-meter-tall statue of the monkey god Lord Hanuman gazes out over the site visitors as worshippers come and go.
A few minutes down the highway, the Gurdwara Dasmesh Darbar Sikh temple sits close to a strip mall with sari outlets, Indian eating places and different companies indicative of the town’s massive south Asian inhabitants.
Save for just a few safety guards on the Hindu temple, it could be laborious to inform that this quiet residential neighbourhood was not too long ago the location of violent clashes between Sikh activists and nationalist counterprotesters.
The confrontation drew condemnation from the town’s mayor, the premier of Ontario and Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau – and in addition from India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who described the incident as an assault on the Hindu temple.
The Hindu Sabha Mandir temple in Brampton, Ontario. {Photograph}: Nick Lachance/ Ontario Chronicle/Getty Photographs
To date, native police have made 5 arrests and say extra could come.
However because the mud settles, members of the local people say they worry additional violence between Sikh separatist activists and Modi supporters, a few of whom espouse Hindu nationalist ideologies.
Movies of the in a single day clashes on 3 November present males throwing bricks, kicking vehicles and putting one another with sticks or flagpoles – together with some flying the Indian tricolour and others the brilliant yellow emblem adopted by advocates of an unbiased Sikh homeland generally known as Khalistan.
The protests have been prompted by a go to to the temple by Indian authorities officers who’ve been holding consular classes at locations of worship throughout Ontario, together with Sikh temples.
The 4 November go to got here at a second of excessive rigidity, quickly after Canadian police and Trudeau’s authorities alleged that Modi’s authorities had orchestrated a marketing campaign of violence and intimidation in opposition to Sikh activists in exile.
Inderjeet Singh Gosal, a pacesetter of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) who helped set up the demonstration, mentioned the protest was particularly in opposition to the Indian authorities, not the Hindu faith, and that he had liaised with police to make sure it could not disrupt worship.
Gosal was a detailed affiliate of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, one other SFJ chief and Khalistan advocate whose 2023 assassination Canadian officers have linked to Indian diplomats and consular workers.
The Khalistan motion is banned in India, the place officers describe Sikh separatists as “terrorists” and a risk to nationwide safety.
Sikh demonstrators exterior the Indian consulate in Toronto on 25 September 2023, after the homicide of Hardeep Singh Nijjar. {Photograph}: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Photographs
Gosal claimed that it was pro-Modi counterprotesters who instigated the violence, alleging that considered one of them had regarded him within the face and instructed him in Hindi: “We’re going to kill you.”
“I went forward to him and said, ‘Look, I’m sorry you feel that way.’ But before I could say anything they moved up and punched [me],” he mentioned.
Peel regional police have since charged Gosal with assault with a weapon; he accepts he has been charged and has not but entered a plea.
The clashes escalated and later that evening crowds waving Indian flags blocked site visitors exterior the temple. Video posted on-line exhibits a person with a megaphone drawing cheers from the group as he referred to as for the Indian military to “storm” Sikh temples in Canada, which he says are “promoting terrorism”.
Peel police confirmed the person had been charged with public incitement of hatred.
Jaskaran Sandhu, a board member of the World Sikh Group advocacy group, mentioned such scenes have been unprecedented in Canada, dwelling to the biggest Sikh inhabitants exterior India.
This kind of Hindu nationalist rhetoric could be very regular in India, however not in Canada. That’s very disturbingJaskaran Sandhu of the World Sikh Group
“This type of Hindu nationalist rhetoric is very normal in India, where minorities are targeted in this manner, but not in Canada. That’s very disturbing,” he mentioned.
Sandhu mentioned that the unrest didn’t replicate tensions between Sikhs and Hindus, who’ve traditionally lived alongside one another in Brampton.
“What’s different here is you have violent, pro-India, Hindu nationalist actors in this country,” he mentioned.
Paritosh Kumar, an adjunct assistant professor of political science at Queen’s College in Kingston, Ontario, mentioned Hindu nationalists all over the world have been emboldened by Modi’s authorities – and that this has develop into an rising concern in Canada.
However he additionally mentioned the ideology was engaging to some members of the diaspora who encountered racism in western international locations.
Kumar mentioned lecturers in Canada have beforehand been harassed after denouncing Hindu nationalism, however the latest violence marked a severe escalation.
“That seems like a very dangerous transition that is taking place,” he mentioned.
Modi’s framing of the protest as an assault on a Hindu temple by Sikhs can also additional inflame the state of affairs, he mentioned.
“It’s a trend that will probably manifest in more street violence,” Kumar mentioned.
A Sikh protester holds up an effigy of the Indian prime minister exterior the Indian consulate in Vancouver, British Columbia, on 18 October. {Photograph}: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
That worries Chinnaiah Jangam, an affiliate professor of historical past at Ottawa’s Carleton College who focuses on Dalit peoples, thought-about the bottom rung of India’s caste system.
Jangam is a training Hindu and identifies as Dalit. After the protests in Brampton, kin in India referred to as him to see if he was secure – a sign of how profitable Modi’s supporters had been in casting the protests as an assault on Hindus.
“They are playing into this idea of victimhood. It’s a false narrative … and this is a part of a larger narrative to discredit [the Canadian government],” Jangam mentioned.
Brampton metropolis councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor mentioned misinformation printed within the Indian media or shared on WhatsApp had framed the unrest as a violent assault on the Hindu temple, fanning worry and hatred in each Canada and India.
“It’s sad to see it happening here in our city. And then to pitch it as the Sikh community versus the Hindu community – it’s just a gross injustice,” he mentioned.
Roopnauth Sharma, the pandit on the Ram Mandir Hindu temple within the close by metropolis of Mississauga, mentioned the unrest in Brampton didn’t replicate any broader sectarian tensions.
“This is not a Hindu-Sikh issue … It is a group of people who have a certain opinion, and they’re allowed to [express it],” he mentioned.
Sharma, who can also be the president of the Hindu Federation, mentioned he had been working with native officers to create restrictions on demonstrations close to locations of worship.
“We want to make sure people still have the right to protest … but we want to make sure there’s a safe distance,” he mentioned.
Pandit Vasudev Joshi on the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple in Brampton, Ontario. {Photograph}: Nick Lachance/ Ontario Chronicle/Getty Photographs
Leaders of the Hindu Sabha Mandir temple didn’t reply to a request for remark, however Vasudev Joshi, a pandit on the temple, instructed the Ontario Chronicle that the protest ought to have been held exterior the Indian consulate.
Such sentiments have been echoed by political leaders: Brampton’s mayor, Patrick Brown, pushed for a bylaw that will ban protests at locations of worship, whereas Trudeau mentioned final week that acts of violence on the temple have been “unacceptable”.
However Sandhu mentioned such statements miss the purpose. “Our leaders are so quick to speak about mob violence … but have chosen to be absolutely silent on this India violence directed at the Canadian Sikh community,” he mentioned.
“Are the visuals not enough for you to realize what’s happening in Canada?”
