Gurpreet Singh 

Nishant Upadhyay has taken a lot of pain to document the history of First Nations and their cross-cultural connection with settler immigrants, particularly those coming from India.

“Indians on Indian Lands: Intersections of Race, Caste and Indigeneity” provides a nuanced and well researched analysis of both the tensions and solidarities between the two groups of people, and tries to situate the whole issue in the broader context of colonialism. 

What is so unique about this book is that Upadhyay, of Indian origin, born in an upper caste Brahmin family, has also questioned their own caste privilege. Through a boldly written chapter “Unsettling Brahminism,” they have dared to challenge the upper caste immigrants who perpetuate racial stereotypes against Indigenous peoples, trying to present themselves as a “model minority” to survive in the oil and gas industry in Alberta. 

Although an atheist, Upadhyay recognize their own caste dominance back home, and also within the South Asian diaspora. They try to make reader understand how the caste privilege of the skilled immigrants has helped to entrench right wing Hindu nationalism in Canada, and the way it works against the collective interests of the oppressed communities of the Indigenous peoples, not only in Canada, but also in India, where attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have increased under Hindu supremacist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Upadhyay illustrates the recognition of International Yoga Day on June 21 by the B.C. government as an example. This wasn’t just an appropriation of Canada's National indigenous Peoples Day, but an attempt to create false equivalency between Hindu spiritual experience, and the aspirations of Indigenous peoples fighting to revive their languages and culture. They emphasize that much like decolonization, the dismantling of caste privilege is also needed in anti-racism work. They give a detailed account of their conversations with some people who are very outspoken against any affirmative action to help Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the oppressed communities, like Muslims, Dalits and Adivasis in India .                  

While the book gives hope for a better future and cross-cultural bridges between Punjabi working class immigrants and Indigenous communities through initiatives such as Idle No More, the author doesn’t try to romanticize the issue. They critically look at the ugly history of Indigenous women being exploited and abused by men from the Punjabi Sikh community seeking immigration. They have amplified the stories of “dreamers” and authors like Burnaby-based Sadhu Binning, for writing short fiction about the abandonment of indigenous women by Punjabi men, or his brother Paul Binning’s efforts to bring the two communities together through the Punjabi folk dance of Bhangra.