RIP: Kartar Dhillon
By Kamla Bhatt • Jul 6th, 2008Category: Diaspora, India, Life, Living In America, San Francisco
Kartar Dhillon passed away earlier this month in Berkeley, California and she “Ain’t No Old Lady,” as Ranbir Sidhu writes. She was 93 years old.
Kartar or Kar as she was called was an activist and a writer, who was a fount of information about the early Punjabi settlers in California. She was somebody I wanted to interview and tried unsuccessfully to track her down may times. Just a couple of months ago I almost came close to getting her phone number, but never got it from the person who knew her.
Kartar’s father Bakshish Singh is supposed to have been the first Indian of Punjabi origin to come to California in the 1890s. He is also the first Punjabi, who is supposed to have married and brought his wife to live with him in California. In the early 20th century most Punjabi men who came in search of a better life in the USA were either bachelors or left their wife and family behind in their villages in Punjab. But over the years quite of few of these Punjabi men ended up marrying Mexican women and settling down in California and their offspring’s were known as Punjabi-Mexicans.
Kartar and her family were political activists. Her brother, Budh Dhillon, was involved with the Gadar Party, the political party that started in San Francisco in the early 20th century to fight for India’s independence. It is sad that the role of the Gadar Party in India’s fight for Independence still remains under reported.
Kartar was born in Simi Valley in 1915 and grew up in California and Oregon. In Parrot’s Beak she traces her life growing up in Oregon. In another article she talks about growing up in Astoria, Oregon and what it was like to be the only Indian family in this small lumber town. Her grand-daughter made a film called Turbans based on Kartar’s journal.
In this interview Kartar talks at length about Gadar Party, her family and marriage and separation from her husband and her only visit to India.
A memorial for Kartar Dhillon will be held on June 12, 2008 at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley in Berkeley Kensington near Berkeley.
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Kamla Bhatt is the host and producer of an Internet Radio show where listeners can find stories about the new and emerging India and the global Indian community. As a pioneer of 'internet radio' format in India Kamla started her first show News about India, followed by TalkNewsIndia in 2005. In 2006 she premiered her new show: The Kamla Bhatt Show: Life, People and Ideas. 
