The Koka Family His oldest daughter, Karm Rai, recalls that Ran Singh was soon employed constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway lines in Agassiz, and was taken in by an elderly English couple who had no children of their own. He returned to India 17 years later in 1922 to marry Harnam Kaur, and brought her back in 1925, establishing a successful dairy farm in the Chilliwack area. A sign of the times in the 1930s was for immigrants to largely adopt western culture, and Mrs. Karm Rai recalls that her mother started wearing long dresses rather than wearing traditional Indian clothes, and dressing the children in a similar style. She recalls that even on special occasions when the family would travel to the Abbotsford Gurdwara (Sikh Temple), it was rare for anyone to wear anything other than western clothes. However, the dresses reached down to the ankles like their traditional clothes did, and they also covered their heads with a 'kerchief'. "But my father was a man of principle," she adds. "He kept his religious symbols such as his turban and beard throughout his life, despite pressure from many people to change himself. He used to say that if you are a good Christian, then be a good Christian. And if you are a good Sikh, then be a good Sikh." The trend to wear western clothing continued until the 1970s, when a strong Indo-Canadian community started establishing itself in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland area. Ran Singh's children grew up fully immersed in Canadian life, while learning of the traditional Sikh ways from their parents. Today, the third and fourth generation of Ran Singh's family has had the advantages of pursuing a comprehensive Canadian education and are free to choose the type of lifestyle that they desire. For Ran Singh, ninety years ago, being Canadian may have meant
having opportunities. To his family today, it means opportunity and freedom.
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Ran Singh Koka - Ran Singh worked on his family's farm
in Punjab, India before he came to British Columbia. In 1905, at the age of 15,
he arrived in Vancouver as a stowaway on a Japanese freighter. His father and
all his siblings, with the exception of one brother, had become the victims of a
plague in their village, and for the 15 year-old Ran Singh, a tenacious will to
survive and support the two remaining members of his family led him to Canada.
There were two other men in his village who wished to leave India at that time.
A few men had already left for Australia, Singapore, or America. He had arrived
with two other Sikh men, but when greeted by police and trained dogs at
Vancouver Harbour, the men were forced to run, and, as a result, parted. Ran
Singh never met or heard from them again.
