( zin - da - bahd )

ZINDABAD

A feature film by Priyanka Desai

Forty years. One people’s movement. The right to vote.

Be in the final scene Follow the journey

The story

Four South Asian Canadian actors step into the lives of four men who made the long journey from India, only to discover they were not welcome. What followed was a forty-year struggle to win back the right to vote, a people’s movement that changed Canada forever.

Zindabad
Long live. A rallying cry carried from India’s freedom movement to protest lines in Vancouver, and still shouted wherever people demand to be heard.

Four men.
One fight.

Taraknath Das, 1937TDc. 1908

Dr. Taraknath Das

A Bengali scholar and revolutionary who worked in Vancouver as an immigration interpreter. He founded the Hindustani Association and launched Free Hindustan, one of the first South Asian publications in North America.

Read his story →

Played by: to be announced

Hussain RahimHRc. 1910

Hussain Rahim

Arrested in Vancouver and ordered deported, he took his case to court. The community rallied behind him, he stayed, and in 1914 he helped lead the shore committee fighting for the Komagata Maru passengers.

Read his story →

Played by: to be announced

Naginder Singh GillNGc. 1940s

Naginder Singh Gill

Secretary of Vancouver’s Khalsa Diwan Society, he carried the community’s case to Victoria and built ties with Punjabi families in Stockton, California. In 1943 he led a delegation to the BC Cabinet demanding the vote.

Read about the fight →

Played by: to be announced

Darshan Singh CanadianDSc. 1940s

Darshan Singh Canadian

Arrived in Vancouver in 1937 to work in the sawmills and became a founder and leader of the International Woodworkers of America in BC. In 1946 he led striking woodworkers on a march to Victoria.

Read his story →

Played by: to be announced

Photos: Taraknath Das, 1937, Wikimedia Commons. Hussain Rahim (fourth from left) outside the Immigration Hall, Victoria, 1913, Kohaly Collection, SFU Library. Naginder Singh Gill led the Khalsa Diwan Society’s 1943 delegation to the BC Cabinet, pictured, courtesy David Yorke. Darshan Singh Canadian portrait. Rahim, delegation and Sangha photos via Union Zindabad!, BC Labour Heritage Centre.

Forty years
to win it back

The fight the film follows, from the year the vote was taken away to the year it was won back.

Disenfranchised
1907

The vote is taken

British Columbia bars “natives of India” from its voters’ list. Without it, they lose the federal and municipal vote too, and doors close to professions tied to the list. That same year, Taraknath Das starts organizing the community in Vancouver.

Exclusion
1908

Continuous journey

A new federal rule admits only people who sail nonstop from their country of birth. No such route exists from India. Families are cut off. Das answers in print with Free Hindustan.

Resistance
1910

Hussain Rahim fights back

Arrested in Vancouver and ordered deported, Rahim takes his case to court. The community rallies behind him, and he stays to keep organizing.

Turned away
1914

Komagata Maru

376 passengers are held in Vancouver Harbour for two months, then forced to sail back. Rahim helps lead the shore committee that fights for them.

Mobilized
1946

The final push

Darshan Singh Canadian leads striking woodworkers on a march to Victoria. Naginder Singh Gill presses the community’s case with lawmakers. The pressure becomes impossible to ignore.

Victory
1947

The vote is won

After forty years of petitions, delegations and organizing, BC restores the vote to South Asians.

19071947Today

History, re-lived on screen

Zindabad blends rare archives with performance. Four actors walk in the footsteps of the men who led the fight, and ask what that fight means for them today.

The archive

Letters, court files, photographs and newspapers from BC, India and the US, many never seen on screen.

The performers

Four South Asian Canadian actors step into the lives of the pioneers who refused to stay silent.

The people today

Voters from across BC close the film, filmed on their own phones on their way to the polls.

Production companyJugaad Sisters Inc.
CurrentlyIn Development
@zindabad.thefilm The film @jugaadsisters Production @pdlight Priyanka Desai jugaadsisters.com priyankadesai.com

Your vote.
Your story.
Our final scene.

Film ten seconds on your way to vote in the BC municipal election (Saturday, October 17th) or the provincial election (Saturday, October 24th). Say your name, your city and why you vote. Your clip could close the film.

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