University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Yuba-Sutter: a case study for heritage conservation in Punjabi-American communities

(USC Thesis Other)

Yuba-Sutter: a case study for heritage conservation in Punjabi-American communities

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content

YUBA-SUTTER:
A CASE STUDY FOR HERITAGE CONSERVATION IN PUNJABI-AMERICAN
COMMUNITIES

by

Deepeaka Dhaliwal

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION

December 2018

i
Acknowledgments

First, I would like to thank my committee chair, Trudi Sandmeier, for her constant
advice, support, and encouragement to pursue a thesis topic that was very special to me.
I’d also like to thank my committee members, Nayan Shah and Vinayak Bharne, for their
constructive feedback, insight, and for challenging me to explore new ways of thinking
and approaching my research.

I’d also like to thank Dr. Nicole Ranganath, the curator of the UC Davis Pioneering
Punjabis Digital Archive, for her support and guidance. Dr. Ranganath’s work with the
Punjabi and South Asian American Community was a foundational research tool as well
as a great source of inspiration. I am also forever grateful to the Tumber family, Johl
family, and Dr. Jasbir Kang for opening their homes to me and sharing their stories.

Lastly, this thesis would not have been possible without my family, especially my sister,
who spent countless hours accompanying me during my many weekend trips at home
spent researching. A special thank you to Shawn who has given me unconditional support
throughout all the ups and downs of graduate school and who has been my rock
throughout this entire process. Finally, I would like to dedicate this thesis to the memory
of my grandparents, Sohan Lal Bhardwaj and Pushpa Rani Bhardwaj, whose own story
began in Yuba City when they immigrated in 1975.

ii
Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i
List of Tables iv
List of Figures v iv
Abstract ix
Introduction x
Chapter 1: The Journey to Yuba-Sutter (1899-1947) 1
Initial Development of the Yuba-Sutter Region: 1845-1852 1
Agriculture in Yuba-Sutter Pre-1947 3
The First Punjabi Immigrants in Yuba-Sutter 5
Pre-1947 Legislation and the Development of the Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter 7
Punjabi Marriages, Families, and Kinship Networks in Pre-1947 Yuba-Sutter 12
Chapter 2: The Post-1947 Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter 15
Luce-Cellar Bill, 1946 15 15
Independence of India and Partition, 1947 15
Hart-Cellar Bill, 1965 18
Economic, Social, and Religious Life in the Post-1947 Punjabi Community 19
The Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter today 21
Chapter 3: Eager Orchards 22
Introduction 22
Description of Resource 23
History 25
Comparative Analysis 36
Significance 36
Chapter 4: Yuba City Gurdwara 40
Introduction 40
Description of Resource 41
History 56
Comparative Analysis 69
Significance 73

iii
Chapter 5: The Yuba City Nagar Kirtan Procession 76
Introduction 76
Description of Resource 76
History 90
Comparative Analysis 96
Significance 98
Chapter 6: The Punjab Bazaar 101
Introduction 101
Description of Resource 101
History 117
Comparative Analysis 124
Significance 127
Chapter 7: Conservation Solutions 130
Existing Conservation Solutions 130
Conservation of Eager Orchards 135
Conservation of the Yuba City Gurdwara 136 137
Conservation of the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan Procession 137
Conservation of the Punjab Bazaar 140
Additional Conservation Solutions 140
Conclusion 142
Bibliography 145

iv
List of Tables
Table 1.1: South Asians in California from 1900 to 1940. 7
Table 3.1: Eager Orchards ownership history. 30
Table 6.1: Early South Asian businesses in Yuba-Sutter. 121

v
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Map showing location of Yuba City, regional context. 1
Figure 1.2: Yuba City peach orchard, 1949. 4
Figure 1.3: Sikh group, 1910. 6
Figure 1.4: Map showing Asiatic Zone of Barred Citizenship. 8
Figure 2.1: Map depicting partition of India. 17
Figure 3.1: Eager Orchards and surrounding context. 24
Figure 3.2: Eager Orchards original boundary. 24
Figure 3.3: Tuly Singh Johl, 1962. 26
Figure 3.4: Bellingham riot, discussing with special deputies. 27
Figure 3.5: Prisoners during Bellingham riot. 27
Figure 3.6: Richard Wilbur and with Punjabi laborer, Bawa Singh. 34
Figure 3.7: Sign at the entrance of the Wilbur Packing Company, 2017. 35
Figure 3.8: Wilbur Packing Company, 2017. 35
Figure 3.9: Basanti Kaur Johl and Tuly Singh Johl. 38
Figure 4.1: Aerial map showing site of Yuba City Gurdwara, 2017 41
Figure 4.2: Main entrance gates to gurdwara, 2017. 42
Figure 4.3: Landscaped area in front of gurdwara, 2017. 42
Figure 4.4: Nishan Sahib (Sikh flag) in front of gurdwara, 2017. 43
Figure 4.5: Front facade of gurdwara, 2017. 44
Figure 4.6: Main entrance doors and Khalsa symbol, 2017. 44
Figure 4.7: Entrance vestibule to Darbar Sahib, 2017. 45
Figure 4.8: Main altar with Guru Granth Sahib, 207. 46
Figure 4.9: Darbar Sahib, interior detail, 2017. 46
Figure 4.10: Washing area in Langar Hall, 2017. 47
Figure 4.11: Langar Hall kitchen, 2017. 48
Figure 4.12: Langar Hall seating, 2017. 48
Figure 4.13: Northwest wing, added in 1981. 49
Figure 4.14: Dasmesh Hall, built in 1995. 50
Figure 4.15: Aerial view of Mata Gujri Rose Garden 51
Figure 4.16: Entrance to rose garden, 2017. 52

vi
Figure 4.17: Khalsa symbol on flagstone base in rose garden, 2017. 53
Figure 4.18: Overall view of rose garden, 2017. 53
Figure 4.19: Engraved granite benches in rose garden, 2017. 54
Figure 4.20: Basketball court and field at gurdwara, 2017. 55
Figure 4.21: Map of overall gurdwara site, 2017. 55
Figure 4.22: Map showing regional context of Yuba City, Stockton, El Centro Gurdwaras. 57
Figure 4.23: Plaque recognizing contributors to Yuba City Gurdwara. 58
Figure 4.24: Stockton Gurdwara, original building, 1916. 61
Figure 4.25: Stockton Gurdwara, second building, 1929. 61
Figure 4.26: El Centro Gurdwara, 2012. 62
Figure 4.27: Hari Singh Everest and others in front of Yuba City Gurdwara, 1983. 64
Figure 4.28: Yuba City Gurdwara, front facade, 1978. 64
Figure 4.29: Yuba City Gurdwara, main prayer hall, 1978. 65
Figure 4.30: Yuba City Gurdwara, Langar Hall, 1978. 65
Figure 4.31: Hari Singh Everest and others, main prayer hall, 1983. 66
Figure 4.32: Golden Temple, Amritsar, 2017. 70
Figure 4.33: Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, 2013. 71
Figure 5.1: Sheriff in front of Nagar Kirtan procession, 2017. 78
Figure 5.2: Sign for Nagar Kirtan, 2017, 78
Figure 5.3: The Panch Piyare leading the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib, 2017. 80
Figure 5.4: Main float holding the Guru Granth Sahib, 2017. 81
Figure 5.5: Members of the navy and marines walking in procession, 2017. 82
Figure 5.6: Sacramento Gurdwara’s float, 2017. 83
Figure 5.7: View of crowd following the procession, 2017. 84
Figure 5.8: Map of current route of Nagar Kirtan procession. 85
Figure 5.9: Gatka, or Sikh martial arts, performed at procession, 2008. 86
Figure 5.10: Main entrance to Yuba City Gurdwara during Nagar Kirtan, 2017. 87
Figure 5.11: Main prayer hall during Nagar Kirtan, 2017. 87
Figure 5.12: Women preparing food for Nagar Kirtan, 2016. 88
Figure 5.13: Men preparing traditional flatbread for Nagar Kirtan, 2016. 89
Figure 5.14: Outdoor shopping market during Nagar Kirtan, 2016. 89

vii
Figure 5.15: Map showing approximate original route of Nagar Kirtan procession. 91
Figure 5.16: Refreshments set up outside Tumber residence, early 1980s. 92
Figure 5.17: First Nagar Kirtan, 1980 93
Figure 5.18: Panch Piyare, Yuba City Nagar Kirtan, 1984. 93
Figure 6.1: Aerial view of the Punjab Bazaar 102
Figure 6.2: Primary mass of overall bazaar, main entrance, and sign, 2017. 103
Figure 6.3: East facade along Stabler Lane, 2017. 103
Figure 6.4: Detailed view of east facade, 2017. 104
Figure 6.5: Surface parking lot and gate, 2017. 105
Figure 6.6: Warehouse portion of bazaar, 2017 105
Figure 6.7: Rear (north) facade of bazaar, 2017. 106
Figure 6.8: Signage along east facade, 2017. 106
Figure 6.9: Rolls of imported fabrics, 2018. 108
Figure 6.10: Various imported fabrics on hangers, 2018. 108
Figure 6.11: Pre-packaged suits, 2018. 109
Figure 6.12: Sweaters, vests, cardigans, other outwear, 2018. 109
Figure 6.13: Jewelry and accessories, 2018. 110
Figure 6.14: Stacked of imported blankets, 2018. 110
Figure 6.15: Various crackers, cookies, biscuits, 2018. 111
Figure 6.16: Wide range of beans, lentils, packaged goods, 2018. 112
Figure 6.17: Packaged teas and canned goods, 2018. 112
Figure 6.18: Variety of leaves packaged in boxes, 2018. 113
Figure 6.19: South Asian hygiene products, 2018. 114
Figure 6.20: Specialty flours, 2018. 115
Figure 6.21: Cooking equipment, 2018. 115
Figure 6.22: Assortments of pans for cooking, 2018. 116
Figure 6.23: U.S. Bains’ home garden, circa late 1940s. 118
Figure 6.24: Bharat Grocery Store. 120
Figure 6.25: Surjan Nakhwal, co-owner of Punjab Bazaar, 2002. 123
Figure 6.26: Surjan and Sunita Nakhwal in warehouse section of bazaar, 2012. 124
Figure 6.27: Bazaar east of Golden Temple and north of Jallianwala Bagh, 2017. 126

viii
Figure 6.28: Additional bazaar east of Golden Temple and north of Jallianwala Bagh, 2017. 127

ix
Abstract
Yuba City, a rural town in Northern California, contains the largest concentration of
Punjabi-Americans outside of India. Part of the larger Yuba-Sutter area, this region is composed
of Yuba City and smaller surrounding towns including Marysville, Tierra Buena, and Live Oak.
These cities came together to become a popular destination for Punjabi immigrants during the
early twentieth century. Despite the large presence of Punjabis across the nation since the 1900s,
virtually no work has been done on Punjabi-Americans within the context of heritage
conservation. As conservation moves towards becoming a more inclusive field that strives to tell
the overlooked stories of underrepresented communities in American history, it is imperative that
the Punjabi-American story is documented as part of the larger South Asian American narrative.
Focusing on the Yuba-Sutter area, this study aims to create a basic framework that highlights the
Punjabi immigrant story in Yuba-Sutter through the built environment. To do this, this study
reformulates agricultural, religious, and economic history through the lens of heritage
conservation, given that these three sectors are the core of Punjabi-American life in Yuba-Sutter.
Through research and evaluation, this has resulted in the identification of four
preliminary sites worthy of conservation including Eager Orchards, the Yuba City Gurdwara
(Sikh Temple), the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan procession, and the Punjab Bazaar. This study
concludes that like many communities of color, the sites representative of Punjabi-American
history are often intangible traditions, vernacular sites of cultural memory, and associated with
the recent past, which often do not fit the criteria of traditional historic preservation. Regardless,
they still speak to a powerful story of labor relations, economic transactions, kinship networks,
and religious traditions that all came to intertwine in the backdrop of the rural landscape of
Yuba-Sutter. By using the Yuba-Sutter area as a case study for heritage conservation within
Punjabi-American communities, the ultimate goal of this study is to serve as a starting point for
broader work on heritage conservation within South Asian immigrant groups.

x
Introduction
In 1899, the first known South Asians arrived in San Francisco. Consisting of four
Punjabi men of the Sikh faith, this was the first documentation of South Asian, and specifically
Punjabis, in California.
1
The fertile land of northern and central California would continue to
draw Punjabi immigrants throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century. Yuba County and
Sutter County would become one of the top destinations for Punjabis immigrating to California
and seeking agricultural work. Today, between 15,000 and 18,000 individuals of Punjabi descent
reside in the Yuba and Sutter County area.
2
However, the urban fabric of this region does not
resemble other South Asian communities or commercial corridors seen across the nation with
collections of shops, markets, or restaurants.
3
This makes the Yuba-Sutter area an unique
heritage conservation case study given that it has one of the largest known concentrations of
Punjabis in the nation, yet their presence in the built landscape is primarily though intangible
and vernacular cultural resources.
Whether it is through intangible avenues such as Punjabi classes offered at the local high
school or more tangible avenues such as the Yuba City Gurdwara on Tierra Buena Road, the
Punjabi community of the greater Yuba County and Sutter County area are fully integrated into
the social, economic, political, and religious spheres of this region. Analyzing the cultural
resources associated with the Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter also reveals how these forms of
heritage are representative of the history of Punjabis immigrating into the Yuba-Sutter region as
well as heritage practices in Punjab, India. The preliminary resources identified in this thesis
reveal that although there are no pressing development threats in the Yuba-Sutter region, these
resources in themselves have evolved over time. Given the rapid growth of the Yuba-Sutter
Punjabi community and South Asian immigrants in general in the second half of the twentieth
century, the identification and documentation of the built heritage of this immigrant group is
imperative at this point in time, simultaneously serving as an alternate tool for understanding
South Asian American history.

1
“Sikhs Allowed to Land,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1899, pg. 10, South Asians in North America
Collection, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
2
Nicole Ranganath, “Yuba City Area,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed March 15, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/destinations/yuba-city/.
3
“Yuba City California: American Punjabi Sikhs,” American Communities, (United States Department of State
Bureau of International Information Program, April 2012), 4, accessed March 15, 2018,
https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_AmericanCommunities_Punjabis_1_.pdf.

1
Chapter 1: The Journey to Yuba-Sutter (1899-1947)

Initial Development of the Yuba-Sutter Region: 1845-1852
Nestled in the agricultural heartland of northern California, the Yuba-Sutter area is
located just over forty miles north of Sacramento. (Figure 1.1) From its beginning to present day,
the region has remained a largely rural landscape characterized by its flat terrain, temperate
climate, and bountiful water supply from the Feather River and Yuba River, the same
characteristics that spurred the initial settlement of the area. Before Yuba City was founded, the
Nisenan, also known as the Southern Maidu, were the initial inhabitants of the Yuba-Sutter
region. They occupied this land for over 3,000 years, living in villages composed of semi-
subterranean dwellings near the lower Feather River, the main body of water in Yuba City.
4

Figure 1.1: Map showing location of Yuba City in comparison to Northern California region. Map created by author
using Map Stack by Stamen, accessed April 10, 2017, (http://mapstack.stamen.com/).
Slowly, the first European settlers began to trickle into the region due to the
topographical and environmental features that created the ideal circumstances for Yuba-Sutter to

4
Julie Stark, Sharyl Simmons, David Rubiales, and Carol Withington, Yuba City, Our Home Town (Virginia Beach,
VA: Donning Co. Publishers, 2008), 11.
This is the first comprehensive history written on Yuba City. The history of the city itself has only been discussed
partly in the 1879 and 1924 county history books. This book was a collaboration between community members
including curators, historians, and professors in honor of the centennial anniversary of the incorporation of Yuba
City.

2
grow into the agricultural hub it is today. Among the first were David Cheever and Tallman
Rolfe, the first store owners in Yuba City which they operated out of a tent. In 1849, William
Armstrong and his wife arrived in the area. Armstrong would eventually build the first house in
Yuba City which would serve as a lodge for travelers.
5
This initial informal settlement in Yuba
City garnered the interest of early California settler John Sutter who had made broader land
venture efforts in the Sacramento Valley.
6
On July 27, 1849 he purchased 640 acres for himself,
Henry Cheever, Sam Brannan, and Pierson Reading. Shortly after, surveyor Joseph Ruth was
hired to plan the official boundaries for the new development. By 1850, it had transformed into a
city of mostly makeshift tents along the river that served as the town’s stores, saloons, and even
residences.
7
According to John Sutter, the name for Yuba City and Yuba County derived from
the specific Native American tribe that inhabited the old rancheria and land on which Yuba City
now sits. He expresses how this tribe was known as the “Yubu” and this prompted him to name
the body of water near which they lived the “Yubu.” Edward Cheever, Henry Cheever’s brother,
expands on how the pronunciation of “Yubu” changed to “Yuba” with the onset of European
settlers, but how the original map of the site of present day Yuba City was labeled “Yubu City.”
8

By 1852 the development in Yuba City signaled the formation of a permanent population
as seen by the construction of its first post office, market, hotel, and approximately twenty
houses. During the onset of the gold rush, Yuba City was not suited to become a prime mining
location since the mines were not easily accessible from this side of the Feather River. Instead,
its neighboring city Marysville, just five miles northwest and on the other side of the Feather
River, would become a premiere destination for those seeking to make a living working in the
goldfields.
9
Founded in 1850, Marysville’s proximity to the goldmines, its location at the
junction of Feather and Yuba River, and its pleasant climate similar to Yuba City made it a
desirable location.
10
Marysville would also develop an agricultural base similar to Yuba City.
11

5
Stark et al, Yuba City Our Home Town, 16-17.
6
Russel Fred Hurley, The Migratory Worker: A Survey of Marysville Federal Migratory Camp and the "Pear
Orchard" Squatter Camp, Yuba City, PhD diss., 1939 (University of Southern California), 53.
7
Stark et al, Yuba City Our Home Town, 17
8
Stark et al, Yuba City Our Home Town, 18.
9
Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town, 17; Craig S. Piper, New Deal Migratory Labor Camps in California,
1935-1942: Three Case Studies, PhD diss., 1999 (Mississippi State University), 146.
10
Peter J. Delay, History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, California: with biographical sketches of the leading men and
women of the counties who have been identified with their growth and development from the early days to the
present (Los Angeles, CAL Historic Record Co., 1924), accessed March 2, 2017,
https://archive.org/details/historyofyubasut00dela, 134-135.

3
Known as the twin cities, Marysville and Yuba City would develop in a manner that would
complement one another’s economies. While Yuba City centered around agriculture, Marysville
provided more commercial and retail services than Yuba City at first, developing into a denser
and less rural town than Yuba City. In 1850, Yuba City experienced many of its merchants and
business men moving to Marysville who felt that Marysville would end up being the only
prosperous city in Yuba-Sutter area at the time.
12
Demographic wise, the gold rush drew in
primarily Chinese immigrants to Marysville while Japanese, Punjabis, Mexicans, and
Midwesterners fleeing the Dust Bowl found work in the orchards in Yuba City.
13
Many of the
Chinese immigrants coming to the Yuba-Sutter area would start various businesses in Marysville
including restaurants, laundries, and grocery stores.
14
For the majority of the pre-1947 period,
Yuba City would remain primarily agricultural and immigrants, such as Punjabis, would work in
the fields of Yuba City while traveling to Marysville for their shopping needs.
15

Agriculture in Yuba-Sutter Pre-1947
Since Yuba City began, agriculture has always been the backbone of its economy. By the
end of the nineteenth century, the town quickly filled with orchards, packinghouses, and
canneries where local farmers produced, harvested, and packed a variety of crops and fruits.
Among the main products were wheat, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, almonds, and
livestock. Advancement in irrigation technology led to a shift from the agricultural production of
large crops such as wheat to fruit. The city became known nationwide for certain products,
specifically peaches. By the 1930s, Yuba City was marketing itself as “The Peach Bowl of the
World.”
16
Specifically, the golden clingstone peaches would become the specialty crop of Yuba,
Sutter, and Butte counties. By 1960, there would be over 18,000 acres of peach orchards in the
Yuba-Sutter area and peach harvesting would be the highest contributor to Yuba-Sutter’s
economy.
17
Yuba City’s flat terrain, bountiful water supply from the Feather River and greater
Sacramento Valley, and its temperate climate created the ideal circumstances for it to grow into

11
Piper, New Deal Migratory Labor Camps in California, 146.
12
“Recall History of Live Oak and Its Growth Into a City: Oldest Resident Recounts Saga of Area from First House
to Incorporation,” Appeal Democrat, January 20, 1947, pg. 4.
13
Julie Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Town, 26; Hurley, The Migratory Worker, 53.
14
Hurley, The Migratory Worker, 54-55.
15
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
16
Julie Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Town, 24-26.
17
“Cling Peach Production Pours Fortune Into Area,” Appeal-Democrat, January 23, 1960, pg. E-10.

4
the agricultural region it is today. It would be Yuba City’s success in the agricultural industry
that would spur subsequent growth in transportation, technology, and commerce, and provide job
opportunities, though mostly temporary or seasonal, for immigrants seeking work. (Figure 1.2)

These transient workers were often unskilled and uneducated workers that sought work in
industries such as agriculture that depended on cheap, manual labor.
18
Often times, the life cycle
and process for producing certain crops and fruits made it so local labor populations did not
suffice and a surplus labor pool was needed. For instance, harvesting peaches, one of the largest
industries in Yuba-Sutter, could require as many as 2,000 people during peak season.
19
Annually,
the peach harvesting industry provided over 15,000 jobs in the orchards, canneries, and the
delivery/transportation process.
20
As Yuba-Sutter’s farming endeavors continued to grow, the
region drew in waves of immigrants, often unskilled laborers. A 1939 study of the migratory

18
Hurley, The Migratory Worker, 6.
19
Hurley, The Migratory Worker, 12.
20
“Cling Peach Production Pours Fortune Into Area” in Appeal-Democrat, January 23, 1960, pg. E-10.
Figure 1.2: Yuba City peach orchard, 1949. Photo courtesy of the Eastman (J.H.).
Collection, University of California, Davis, General Library, Department of Special
Collections, (https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/13030/tf5b69n90w/).

5
camps in Yuba-Sutter noted that the area attracted Punjabi immigrants seeking work in places
such as the rice fields or peach orchards.
21

The First Punjabi Immigrants in Yuba-Sutter
To many, Yuba City felt similar to Punjab due to its rural, agricultural landscape, and
climate. It was not a dense city filled with numerous buildings and bustling traffic, but rather
endless acres of orchards and farms. Looking to a creative literary source, a book of poems
written about Yuba City provides an alternate perspective on the emotions and attachment
immigrants felt to the town. A poem titled “Founding Yuba City” describes an immigrant’s
initial reactions upon encountering the Yuba-Sutter area and the sense of relief he felt upon
finding it. It states, “…The sudden edge of an eucalyptus grove, the land fallow and gold to the
eye, a wind carrying the forgotten green smell of the Punjab plains.”
22
Given that many
immigrants left home and returned after many years or never returned, the nostalgic effects they
felt in Yuba City seemed to draw the South Asian immigrants to the town and compelled them to
stay. It was with this backdrop of a familiar climate and terrain that Yuba-Sutter would draw in
the first Punjabis in the pre-1947 era. They were able to reformulate new lives and new identities
that merged practices from back home in Punjab with the circumstances they faced in this new
city.
23

Between 1899 and 1914, approximately 6,000 South Asians immigrated to the western
portion of the U.S. About 85% of these immigrants were Punjabis.
24
(Figure 1.3) Historic census
data reveals the omission of South Asians and Punjabis from early census records until
approximately the 1930s and 1940s. The census data also reveals that virtually no Punjabi
women immigrated to the United States, either individually or with their husbands.
25
One of the
first known Punjabi immigrants to Yuba City during the pre-1947 era was Thakkar “Tuly” Singh
Johl. Initially arriving in Canada, he traveled to Bellingham, Washington where he worked at a

21
Hurley, The Migratory Worker, 53-54.
22
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, "Founding of Yuba City," in Leaving Yuba City: Poems (New York: Anchor Books,
1997), 98.
23
Karen Isaksen Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California,” Culture,
Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, ed. Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (Durham, North
Carolina: Duke University Press, 1977), 118; 121.
24
Karen Isaksen Leonard, The South Asian Americans (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997). 42.
25
Exception to this is Puna Singh and Nand Kaur. They were the first known nuclear family to immigrate Yuba City
and Nand Kaur was the first known Punjabi woman in Yuba City. More details are discussed later in this chapter.

6
lumber mill. Fearing for his safety, he left Bellingham shortly after the Bellingham Riots on
September 4, 1907 for Oroville in Northern California to work on the railroad.
26
The thirteenth
census of the United States conducted in 1910 reveals six Punjabi men residing in Yuba City. It
is clear that the census data from this time is not complete based on oral histories and interviews.
For instance, it is known that Tuly Singh Johl had settled in Yuba City by 1907 but he is not
listed in the 1910 census.
27
From these specific instances, it can be extrapolated that there were
additional Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter at the time, living outside of the public eye, like
many early immigrants in the United States that feared tightening immigration laws and an
atmosphere of racial tension.

26
Elliott Robert Barkan, From All Points: Americas Immigrant West, 1870s-1952 (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2007), 165; Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018;
Nicole Ranganath, "Journey to the US and Early Years in California," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive, accessed October 4, 2017, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.
More information and details regarding Tuly Singh Johl’s experience in Yuba City and the Johl family is discussed
in Chapter 3.
27
Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910--
Population, accessed October 10, 2017, https://www.ancestry.com/; Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka
Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
For the purposes of this research, the surname Singh was searched given it was the most common last names for
Punjabi men.
Figure 1.3: Sikh group, 1910. Photo courtesy of the California History Room. California
State Library, Sacramento, California.

7

There is strong indication of a lack of complete census data primarily in the pre-1947
period based on the knowledge of small quantities of Punjabi men living in Yuba-Sutter such as
Tuly Singh Johl and the men he immigrated with that were not listed in the early census records
or directories.
28
The table below is a broad compilation of the number of South Asians recorded
in California from 1900 to 1940. The term “Indian” referred to native born Native-Americans
while South Asians were recorded under the label “Hindu” beginning in the 1930s. The table
below represents the number of South Asians recorded in California from 1900 to 1940. South
Asians were not recorded in the individual statistics for Yuba and Sutter county, but instead
California as a whole. The decrease in population from 1930 to 1940 is likely due to changes in
immigration laws.

Pre-1947 Legislation and the Development of the Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter
The beginnings of the Punjabi community speak to the broader historical trends of
westward migration in the first half of the twentieth century. South Asian immigrants traveled
from Canada, the Pacific Northwest, etc., contributing to the trend of westward expansion and
the search for land, jobs, and economic success. South Asian immigrants were among the diverse
array of transient workers that navigated their way around the west, attempting to rebuild a new
life with the obstacles of immigration legislation, racial tension, marriage, and property disputes.

28
Information on the early presence of Tuly Singh Johl and the men he traveled with drawn from interviews
corroborated by research conducted and compiled by Dr. Nicole Ranganath.
Table 1.1: Census data of South Asian immigrants in California from
1900-1940. Table created by author based on the Twelfth (1900),
Thirteenth (1910), Fourteenth (1920), Fifteenth (1930), and Sixteenth
(1940) Census of the United States,
(https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html).

8
As an essentially disposable and replaceable source of labor, early South Asian immigrants dealt
with the contradictions of creating their own community and social relations while living outside
of the public eye.
29
Furthermore, an analysis of South Asian immigration trends contextualizes
the historical framework in which the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter developed, and the
stark differences between an essentially Punjabi bachelor society in the pre-1947 and the
reunification of nuclear Punjabi families after 1947 and how these historical patterns translate to
the built environment through both tangible and intangible avenues.
The desire to avoid close association with government officials and the public eye
stemmed from the tightening of immigration laws by 1920. The Immigration Act of 1917, also
known as the “Asiatic Barred Zone” restricted Asian immigration. This resulted in Asian
immigration becoming illegal and would remain this way until 1947.
30
(Figure 1.4) These laws
changed the course of Punjabi immigration and how the story of the Punjabi experience in Yuba-
Sutter would pan out in terms of land ownership, social networks, and intimate relationships. As
stated by Nayan Shah, “Alien Land Laws were part of a broader effort to regulate intimate
lives.”
31

29
Nayan Shah, Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and the Law in the North American West (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2011), 1-2.
30
Karen Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California," in Culture,
Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, ed. Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson (Durham: Duke
University Press, 1977); “Map from Bill S. 237 Illustrating Asiatic Zone of Barred Citizenship (1945),” South Asian
American Digital Archive, accessed October 4, 2017, https://www.saada.org/item/20120131-609.
31
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 125.
Figure 1.4: Map from Bill S. 237 Illustrating Asiatic Zone of Barred Citizenship (1945).
Photo courtesy of SAADA, (https://www.saada.org/item/20120131-609).

9
Another major political and legal event that marked a turning point in the reversal of
rights for Punjabi individuals already living in or seeking to come to United States was the 1923
Supreme Court decision in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. Thind was born in Punjab and
immigrated to the United States in 1913. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and discharged after
serving for a few months.
32
Upon leaving the army, Thind applied for naturalization based on his
argument that although he was Punjabi or known as “Hindu” at the time, South Asians were
descendants of the Aryan race and technically Caucasian making them eligible for citizenship.
The Supreme Court did not support this argument and stated that although Punjabis or South
Asians were technically “Caucasian” based on scientific terms, South Asians did not fit the
colloquial definition of what Caucasian meant, essentially being white.
33

United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind was the most significant litigation case involving
South Asians fighting for citizenship rights and it had a lasting impact on how Punjabi
immigrants were perceived in the United States. The Supreme Court’s decision made it clear that
regardless of how the language regarding citizenship laws could be interpreted, they were meant
to be a mechanism to prevent unwanted immigration of not just South Asians, but countless other
immigrant groups. This major decision only solidified and emphasized the inherent racial
inferiority encoded in these laws and that South Asian immigrants were not welcome in the
United States, or places such as Yuba-Sutter. More importantly, it resulted in many South Asians
that were naturalized having their citizenship revoked and invalidated.
34
The effects of The
Immigration Act of 1917 were amplified by the Bhagat Singh Thind decision, resulting in the
disenfranchisement of many Punjabis in the Yuba-Sutter area and beyond.
In addition to the repercussions regarding citizenship that stemmed from the Bhagat
Singh case, it also resulted in the 1913 Alien Land Law becoming applicable to South Asians.
35

Before 1923, Punjabis were buying land in areas such as Yuba-Sutter. For a number of years,
Punjabis had begun buying small parcels of land with the wages they have saved while
simultaneously working for white farmers. Many of them used the same networks that they had
formed working in the orchards to form partnerships to buy property, lease land, and buy

32
"Hindus Too Brunette to Vote Here," The Literary Digest, March 10, 1923,
https://www.saada.org/item/20101210-148.
33
“Hindus Too Brunette to Vote Here," The Literary Digest.
34
Nicole Ranganath, "1923-1945: Hard Times," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed October
12, 2017, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/eras/1923-1945/.
35
Karen Leonard, “Punjabi Famers and California’s Alien Land Law,” Agricultural History, Vol. 59, No. 4 (1985),
549, accessed October 12, 2017, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3743757.

10
farming equipment.
36
At this time, a shift in the mentality of Punjabi immigrants from seeking
temporary residence to the desire to permanently settle in the U.S. became clear. The initial
motivation for the earliest immigrants was to make enough money from the agricultural and
industrial workforce and return home to Punjab to be with their families.
37
However, given the
increased desire to own land, build a home, and the subsequent battles for citizenship that would
ensue, Punjabi immigrants began to think of the Yuba-Sutter area as a place they could call their
new home.
Several newspaper articles from the 1920s demonstrate the controversy surrounding
Punjabi immigrants that owned land both before and after the immigration restrictions following
1923. On June 18, 1920, an article detailing the sale of land to a “Hindu” in Yuba City is
described and calls for a calculation of how much land is being sold to these “aliens” in the
Yuba-Sutter area illegally.
38
Just two years later in 1922, a lawsuit was filed against Munshi
Singh in Yuba City, a Punjabi immigrant, who was said to have bought twenty acres of land in
1920. The article goes on to state that Singh did not have the right to own property since he was
not eligible for citizenship.
39

The Carter Singh case in Tierra Buena in Sutter County demonstrates the extreme nature
of the accusations made against South Asian immigrants that began accumulating economic
success. Singh, like many Punjabi immigrants, made his success in the agriculture industry and
eventually owned land in Tierra Buena, making his first purchase in 1913, expanding his land in
1916, and eventually creating a ranch where he cultivated grapes in 1922.
40

Among the laborers Singh hired to work on his ranch were Manfred Watson and his
family, who initially lived in a tent and eventually moved into the house. What appeared to be a
cordial and professional working relationship took an unexpected turn when on December 13,
1922 Manfred Watson filed a complaint that Singh had sexually assaulted his son Lloyd Watson.
A visit to the doctor revealed no evidence of sexual assault but what appeared to be an intestinal
infection of pinworms. Watson’s claim that the crime occurred in the room that held the

36
Bruce La Brack, The Sikhs of Northern California: A Socio-historical Study, PhD diss., Syracuse University,
1980, 21.
37
"Amelia Singh Netervala Oral History Interview -- Part 1,” interview by Randa Cardwell, SAADA, March 2, 2015,
accessed October 11, 2017, https://www.saada.org/item/20160802-4582.
38
"Little Sutter Land is Sold to Asiatics," The Sacramento Union, June 19, 1920.
39
"Alien Land Law to Be Invoked Against Yuba City Hindu Landowner," The Sacramento Union, November 10,
1922.
40
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 113-114.

11
evaporator where temperatures reach unbearable height also did not seem plausible.
41

Eventually, it was revealed that Singh and Watson had a dispute over wages owed to Watson,
who subsequently threatened to imprison Singh.
42

Despite the uncertainty surrounding whether Singh had sexually assaulted Lloyd Watson,
he was convicted and went on to appeal to the Supreme Court. During his trial, he lost his land,
money, and assets to those that had invested in or helped facilitate his ranch.
43
This case
demonstrates the complicated manner in which economic mobility, land ownership, sexuality,
gender, and race operated in transient communities in the west, in this case Yuba-Sutter Watson
exerted his power as a white, male to attempt to extort Singh, a South Asian immigrant who had
achieved substantial success during a time when South Asians were not accepted as part of
mainstream society. From the perspective of the built environment, it reveals the hidden, untold
stories that took place in the ranches and labor camps of places such as Yuba-Sutter, where
transient immigrant males came into contact through professional and social relationships.
By 1923, the Sutter County District Attorney announced the decision that South Asians
that owned land in the Yuba-Sutter region would be sued.
44
These instances indicate a major
shift in the Punjabi immigrant experience that began occurring close to 1923. Not only were their
citizenship rights and the right to freely immigrate taken away, many were stripped of the land
and property they had bought with the money they earned working in the fields. For many, they
were back to square one in terms of achieving economic stability in an unfamiliar country.
Many immigrants found strategies to work around the strict immigration and property laws.
Those that were unmarried often put the property in the name of American farmers or
landowners they felt they could trust. Unfortunately, this often resulted in lawsuits occurring
between the two parties.
45
The experience of Tuly Singh Johl illustrates these struggles over
citizenship and property rights. Tuly’s journey in Yuba City began in 1907, and although he had
worked consistently at Eager Farm before and after his return to India, the immigration laws in
place made it so he was not able to truly settle down in Yuba City until approximately the 1950s.
Although one of the most prominent families in Yuba City today, his family could not join him

41
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 116.
42
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 117.
43
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 118-119.
44
Leonard, “Punjabi Farmers and California’s Alien Land Law,” 550.
45
Allen P. Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 1950, MS,
South/Southeast Asia Library, University of California, Berkeley, 26-27.

12
until 1958.
46
Despite the obstacles immigrants such as Tuly faced for decades with no promises
that the laws would change, these workers chose to stay in the Yuba-Sutter area and continued
living as agricultural workers.

Punjabi Marriages, Families, and Kinship Networks in Pre-1947 Yuba-Sutter
The institution of marriage played an important role in the life of Punjabis back home in
India and once they began to immigrate to the U.S. Before 1947, there were only Punjabi men
immigrating and virtually no women. Married men left their families behind in Punjab while
unmarried men were unable to travel back to India to get married due to the tightening of
immigration laws. It became very risky to leave with no guarantee of being able to return to the
U.S. so Punjabi men stayed put in places such as the Yuba-Sutter area and out of the public
mainstream. This created circumstances prompting Punjabi immigrants to find alternative
techniques, mechanisms, and loopholes for marriage just as they did for immigration and land
ownership. The majority of the marriage certificates from the Yuba-Sutter area show immigrant
Punjabi men married Mexican women, European women, and Native American women.
47
Even
then, anti-miscegenation laws served as a barrier for Punjabi immigrants seeking to marry
outside their race. Although the various statutes in California didn’t specifically address marriage
restrictions for South Asians, the atmosphere regarding immigration, land ownership, and the
desire to “protect” white women from immigrants made it difficult for some men to marry even
Mexican women, especially after the decision of the Bhagat Singh Thind case.
48

Mexican-Punjabi marriages further reveal how the intersections between immigration
patterns and economic opportunity brought immigrants of various ethnic backgrounds into the
same sphere. With Mexican women fleeing the Mexican Revolution and arriving in the
borderlands of the west in places such as Arizona, Southern California, and Texas and the stream
of South Asian men immigrating to places such as the Imperial Valley, their paths crossed in

46
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; Nicole Ranganath,
"Return to the US," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed October 12, 2017,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.
More information and details on Tuly Singh Johl’s experience in Yuba City and the Johl family is discussed in
Chapter 3.
47
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 50.
For more information on Punjabi-Mexican marriages see Karen Isaksen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices:
California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992).
48
La Brack, The Sikhs of Northern California, 153-154.

13
economic and social aspects.
49
The borderlands reveal further interesting historical avenues that
shed light on both South Asian and Mexican experiences in the west, and how the tight
regulation of marriage, land, naturalization, culminated in the phenomenon of Mexican-Punjabi
marriages during the early twentieth century.
By 1910, there were an estimated 1,500 Punjabi men in California and no women, with
one exception. Nand Kaur is one of the first known Punjabi women in California. She
immigrated with her husband Puna Singh and settled in Yuba City, where they were not only the
first family in the area that had immigrated together, but she was also the first Punjabi woman in
Yuba City.
50
A documentary made in 1985 called Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City traces the
development of a prominent Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter while focusing on Nand Kaur’s
story as the main focal point. Kaur expresses the extreme loneliness and isolation she
experienced upon arriving in Yuba City, causing her to initially dislike her new home. She
describes Yuba City as a “sweet jail” meaning it felt as if she was trapped but there was a certain
familiarity and atmosphere in the town that eventually drew her in.
51

Nand Kaur’s experience in Yuba City offers a perspective that is largely missing from the
story of the South Asian immigrant experience, especially during the pre-1947 era. Unlike the
men, these women often did not work in the orchards or fields and were expected to take care of
the house and family. In addition, it sheds light on the experience of Punjabi immigrants that
lived in settled homes rather than living as transient workers in labor camps. The concept of a
“home” for these migrants really only applied to married immigrants with families rather than
unmarried bachelors who typically lived in communal residences.
52
For Nand Kaur, it was a
lonely beginning in Yuba City despite having her husband and children with her, showing how
the lack of familial and social networks had a direct effect on one’s experience in places such as
the Yuba-Sutter.
On the on the other hand, Puna Singh, Nand Kaur’s husband, shared a sentiment for Yuba
City similar to other early Punjabi men that had immigrated to the area. Singh stated when asked
his initial thoughts of Yuba City, “On arriving in the Sacramento Valley, one could not help but
be reminded of the Punjab. Fertile fields stretched across the flat valley to the foothills living far

49
Shah, Stranger Intimacy, 156.
50
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 50.
51
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, dir. Beheroze F. Shroff (United States), 1985.
52
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 66.

14
in the distance. Most of the jobs were agricultural and I found many Punjabis already
working…”
53
In contrast to his wife Nand Kaur, Puna Singh was able to build social networks
through his work in the agricultural industry. The documentary goes on to show how Nand Kaur
became a source and helping hand to many women that later immigrated to Yuba City with their
husbands, especially after 1947 when immigration laws changed. Puna Singh and Nand Kaur’s
children and grandchildren are interviewed throughout the documentary speaking about their
careers, studies, and relationships, showing how individuals like Puna Singh and Nand Kaur are
representative of how the nuclear family was virtually non-existent during the pre-1947 era in
Yuba-Sutter for Punjabi immigrants settling in the area. The ability of Punjabi families to
immigrate in flux after 1947 would mark a significant shift in the development of the Punjabi
community in Yuba City.

53
Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California," 125.

15
Chapter 2: The Post-1947 Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter

Luce-Cellar Bill, 1946
The post-war period brought significant changes in immigration legislation and global
politics that had a profound effect on not just the development of the Punjabi community in
Yuba-Sutter, but South Asian communities across the United States. These changes would help
eliminate the barriers many South Asians faced through the early twentieth century. The first
major turning point for Punjabi immigrants was the passage of the Luce-Cellar bill in 1946. This
legislation established a quota for South Asian immigration, allowing for 100 immigrants from
India each year.
54
Although South Asians were not able to immigrate en masse, the Luce-Cellar
bill represented a significant milestone for South Asians. However, this bill was a double-edged
sword in that it allowed South Asians to come to the United States legally after three decades,
but within the limits of the quota.
55
Research conducted by Dr. Bruce La Brack found that a total
of 5,134 South Asians immigrated during the era of the Luce-Cellar Bill from 1948-1965. The
Yuba-Sutter area had a South Asian population of approximately 350 in 1948 and approximately
750 by 1965, the majority of which were Punjabis. Even with the Luce-Cellar Bill in place,
large-scale changes in terms of an increase in Punjabi immigrants in California and specifically
Yuba-Sutter would not be seen until the 1960s. However, it is important to note that a large
portion of the numbers generated for South Asian and Punjabi populations by government
agencies at this time were substantially low, accounting for up to only half of the individuals
present. These numbers would not become more accurate until the 1950s.

Independence of India and Partition, 1947
Many early Punjabi immigrants, specifically immigrants working as agricultural or
industrial laborers in the U.S., actively engaged in advocating for the freedom of India from the
British by joining the Ghadar Party. Founded in 1913 in Oregon by Har Dayal, the Ghadar Party
was a political organization that sought to overthrow British colonial rule in India.
56
The Ghadar
Party drew support from South Asian, mostly Punjabi, agricultural workers in the U.S. and

54
Leonard, The South Asian Americans, 67.
55
The majority of the information in this chapter is drawn from the dissertation by Bruce La Brack, The Sikhs of
Northern California: A Socio-historical Study. PhD diss., Syracuse University, 1980 unless otherwise noted by a
footnote.
56
Seema Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North America (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2014), 57.

16
Canada based on their shared frustrations of the discriminatory and exploitive practices they
encountered as laborers. Just a year into its organization, the Ghadar Party had already attracted
thousands of South Asian immigrants to their cause.
57
An issue from the Sutter Historical Society
details the activities of the Ghadar Party in California. The author of the issue, Balwant Singh
Brar, describes how the headquarters of the group is located in San Francisco where they
published their monthly paper.
58
San Francisco was a strategic location given its proximity to the
agricultural fields in the Sacramento and Central valleys of California, providing easy access for
the Punjabi immigrants that worked in these fields.
59
With their revolutionary message in hand,
the Ghadar Party leaders traveled along the Pacific Coast and even Canada to inform South
Asians in the U.S. of their mission. Many immigrants traveled back to India to do undercover
work on behalf of the Ghadar Party. This often resulted in arrests or even physical punishment.
60

Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter, like virtually all South Asian immigrants in the U.S.,
were politically and emotionally engaged in the fight for Indian independence through
participation in the Ghadar Party as well. Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City describes the
involvement of Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter in the Ghadar Party through the lens of Puna
Singh and Nand Kaur’s life. The couple would attend the party’s meetings and anticipated the
papers and readings the Ghadar Party would release. A clip of the documentary depicts Nand
Kaur singing a song dedicated to the Ghadar Party’s cause. These songs, written and sung in
Punjabi, were another component of the party’s strategies for spreading the word of their
movement. Their literature, songs, and meetings cultivated a feeling of unity for their members
not just in Yuba-Sutter and California, but across the U.S. and Canada.
61

Ten months after the passage of the Luce-Cellar Bill, India officially gained
Independence from the British in August of 1947. However, the dissolution of the British regime
occurred through the partition of India and creation of Pakistan. Although occurring in the
context of global events, this had an effect on immigration and sentiments regarding the

57
Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny, 10; 45; 55.
58
Balwant Singh Brar, "East Indians of Sutter County," Sutter County Historical Society News Bulletin, XVII, no. 2
(April 1978),16-19.
59
Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny, 57.
60
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County, Sutter Historical Society Bulletin, 16-19.
61
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985; Brar, "East Indians of Sutter County,” 16-19; Nicole Ranganath, "Puna
Singh and Nand Kaur," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed October 17, 2017,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/puna-singh-and-nand-kaur/.

17
homeland for those that had immigrated to the U.S.
62
It was on June 3, 1947 that the official
announcement of partition was made in India. Although achieving freedom from the British was
a significant moment for India, partition would remain as much if not more of a watershed
moment for India during its postcolonial era.
63
The new boundaries would be drawn specifically
in Punjab, marking the new nation-state of Pakistan to the West and the nation-state of India to
the East. (Figure 2.1) This division was made based on both religious and political decisions.
Although the aim was to draw the new boundary to retain areas with significant concentrations
of Muslims in Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs in India, what occurred in reality was a mass
migration and many suddenly found themselves to be refugees overnight in a divided
homeland.
64

For immigrants in the United States, independence resulted in a boost in their morale and
feelings of exoneration. Not only had the prospect of citizenship for Punjabis and South Asians

62
Leonard, The South Asian Americans, 67.
63
Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017),
1.
64
Khan, The Great Partition, 1; 4-5.
Figure 2.1: Map depicting the partition of the Punjab with Pakistan to the west and India to the east.
Photo courtesy of the UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive,
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/origins/punjab/).

18
been renewed with the Luce-Cellar Bill, the idea of being free rather than subjects of British
colonial rule further increased positive sentiments in Punjabis who had faced discriminatory laws
in both India and the United States. Unfortunately, this freedom did not come without a cost.
Despite the creation of what appeared to be a free and united India, many also felt the sentiment
of division and displacement due to partition, especially men that had immigrated from India to
the United States when their homeland was still under colonial rule.
65
For many, their family
members in Punjab were displaced from their homes as a result of partition. Muslim Punjabis
were moved to Pakistan while Sikh and Hindu Punjabis moved to Punjab, India. Approximately,
twelve million Punjabis were displaced during this forced migration.
66
However, the quota
established by the Luce-Cellar Bill and the recognition of India as a free country did catalyze the
process for families that had been separated for decades to reunite with early Punjabi immigrants
already settled in the United States.
67

Hart-Cellar Bill, 1965
The next major change for immigration legislation affecting South Asians would not
occur until the passage of the 1965 Hart-Cellar Bill. Also known as the Immigration Reform and
Control Act of 1965, this legislation lifted the previous quota imposed on South Asian
immigration. Now, South Asians, including Punjabis, were admitted primarily for the purpose of
family reunification.
68
Immigrants with advanced educational or professional backgrounds were
also given priority.
69
Often times, those immigrating based on family reunification did not have
the same professional backgrounds as immigrants arriving based on their educational or
employment qualifications. This resulted in a pool of South Asian immigrants that was
composed of individuals with great socio-economic differences after the 1965 Hart-Cellar Bill in
comparison to pre-1947 immigrants.
70

65
Joan M. Jensen, Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1988), 279.
66
Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices From the Partition of India (Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press,
2003), 3.
67
Jensen, Passage from India, 280.
68
Diditi Mitra, Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation Through Race and Class (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 32.
69
Jensen, Passage from India, 280.
70
Mitra, Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States, 19.

19
Nonetheless, the Hart-Cellar Bill was the most prominent legislation that shaped South
Asian communities in the United States into their present-day conditions. Between 1966 and
1975, more than 8,000 individuals from India immigrated as a result of this bill. This had a
profound effect on South Asian immigrant communities in California in particular, given that
early immigrants had already been working in agricultural communities to build a new life.
71
The
Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter was one such group that began to flourish. With a solid
population base and a growing proportion of nuclear families, a concentrated community of
Punjabis began to develop, leading to subsequent developments in the economic, religious, and
social sectors of Yuba-Sutter. The fieldwork conducted by Dr. Bruce La Brack in Yuba-Sutter
from 1974-1975 estimated there were between 3,800 and 4,000 Punjabis in the Yuba-Sutter area
based on public documents and records. Despite the difficulties calculating exact population
estimates for the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter, it is known that the population grew to at
least five times its original size by 1975, and that the presence of a localized Punjabi community
began to differentiate the Yuba-Sutter area from other agricultural and rural cities.

Economic, Social, and Religious Life in the Post-1947 Punjabi Community
According to Dr. Bruce La Brack, after 1950, Yuba-Sutter would become, “the center of
Sikh agriculture.” The abundance of agricultural work in Yuba-Sutter was the primary reason
Punjabi immigrants were drawn to the area before 1965, and it would remain the main factor for
the more recent and larger immigrant waves. The orchards, ranches, and farms were sites that
formed a crucial foundation for older and newer Punjabi immigrants that sought to rebuild their
lives from the ground up in this new area. Not only were Punjabis familiar with working in the
orchards due to the agricultural nature of Punjab, the orchards afforded immigrants opportunities
for financial mobility. Many Punjabi immigrants could reliably secure jobs as laborers in the
orchards almost instantly upon arriving to Yuba-Sutter. Eventually, many were able to work their
way up from being a laborer to purchasing their own land. As more Punjabis progressed from
working on farms to owning and operating their own orchards, they began to build their homes
adjacent to their land. Although groups of suburban neighborhoods emerged during this era,
many chose to live next to or in the vicinity of their orchards. This pattern of arranging housing
became prominent in the post Hart-Cellar era.

71
Jensen, Passage from India, 281-282.

20
In addition to agriculture, recent Punjabi immigrants also began to engage in educational,
political, and social spheres based on their professional backgrounds, contributing to the
community building efforts of Yuba-Sutter. Hari Singh Everest immigrated to Yuba City
following the Luce-Cellar bill of 1945. A writer and poet, Everest described his journey to Yuba-
Sutter through a colorful description relating the small, northern California town to Punjab. He
states in his story, “The water like the water in Punjab had the same urge to run forward. The
distant hills had the same charm. The fire in Jawalmukhi and in Lassen Volcano has the same
way to burn things. The Sikh Temple in Yuba City is much like any Gurdwara in Rupar.”
72
The
attention to Yuba-Sutter was similar to some of the first Punjabi immigrants to the area.
However, he would contribute his skills in education and journalism, leaving his mark in the
Yuba-Sutter community as a prominent post-1947 immigrant. Everest first immigrated to
California in 1954 to pursue his Masters in Communications at Stanford. Facing discrimination
due to the fact he wore a turban, Everest eventually made his way to Yuba-Sutter where he
became the first teacher of South Asian descent in the area. He taught for over twenty years
while simultaneously remaining active in local community affairs such as the Sutter County
Juvenile Justice Commission and the efforts to create the Tierra Buena Gurdwara. Everest also
continued to write – his work appeared in the local newspaper as well as publications and
journals.
73

After years of a combination of traveling to the Stockton Gurdwara and using labor
camps or other makeshift buildings to conduct religious services, the growing Punjabi
community needed their own house of worship. The creation of the Tierra Buena Gurdwara
would mark another hallmark moment in the post-1947 era. The influx of Punjabi immigrants
after the Hart-Cellar Bill and the subsequent reunification of families created a solidified Punjabi
community, many being of the Sikh faith. It was not until these changes after 1965 that there
would be the necessary economic and social base to build a local Gurdwara. Members of the
community came together to create a temple committee, and once the land, design, and necessary
funding were secured, construction began and the Gurdwara officially opened in December of
1970. The documentary, Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City filmed primarily in 1981 and 1982
shows footage of the Tierra Buena Gurdwara roughly ten years after its opening. Large crowds

72
Karen Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California,” 125-126.
73
Nicole Ranganath, "Hari Singh Everest, M.A.," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed
November 5, 2017, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/.

21
of members sitting inside the temple listening to religious hymns being read from the Guru
Granth Sahib can be seen, showing how this became the epicenter for conducting religious
services in Yuba-Sutter for the Punjabi community. Nand Kaur and her family describe how it
fulfilled more than just a religious purpose. It became a site of community building as seen by
women cooking together and preparing food served in the Langar Hall, men gathered outside
discussing politics, religion, and the community, and children playing the soccer fields outside of
the Gurdwara. Kaur describes how in her own personal experience, she was able to socialize and
form friendships with other women in the community by going to the Gurdwara.
74
The Nagar
Kirtan, or annual Sikh procession, was created in 1980 as a direct effect of the opening of the
Gurdwara.
75
The creation of the Gurdwara was a culmination of the successes achieved in the
post-1947 era in terms of population growth, the agriculture industry, education, religion, and the
overall creation of a thriving Punjabi community in the Yuba-Sutter area.

The Punjabi Community in Yuba-Sutter today
Today, Yuba-Sutter has a vibrant Punjabi community with a variety of education and
social organizations that foster the heritage of the homeland through both tangible and intangible
avenues such as language, religion, dance, and festivals. The Sikh Community Center offers a
range of courses from yoga to Punjabi classes to even English classes for adults.
76
The Punjabi
American Festival is an annual celebration showcasing bhangra, Punjabi artists, and food.
77
The
Punjabi American Heritage Society is the leading organization in Yuba-Sutter that is responsible
for the Sikh Community Center, the Punjabi American festival, and additional education and
outreach programs.
78
Through these resources both the youth and older immigrants are able to
engage with their heritage and create connections with other members of the Punjabi community.

74
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.
75
Nicole Ranganath, "Yuba City Gurdwara,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed November 5,
2017, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/tierra-buena-temple/.
The histories, descriptions, and significance of the Yuba City Gurdwara and Yuba City Nagar Kirtan procession are
discussed in more detail in Chapter 4 and 5.
76
“Classes,” Sikh Community Center, accessed July 7, 2018, http://sikhcommunitycenter.com/index.php/courses/.
77
“Festivals,” Punjabi American Heritage Society, accessed July 7, 2018, https://www.punjabiheritage.org/punjabi-
american-festivals-past-melas/.
78
“About Us,” Punjabi American Heritage Society, accessed July 7, 2018, https://www.punjabiheritage.org/about-
us/.

22
Chapter 3: Eager Orchards

Introduction
Orchards, ranches, and farms have not only served as the backbone and main source of
sustenance for the Yuba-Sutter economy, they have also been the primary source of employment
for Punjabi immigrants and have often led to more advanced jobs such as becoming foremen and
eventually many of these immigrants owning their own agricultural land upon attaining financial
stability. Researching through the Yuba County Library Local History Archives, which contain
information on the Yuba-Sutter region and surrounding area, several reoccurring names of local
families reveal who the primary operators of these ranches, farms, and orchards were.
Newspaper articles, grant deeds, assessor maps, and oral histories piece together to provide
evidence of this relationship between Punjabis and the initial operators of these agricultural
lands.
Eager Orchards, also informally known as Eager Farm, is the earliest known agricultural
operation in Yuba-Sutter that employed the first known Punjabi immigrants in the area in 1907.
During this time, the land was operated by J.W. Eager, known as Bill Eager, on behalf of the
Wilbur family.
79
In addition to Eager Orchards, he owned additional land in the Yuba-Sutter area
and was a prominent agriculturalist in the Yuba-Sutter area throughout the early twentieth
century as demonstrated by the newspaper articles describing his family’s landholdings,
operations, and business partnerships with other families involved in agriculture. Although
official documentation is not readily available for this specific property, several newspaper
articles, grant deeds, assessor maps, and interviews conducted by the author corroborated by
research complied by Dr. Nicole Ranganath help piece together the story of this vernacular
cultural landscape, the role Punjabi immigrants played in the cultivation of this land, and the
subsequent opportunities it afforded them.
80

79
“Final Decree of Partition,” July 9, 1910, Book 41, pg. 527, Office of Sutter County Records.
80
See the UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive curated by Dr. Nicole Ranganath, particularly the page on
Tuly Singh Johl http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/ and agriculture
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/farming/ for foundational information that corroborates
interviews and research conducted by author.

23
Description of Resource
Eager Orchards is located in Live Oak, just a few miles north of Yuba City. Today it can
be reached by going north on Highway 99 and taking exit 344 for Eager Road. After turning left,
Eager Road passes over Highway 99 and continues west. Eager Orchards was originally
composed of approximately 350 acres. (Figure 3.1) The corner of Eager Road and Highway 99 is
the beginning of Eager Orchards. Composed of seven parcels, Eager Orchards was located on
both sides of Eager Road. To the south of Eager Road, the orchards were bound by Eager Road,
Highway 99 to the east, Pease Road to the south, and Tierra Buena Road to the west. To the
north of Eager Road, the orchards began where Larkin Road intersects with Eager Road. It
continued west of Larkin Road going just past Marden Street and east of the intersection of
Eager Road and Larkin Road back towards Highway 99. Eager Orchards appears to have ended
at approximately where Sanders Road is today to the north of Eager Road.
81
At the end of Eager
Road is the Live Oak Canal, and turning north is Larkin Road. The majority of the land along
Larkin Road going to Live Oak Boulevard was part of Eager Orchards and managed by Mr.
Eager according to Dr. Johl. Finally, the orchards Eager oversaw continued along Onstott Road,
which now turns into Highway 99 and meets Pease Road.
82
(Figure 3.2)

81
“Joint Tenancy Deed,” October 27, 1943, Book 56, pgs. 296-298, Office of Sutter County Records; 1954
Assessor’s Map, Book 10, pg. 26, Office of Sutter County Records; 2010 Assessor’s Map, Book 10, pg. 26, Office
of Sutter County Records; 2007 Assessor’s Map, Book 10, page 21, Office of Sutter County Records.
This approximate boundary of Eager Orchards corroborates an interview conducted with Dr. Gulzar Johl, the son of
Tuly Singh Johl. According to Dr. Johl, the land beginning at the corner where Eager Road and Highway 99 meet
going west all the way to the end of Eager Road was part of Eager Orchards.
82
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.

24

Figure 3.1: Eager Orchards and surrounding context, red pin is
Wilbur Packing Company at 1500 Eager Road. Map source: Map
data Ó2018 Google).
Figure 3.2: Eager Orchards approximate original boundary based off
grant deeds, assessor maps, and interviews. Map adapted by author
using Ó2018 Google.

25

Eager Orchards was primarily composed of peach orchards, the staple and specialty of
Yuba-Sutter’s agricultural production. Prunes were also a major crop produced on Eager Farm.
Dehydrators located on the farm were used to dry them and prepare them for sale. Eager
Orchards would become known as one of the best peach orchards in the Yuba-Sutter area with
its record production of twenty-four tons per acre by 1936.
83

History
Tuly Singh Johl’s story in the Yuba-Sutter region is inextricably linked to Eager
Orchards and Bill Eager. Thakkar “Tuly” Singh Johl immigrated from Punjab, India to
Vancouver, Canada. (Figure 3.3) He traveled with four other men that were from the same pindh
(village) of Jundilia in the Jalandhar district. These four other men were Nand Singh Johl,
Munshi Johl, Basant Singh Johl, and Puran Singh Johl.
84
He would continue to travel with these
same men, eventually making their way from Canada to Bellingham, Washington in 1907 where
they found work at a lumber mill. Tensions had already been developing prior to Tuly and the
other’s arrival between the Punjabi laborers and white laborers who began to resent Punjabi
workers that would work extra hours and even on weekends. This often resulted in small
altercations, either verbal or physical.
85
A newspaper article from September 1906 in
Bellingham, Washington expressed that many “Hindu” migrants in Canada were leaving for
North America due to tensions with white populations in the workforce. The article described the
immigrants from India as a threat to the “industrial warfare of the white man,” warning the
public that cities such as Seattle and Portland would likely see an increase in Punjabi immigrants
once policies in Canada restrict South Asian immigration.
86
In September 1906, white laborers
had distributed a petition asking Punjabi workers at the Bellingham Bay Lumber Company to

83
“F. Poole Takes Eager Orchard,” Appeal Democrat, April 14, 1936, pg. 2; Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by
Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
84
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; Nicole Ranganath,
"Journey to the US and Early Years in California," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed
November 5, 2017, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.
85
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
86
"Have We a Dusky Peril? Hindu Hordes Invading the State," Puget Sound American, September 16, 1906, pg. 16,
accessed October 10, 2017, https://www.saada.org/item/20111215-549.

26
remove their turbans.
87
These tensions eventually escalated to the white laborers threatening to
burn the lumber mill down and on September 4, 1907, the Bellingham Riots took place in
Washington. White laborers formed a mob that drove Punjabi immigrants that had been working
in Bellingham out of town.
88
Tuly served as the spokesperson for the Punjabi laborers at the mill.
After speaking with the owner, who did not want them to leave, they decided it was best to leave
town anyways for their safety.
89
(Figure 3.4 and 3.5)

87
"Hindus Scared by Plan to Oust Them," Puget Sound American, September 16, 1906, pg. 16, accessed October 4,
2017, https://www.saada.org/item/20111215-547.
88
Elliott Robert Barkan, From All Points: Americas Immigrant West, 1870-1952 (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2007), 165.
89
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.

Figure 3.3: Tuly Singh Johl, 1962. Photo courtesy of the UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, the
Johl family and the Punjabi American Heritage Society,
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/).

27

Figure 3.4: “Bellingham Hindus Discussing the Situations with the Special Deputies. Photo from
Werter D. Dodd, “The Hindu in the Northwest,” World Today, Vol. 3, 1907, pg. 1158. Courtesy of
SAADA, (https://www.saada.org/item/20110714-238.
Figure 3.5: “The two hundred Hindu Prisoners.” Photo from Werter D. Dodd, “The Hindu in the
Northwest,” World Today, Vol. 3, 1907, pg. 1160. Courtesy of SAADA,
https://www.saada.org/item/20110714-238.

28
Like many immigrants at the time, Tuly and the men he originally traveled with found
work on the railroad. They were recruited in Bellingham for the railroad construction happening
in Oroville Canyon, approximately thirty miles north of Yuba City.
90
Tuly and the others found
themselves in Northern California, in close proximity to the Yuba-Sutter region. Through their
work in Oroville, they encountered Eager Orchards. Their foreman was traveling to Marysville
and brought the men with him. As they were traveling through Yuba-Sutter, the men noticed
peaches, prunes, and grapes and asked to be let off and picked up later that evening. Tuly and the
men wandered along what would later become Eager Road where they had seen the fruit
orchards that caught their attention. They encountered Bill Eager who asked the men if they were
looking for work. Tuly served as the spokesperson and leader of the group, just as he had in
Bellingham. He informed Bill Eager that they were currently working on the railroad in Oroville
but would be looking for work once the railroad was completed. Bill Eager offered them
employment once when they had finished working on the railroad, instructing them to return to
Eager Orchards when their current work ended. Three of the men Tuly had traveled with went on
to work in the grape fields in Fresno.
91

Tuly and the others took Bill Eager up on the job offer and began working at Eager
Orchards. While working in the orchards, they lived on site at a labor camp. The camp was
located next to the house where Mr. Eager lived.
92
The camp housed approximately thirty
people. These men, although relatives, formed close bonds and relationships with one another
and began to regard one another as family. They labored together in the fields, ate together, lived
together, and many traveled and worked together within the same network, like Tuly and the
men he had traveled with from his village in India. Tuly and Munshi remained best friends from
their early days in India for the remainder of their lives.
93

After establishing himself at Eager Orchards and quickly becoming a foreman, Tuly was
able to help other Punjabi immigrants that had just arrived in Yuba-Sutter get a job at Eager
Orchards, creating a cycle of employment commonly seen with immigrant groups.
94
This

90
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
91
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
92
The exact location and address are not known since the house appears to no longer be extant, but according to Dr.
Johl, the camp and house were located to the north of Eager Road. Dr. Nicole Ranganath the curator of the UC
Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital archive appears to have footage of the camp when it was in a deteriorated state.
93
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
94
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; La Brack, The
Sikhs of Northern California, 90.

29
assistance also extended to students studying at Yuba College or U.C. Berkeley. They would
come to work at Eager Orchards over the summer and were provided with a place to stay in the
labor camps free of charge. With a source of income, a roof over their heads, and food on the
table, these students were able to save the bulk of the money they earned.
95
The manner in which
the labor camp and communal living arrangements operated had both formal and informal
aspects. For instance, the Punjabi laborers that lived there did not appear to have a time limit for
the duration of their stay. The arrangements appeared to operate on a case by case basis. Certain
individuals stayed three years while students only stayed during the summer.
96
The manner in
which food and meals were prepared had a more systematic process behind it. The ingredients
were bought in bulk, and daal (lentil beans) or chicken were served on an alternating basis. Tuly
would keep track of the cost for the meals per day and divide the cost among the residents. The
average price per day was 39 cents. However, newcomers were not typically charged since they
were still adjusting.
97

The obstacles that arose due to immigration restrictions and political turmoil in India are
exemplified through Tuly’s life in Yuba-Sutter and his time at Eager Orchards. By 1914, Tuly
had to return to India primarily due to issues that arose from the Ghadar Party. Many Punjabi
immigrants like Tuly were sending money back to their families in India. British restrictions on
the Ghadar Party became a barrier for sending money back, causing Tuly to have no choice but
return to India. Other immigrants went back to support the fight against British rule. At this time,
virtually everyone considered themselves a member of the Ghadar Party and a proponent for
ending British colonial rule of India. Upon returning to India, Tuly was arrested. After being
bailed out he was placed under house arrest and monitored by the police. He was required to
check in daily and he was prohibited from being out at night. These restrictions hindered his
ability to work. Ten years would go by before Tuly would be able to return to the US. Around
the end of 1923 or beginning of 1924, according to Dr. Johl, he established his residency in
Bombay and obtained a passport. He eventually made his way to Mexico where he was able to
enter the U.S. again, illegally. His son describes how guides near the U.S.-Mexico border were
sought by Punjabi immigrants to help them get back into the U.S. When Tuly arrived in Mexico,

95
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
96
In Tuly’s case, he lived in the labor camp the majority of his time in Yuba-Sutter before reuniting with his family
in the U.S. following changes in immigration laws.
97
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.

30
he ran into a fellow laborer he knew back at Eager Orchards in Yuba-Sutter who had become a
guide and smuggled individuals across the border. He facilitated Tuly’s journey back to Yuba-
Sutter, and right back to Eager Orchards to the job and the labor camp he had left behind.
98

Eager Orchards eventually changed hands in the 1930s, but it would continue to employ
Punjabi immigrants for decades to come. A joint tenancy deed from October 27, 1943 shows the
sale of approximately 350 acres from J.W. Eager to Frank Poole and Gladys Poole.
99
(Table 3.1)
Although a newspaper article from April 4, 1936 describes the sale of Eager Orchards to Frank
Poole, it appears this date is inaccurate according to the deed in 1943 for the sale of this land.
Poole was a local rancher that had managed other orchards and was knowledgeable in fruit
production. Eager Orchards is described as highly desirable due to its high quality of production
and record yield for peaches, twenty-four tons per acre. The article also describes how Laney
Wilbur was the owner of the property with Eager serving as the manager several years ago when
it won a contest for “best producing peach orchards.”
100

According to Dr. Johl, Tuly continued to work at what once was Eager Orchards and live
in the same labor camp even when the agricultural land changed hands and was sold to Frank
Poole. By 1944, it had become known as the Frank W. Poole Ranch as evidenced by an article

98
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; Nicole Ranganath,
"Return to India," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed November 20, 2017,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/; Nicole Ranganath. “Return to the US," UC
Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed November 20, 2017,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.
99
“Joint Tenancy Deed,” October 27, 1943, Book 56, pgs. 296-298, Office of Sutter County Records.
See Table 3.1 for table of approximate ownership and management chronology in relation to Tuly Singh Johl’s
presence in Yuba-Sutter.
100
“F. Poole Takes Eager Orchard,” Appeal Democrat, April 14, 1936, pg. 2.
Table 3.1: Approximate chronology of ownership and management of Eager Orchards in relation to history of Tuly
Singh Johl. Table created by author based off data gathered from grant deeds and assessor maps from the Sutter
County Assessor’s Office and Sutter County Clerk Recorder and interviews with Dr. Gulzar Johl.

31
that describes a large fire that occurred at the property.
101
Dr. Johl describes how the house
where Frank Poole lived was the same house where Mr. Eager had lived, and was located right
next to the same labor camp his father and others stayed in. With the sale of the orchards to
Poole, the labor camp also came under Poole’s management.
102
The article also reveals some of
the specific agricultural operations happening at the time and how it had advanced to an extent
from Mr. Eager’s time. Thousands of boxes and box-making materials were stored in the packing
plant that burned down. This plant was used primarily during peach season and also contained
additional farming equipment such as sprays and ladders.
103

During the time of Frank Poole’s ownership of what used to be Eager Orchards,
incremental changes to immigration laws and the financial and social mobility of Punjabi
laborers such as Tuly occurred. Although the Luce-Cellar bill was passed in 1946, Dr. Johl
describes how many Punjabi immigrants began buying land in 1945, the preceding year.
However, they purchased land through a variety of avenues. Some purchased land in the name of
their Mexican spouses, others through friends that were citizens. They essentially began the
process of obtaining property this way because they knew the Luce-Cellar bill would pass in the
following year.
104
Paramjit Brar was one of the many students that worked at Eager Orchards
during his summer breaks while living in the labor camp. He went to Yuba College and
eventually got his Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from U.C. Berkeley. However, he
enlisted in the army instead of working as an engineer. Unfortunately, he was shot and severely
injured resulting in his honorable discharge. This also resulted in him obtaining citizenship – and
the privileges that naturalization entailed such as property ownership.
105
A group of men,
including Tuly, knew Paramjit through working at Eager Orchards and obtained their first piece
of property through him. They pooled together their money and bought property at the corner of
Eager and Larkin Roads using his name in 1945.
106
A house built in 1938 already existed on the
property they had bought. However, only two of the partners lived in the house at the time but

101
“Fire Consumes Big Plant, Orchard Equipment on Frank Poole Ranch,” Appeal Democrat, March 29, 1944, pg.
1.
The article states that on March 29, 1944 a fire occurred on the ranch located north of Yuba City and that the
specific property that fell victim to the fire was across from Frank Poole’s home on Eager Road. The property is
described as a combination warehouse and fruit packing plant destroyed by the fire.
102
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
103
“Fire Consumes Big Plant, Orchard Equipment on Frank Poole Ranch,” Appeal Democrat, March 29, 1944, pg. 1
104
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
105
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
106
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, May 14, 2018.

32
Tuly continued to live in the labor camp about ¾ of a mile away from the property since he was
working as a foreman at the time.
107

After the Luce-Cellar Bill, immigrants needed to prove that they worked in the U.S. prior
to the law changing. Many of these Punjabi immigrants had worked for Tuly at Eager Orchards
and eventually other farms and ranches. However, most of these immigrants were illiterate and
did not have any written documentation or proof of them having been in the U.S. prior to the
Luce-Cellar Bill. However, Tuly had kept records of those that worked for him at Eager
Orchards. There was a register with each employee’s name. He would record how many hours
each person worked and the tasks they did for the day such as pruning, thinning, irrigating, etc.
These were small cards with all of this information and it was used to figure out the
compensation owed to each person. In 1948, the pay was 45 cents an hour. Tuly would keep
track of these records and give each person the money they had earned.
108

Although Mr. Eager was the earliest known employer of Punjabi immigrants, the history
and ownership of Eager Orchards and J.W. Eager’s business ventures are inextricably linked to
the Wilbur family. The ownership history of Eager Orchards is unclear at various points in time
and various grant deeds point to the likelihood that the agricultural complex had multiple owners
and managers at different points. It does appear that the Wilbur family has been a constant figure
and stakeholder in Eager Orchards, even today. A document regarding a Final Decree of
Partition for Lanie May Wilbur on July 9, 1910 evidences that she retained ownership of the land
including Eager Orchards and beyond.
109
Although Mrs. Wilbur owned the property in 1910, it is
likely Mr. Eager managed the orchards for her at this time since Tuly Singh Johl first began
working at Eager Farm in 1907.
110
A newspaper article from 1924 described how Mr. Eager has
managed Mrs. Wilbur’s properties for a number of years.
111
An additional article similarly
describes Mr. Eager as the manager of Eager Orchards in 1934 and Lanie May Wilbur as the
owner.
112
These articles in addition to various grant deeds point to Eager serving as the manager
of Eager Orchards from the time of Tuly’s arrival in 1907 to the late 1930s early 1940s.

107
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, May 14, 2018.
108
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, May 14, 2018.
These records no longer exist today.
109
“Final Decree of Partition,” July 9, 1910, Book 41, Page 527, Office of Sutter County Records.
110
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
111
“Eager and Kelly Bros. Purchase Laney M. Wilbur Orchard Tract,” Marysville Democrat, July 7, 1924, pg. 3.
112
“F. Poole Takes Eager Orchard,” Appeal Democrat, April 14, 1936, pg. 2.

33
Although the core of Eager Farm existed along Eager Road and Bill Eager also owned other
pieces of land in close proximity to Eager Road, newspaper articles from the early 1900s
evidence Bill Eager’s additional landholdings and his involvement in the broader agricultural
industry of Yuba-Sutter, primarily focused in Marysville. An article in the Marysville Appeal
from 1913 describes the incorporation of the Eager Vineyard Company with Bill Eager and his
five business partners in Marysville where their business centered.
113
In 1915, Bill Eager, along
with Lloyd Wilbur became directors of Levee District No.9 which runs from Yuba City to Live
Oak.
114
Just a few years later in 1919, the sale of a tract of land in Marysville to Bill Eager is
recorded.
115

Around the time of Frank Poole’s acquisition, the role of the future generations of the
Wilbur family becomes clearer. Richard and Dorothy Wilbur would bring Eager Orchards into
the present day and continue the tradition of hiring Punjabi immigrants to work on not just the
land surrounding Eager Road, but additional ranches they owned around the Yuba-Sutter area.
116

(Figure 3.6) Richard and Dorothy worked together in the farming industry throughout the 1940s
and 1950s until Richard’s death in a plane crash in 1961. Dorothy Wilbur would continue to run
the operation, with her son eventually taking over in 1994.
117
Mrs. Wilbur is interviewed in
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, filmed primarily from 1981 to1982. She describes how the
Punjabi population has worked hard and come to own a large amount of land throughout the
Yuba-Sutter area. She also describes how Punjabis worked for the Wilburs before 1920 when
they first worked for Richard Wilbur’s father. She describes how at the time of her interview,
95% of Wilbur’s employees were Punjabi.
118
Today, the Wilbur family’s legacy is still active
and operating on the land where Eager Orchard was located. The Wilbur Packing Company is
located at 1500 Eager Road, the same corner where Eager Road and Highway 99 meet. (Figure
3.7 and 3.8) Acres of peach orchards, likely the same peach orchards in place when Eager
operated the land and the first Punjabi immigrants worked there, are located to the west of the

113
“Vineyard Company Has Incorporated: Capitalized at $100,000 Divided Into Two Shares,” Marysville Appeal,
October 10, 1913, pg. 1.
114
“Name New Directors,” Marysville Appeal, June 3, 1915, pg. 5; “Who Maintains the Levees in Sutter County?”
Sutter County California, accessed February 15, 2018,
https://www.suttercounty.org/doc/government/depts/ds/pw/wr/fp/levee.
115
“Property Transfer,” Marysville Appeal, November 20, 1919, pg. 5.
116
Randy Baucom (Wilbur Packing Company), interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, March 21, 2018.
117
“Grant Deed,” September 29
th
, 1994, Book 1670, pgs. 569-570, Office of Recorder of Sutter County; Randy
Baucom (Wilbur Packing Company), interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, March 21, 2018.
118
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985; Beheroze Shroff, email to director, June 26, 2018.

34
packing company to the end of Eager Road, Today, Richard Wilbur Jr., oversees the operation of
the packing plant.
119

119
Randy Baucom (Wilbur Packing Company), interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, March 21, 2018.
Figure 3.6: From left: Bawa Singh, George (Bud) Johnson, Richard R. Wilbur,
date unknown. Photo courtesy of the Wilbur Family and the Punjabi American
Heritage Society, (http://www.punjabipioneers.com/exhibits/Work).

35

Figure 3.7: Sign at the entrance of the Wilbur Packing Company
located at 1500 Eager Road, December 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 3.8: Wilbur Packing Company, December 2017. Photo by author.

36
Comparative Analysis
Punjab itself translates to “the land of five rivers” and is strategically located where rivers
coming from the Himalayan mountains meet.
120
As the agricultural heartland of India, it is easy
to see why Punjabi immigrants were attracted to Yuba-Sutter’s agricultural landscape.
Furthermore, this provides precedent for why places such as Eager Orchards were desirable
places for immigrants such as Tuly Singh Johl to work at. It was the familiarity, both in terms of
the physical characteristics of Yuba-Sutter and the economic operation of agriculture that made
Yuba-Sutter and Eager Orchards a comfortable place for Punjabis to work and settle.
121

However, there were still differences between places such as Eager Orchards and the agricultural
lands of Punjab. Eager Orchards did expose immigrants such as Tuly to laborers from various
ethnic background including Chinese, Mexican, and white. At the same time, Tuly and the others
were able to shape and mold their experience at Eager Orchards to social practices back home in
terms of cooking Punjabi food and even just creating a local network of Punjabi laborers that
assisted one another.
122
In this way, the experience of Eager Orchards while reminiscent of
Punjab still allowed Punjabi immigrants to stake their claim in the American landscape.

Significance
Although Eager Orchards and Bill Eager’s business ventures indicate his success as a
local agriculturalist and businessman, what makes Eager Orchards significant to the Punjabi
community in Yuba-Sutter is that Mr. Eager employed the first Punjabi immigrants in the Yuba-
Sutter area in the orchards he oversaw, the most prominent being Tuly Singh Johl who is
considered a foundational figure for Punjabis in Yuba-Sutter.
123
The ability of Tuly and the
Punjabi immigrants to eventually obtain their own property demonstrates their progress from
their first days as laborers at Eager Orchards. The money they were able to obtain working at
Eager Orchards, their shelter at the labor camp, and the networks they formed with other

120
Nicole Ranganath, “Punjab,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed May 15, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/origins/punjab/.
121
Karen Isaksen Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California,"118; 121;
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, "Founding of Yuba City," in Leaving Yuba City: Poems (New York: Anchor Books,
1997), 98.
122
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
123
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, May 14, 2018; Nicole Ranganath,
"Tuly Singh Johl,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed February 15, 2018,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.

37
Punjabis led up to this monumental moment of attaining the financial means to purchase their
own property. Tuly, as one of the first Punjabi residents of Yuba-Sutter, embodies the growth
many Punjabi laborers were able to achieve during their lifetime as result of the opportunities
Eager Orchards afforded them. Laborers, such as Tuly, obtained financial stability and were
eventually able to reunite with their families and use their earnings to own their own property,
build a home, and contribute to the formation of a Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter.
Eventually, Tuly was also able to reunite with his family in Yuba-Sutter with the changes
in immigration laws. In 1948, his youngest son Gulzar Johl would travel to Yuba City, reuniting
with his father after many years apart. Tuly’s wife would reunite with him in Yuba City in 1958.
(Figure 3.9) Dr. Gulzar Johl would go on to be the first South Asian immigrant to travel to Yuba-
Sutter and become a doctor. He ran an optometry practice in Live Oak for many years and has
seventy years of his own history in Yuba-Sutter.
124
An issue from the Sutter County Historical
Society Bulletin in 1977 describes Tuly as the only remaining “old timer” in Yuba-Sutter. At the
time, he was 99 years old, resided on Onstott Road, and still drove a car.
125
He passed away the
following year in 1978. Tuly lived a long, prosperous life and created his own legacy in the
agriculture industry, owning acres of land with various family members over the years.
126
He
even owned part of Eager Orchards at various points. Today the Johl family owns forty acres of
what was Eager Orchards. The property purchased by Tuly and his partners in Paramjit Brar’s
name in 1945 is owned and operated by Dr. Johl’s nephew Iqbal Johl today. His son Malkit Johl
built a more recent house along Eager Road near this property.
127

124
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
125
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 19.
126
Nicole Ranganath, "Tuly Singh Johl,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed February 15,
2018, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/; Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by
Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018.
127
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; Dr. Gulzar Johl,
interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, May 14, 2018.

38

The prominence of agricultural opportunity was a major draw for Punjabi immigrants,
given their familiarity with it back in Punjab. Although there are countless ranches, farms, and
orchards in Yuba-Sutter that have employed Punjabi immigrants, Eager Orchards was the first. It
continued to thrive even as it changed ownership over the years, and Punjabi immigrants have
been critical actors in the development and progress of Eager Orchards throughout its lifetime.
Their role in the management and use of this land as laborers and foremen has subsequently
shaped the Punjabi immigrant experience in Yuba-Sutter. For many, such as Tuly Singh Johl,
Eager Orchards was ground zero and their starting point for the social and economic mobility
they achieved. For these reasons, Eager Orchards is a significant vernacular cultural landscape in
the context of the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter. It speaks to the contributions and
engagement of Punjabi immigrants in the agricultural industry from 1907 to today.
Eager Orchards also retains a significant amount of its original character and historic
integrity as it still operates as an agricultural operation of predominantly peach orchards. It has
3.9: Basanti Kaur Johl (left) and Tuly Singh Johl (right). Photo courtesy of the UC
Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive and the Johl family,
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/).

39
not been built over with contemporary development, with the exception the packing plant and a
few houses. In addition, the Wilbur family, who has been involved as stakeholders in this land
since the beginning, still operate the land today through the packing plant. Eager Orchards’ direct
connection to people, specifically Punjabi immigrants, constitutes its characterization as a
vernacular cultural landscape.
128
It is linked to the cultural patterns they incorporated through
their life in the labor camps and the socio-economic progress these laborers were able to obtain
as a result of Eager Orchards.
129
As Dolores Hayden states in The Power of Place on the subject
of cultural landscapes, “But they offer the potential of places set against the flow of time, places
to recollect the meaning of working lives for the individuals, the family, the community, and the
city.”
130
Eager Orchards served as a vernacular setting that created a domino effect for the
Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter. The initial Punjabi immigrants began their journey as
laborers and built the foundation of what would become a prominent Punjabi community that
would draw huge numbers of immigrants in the decades to come. It is important to recognize the
critical role Eager Orchards played in the framework they built not just for their own families,
but for the greater Punjabi community. For these reasons, Eager Orchards is a significant
resource that can be defined as a cultural vernacular landscape that retains its original historic
use and a significant amount of its integrity. It is a repository of the heritage of the Punjabi
community in Yuba-Sutter through its connection to agriculture, socioeconomic progress, and
community building.

128
Susan Calfate Boyle, "Natural and Cultural Resources," Cultural Landscapes: Balancing Nature and Heritage in
Preservation Practice, ed. Richard Longstreth (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2008), 150.
129
Boyle, “Natural and Cultural Resources,” 151.
130
Dolores Hayden, The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006),
99.

40
Chapter 4: The Yuba City Gurdwara
Introduction
The post-1947 Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter exhibits significant differences in their
social, economic, and political characteristics. With the Luce-Cellar Bill of 1946, the
Independence of India in 1947, as well as the Partition of India in 1947, a strong population base
of Punjabi immigrants developed in Yuba-Sutter in the decades that followed these events,
particularly after the Hart-Cellar bill of 1965. These changes also translated to their built
environment. A commonality between the pre-1947 and post-1947 community is that the
majority were followers of the Sikh religion. By 1975, Yuba City would have the largest
concentration of Sikhs in an agricultural setting, and the Yuba-Sutter area would boast more
Punjabi immigrants of the Sikh faith in 1974 than the scattered South Asian immigrant
population across the nation at the time.
131

Today the Sikh religion is the fifth largest religion in the world with its central teachings
stemming from the Guru Granth Sahib, a compilation of the teachings of its gurus into one book
that is considered the last and eternal guru for Sikhs.
132
A fairly young religion, the Sikh religion
was founded in the fifteenth century by the first guru, Guru Nanak.
133
Early Punjabi immigrants
in Yuba-Sutter traveled to the Stockton Gurdwara, or Sikh Temple, for many years given that it
was the only house of worship for Sikhs in the region within traveling distance.
134
However, the
Stockton Gurdwara was still ninety miles from Yuba-Sutter and families would only travel to
Stockton about four to six times a year.
135
In 1969, the timing and circumstances were just right
for Yuba-Sutter to build its own local gurdwara.
136
Various newspaper articles, permits, historical
photos, videos, and interviews with the Johl and Tumber family, who were prominent
contributors and actively involved in creating the gurdwara, reveal how this space became the
centerpiece of the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi Sikh community while simultaneously demonstrating
how religious heritage serves as tie between the homeland and the diaspora.

131
La Brack, The Sikhs of Northern California, vi; La Brack, “Table 22: East Indian Population Estimates and
Sources for Yuba-City Marysville Area 1948-1974,” The Sikhs of Northern California, 256.
132
Doris R. Jakobsh, Sikhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2012), xi; Pashaura Singh, The Guru Granth
Sahib: Canon, Meaning, and Authority (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), 266.
133
Jakbosh, Sikhism, xi; Nikky-Gurinder Kaur Singh, Sikhism: An Introduction (London: I.B. Taurus, 2011), 55.
134
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 11.
135
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 12.
136
Julie Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town, 79.

41
Description of Resource
Located in Yuba City, the Sikh Temple of Yuba City, or Yuba City Gurdwara, is situated
in a rural, agricultural setting. Orchards are found immediately to the east and west of the
temple.
137
The front facade of the temple faces east onto Tierra Buena Road. It is bound by
Young Road to the north and True Road to the south. (Figure 4.1)

The main entrance is accessible through two identical entrance gates on Tierra Buena
Road. The blue metal gates have “Gurdwara” written in the center surrounded by various
depictions of the Khalsa symbol, the symbol of the Sikh religion, all composed of metal. (Figure
4.2) A short, white metal gate set within brick piers surrounds the remainder of the perimeter of
the front facade. On the same axis as the main body of the gurdwara is a T-shaped landscaped
area with a ceramic tile fountain and flag pole enclosed by a white gate. On both sides of this
landscaped area is a surface parking lot. (Figure 4.3 and 4.4)

137
An interesting residential settlement pattern is seen along Tierra Buena Road with houses located among each
orchard complex surrounding the site of the gurdwara.
Figure 4.1: Aerial map showing site of Yuba City Gurdwara and surrounding context of Yuba City Gurdwara. Map
source: Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data ©2018 Google.

42

Figure 4.2: Main entrance gates, May 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 4.3: Landscaped area in front of gurdwara, May 2017. Photo by author.

43

The main body of the gurdwara is square-shaped in plan, symmetrical, and one-story in
height with a two-story rectangular form at the center of the front façade, serving as the central
entrance and commanding authority over the entire building. A multi-foil arch frames this central
mass with the main entrance doors deeply recessed underneath the arched entry. A bulbous dome
set on a lotus-shaped base and topped with a finial is found at the top of the rectangular form. To
the east and west of the central, rectangular form are the wings of the gurdwara with multi-foil
arches repeated along the remainder of the front facade. These are not true arches, rather they are
a decorative element. (Figure 4.5) Three sets of fully glazed double-entry doors topped with a
pointed, transom window lead into the temple. The Khalsa symbol composed of metal is directly
centered above the entrance doors on the face of the wall. (Figure 4.6)

Figure 4.4: Nishan Sahib in front of gurdwara, official
flag of the Sikh religion, May 2017. Photo by author.

44

Figure 4.5: Front facade of main body of gurdwara, May 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 4.6: Main entrance doors and Khalsa symbol, May
2017. Photo by author.

45
Just beyond the main entrance doors is an entrance vestibule where one removes their
shoes and covers their head before entering the main prayer hall. To the east is a door leading to
the Langar Hall, or community kitchen. The floor is paved with dark blue and white checkered
tiles, and the same material serves as a decorative element for the wainscot of the interior walls.
Wood double doors with tri-partite transom windows serve as the entrance to the main prayer
hall. The windows are composed of stained glass with “God is one” inscribed, the Khalsa
symbol, and the “Ek Onkar” symbol, another prominent symbol of the Sikh religion. (Figure 4.7)
The main prayer hall where the Guru Granth Sahib is displayed is known as the Darbar Sahib.
138

The focal point of the Darbar Sahib is a raised altar where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept and
where a granthi, or priest, is seated reciting from the book. The altar is covered in vibrant colored
cloth. The interior walls surrounding the main altar have the same multi-foiled arches repeated
along the walls. (Figure 4.8) When one enters the hall, they typically offer a small donation, bow
down their head, and pray. Then they proceed to sit anywhere on the carpeted area and listen to
the recitation of religious hymns. To the west of the main altar is another raised area for the ragi
that typically perform kirtan with various musical instruments.
139
The overall Darbar Sahib has a
series of post and beams that run the length of the entire hall. (Figure 4.9)

138
David Rose, Sikhism (Dunstable: Folens, 1995), 8.
139
Anita Ganeri, The Guru Granth Sahib and Sikhism (North Mankato, Minnesota: Smart Apple Media, 2004), 29.
Figure 4.7: Entrance Vestibule to Darbar Sahib, May 2017. Photo by author.

46

Figure 4.8: Main altar with Guru Granth Sahib, May 2017.
Photo by author.
Figure 4.9: Darbar Sahib interior detail, May 2017. Photo by author.

47

A door at the far northeast corner of the Darbar Sahib provides access to the Langar Hall,
or community kitchen. The Langar Hall is situated adjacent to the Darbar Sahib. In contrast to
the Darbar Sahib, the interior of the Langar Hall is very utilitarian and functional in its layout
and design. Upon entering the Langar Hall, one encounters a granite countertop with three built-
in sinks to wash up before eating. (Figure 4.10) Similar to the Darbar Sahib, shoes are not
allowed in the Langar Hall and covering one’s head is a sign of respect. The kitchen is located in
the northern portion of the Langar Hall, where it is accessed through an open entryway.
Numerous refrigerators, pots, pans, and counter-top areas are used by volunteers to prepare often
large amounts of food. The interior wall separating the kitchen from the remainder of the Langar
Hall incorporates a cut-out with a serving area for food as its prepared and brought out.
Immediately in front of the serving area built into the wall is a free-standing island where food is
served to visitors. (Figure 4.11) Additional countertops and serving areas are lined up against the
west wall in the northwest corner of the Langar Hall. The remainder of the Langar Hall is
composed of two distinct seating areas for visitors to eat. The first is composed of two long rows
of tables with chairs that run the length of the Langar Hall. Adjacent to that is a seating area on
the floor where two long carpets, also running the length of the Langar Hall, are on the floor for
visitors to sit on and eat. (Figure 4.12)

Figure 4.10: Washing area in Langar Hall, May 2017. Photo by author.

48

Figure 4.11: Langar Hall kitchen, May 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 4.12: Langar Hall seating, May 2017. Photo by
author.

49

The Darbar Sahib and Langar Hall compose the two original key components of the Yuba
City Gurdwara when it was first built in 1969. During the 1980s and 1990s, two major additions
were made to the gurdwara, signaling the evolution of this space into a larger temple complex
and community resource rather than just a place of prayer. According to the permit history and
plans submitted along with permit documentation, the northwest wing on the overall site was
added in 1981. It is composed of a library, classrooms, offices, priest and guest quarters, and
restrooms.
140
Today the functions of the various rooms in this ancillary wing remain largely the
same with the rooms serving as a Punjabi school, priest residences, committee meeting room,
offices, community room, storage, and restroom. In comparison to the main temple, the
northwest wing is void of ornament, expressing its functional purpose through its utilitarian
design. U-shaped in plan, it opens onto a central courtyard area with the various rooms situated
around the open space. One-story in height and symmetrical, it does not detract from the main
body of the temple and is distinguished as a later addition and secondary site feature through its
massing and scale. (Figure 4.13)

140
Key and Laughlin Civil Engineers,“Proposed Addition to Gurdwara Sikh Temple Addition,” July 31, 1981, City
of Yuba City, Development Services Department.
Figure 4.13: Northwest wing added in 1981, May 2017. Photo taken by author.

50

The second major addition made on the site was the addition of another prayer hall
known as Dasmesh Hall. This hall was built in 1995 and is located in the western portion of the
overall site, behind the main temple hall and directly behind the northwest wing.
141
There is a
secondary entrance providing access to Dasmesh Hall on True Road. It has entrance gates
identical to the two on Tierra Buena Road. Dasmesh Hall is similar to the front facade of the
main prayer hall in terms of its massing and scale, but is much simpler in its design. It also is one
story in height, square-shaped in plan, and a two-story rectangular form similar to the front
façade is found at the center of this façade as well. A multi-foil arch also frames this central
entrance and the main doors leading into the hall are found deeply recessed underneath. A blue
and gold sign reading “Dasmesh Hall” is found at the top of the central mass. The remainder of
the front facade is composed of blank walls, void of windows or decorative elements. (Figure
4.14)

141
Sroka’s Design and Drafting, “Proposed Addition for Sikh Temple Gurdwara,” July 12, 1995, City of Yuba City,
Development Services Department.
Figure 4.14: Dasmesh Hall built in 1995, December 2017. Photo by author.

51

The most recent addition made on to the overall temple complex is the “Mata Gujri Rose
Garden” completed in 2014 and named after the seventeenth century historical figure who was
the wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the mother of Guru Gobind Singh.
142
Located in the
southeast corner of the site, the garden is square, and symmetrical in its overall plan. One of the
most distinguishable features of the rose garden is the creation of the Khalsa symbol with roses
and landscaping, as seen through an aerial view of the garden. (Figure 4.15) The garden is
accessed through an operable, blue metal gate with a variety of decorative scrolling and floral
elements. Two gold Khalsa symbols are also found at the center of the gate, serving as the focal
point and adding to its monumentality. The gate is set within two, large flagstone piers topped
with the Khalsa symbol composed of metal. The perimeter of the garden is surrounded by a
white, metal gate set within flagstone piers.

142
Andrew Creasey, “Prep for 80,000 at Yuba City For Celebration,” SikhNet, October 28, 2014, accessed May 1,
2018, https://www.sikhnet.com/news/prep-80000-yuba-city-celebration; H.S. Singha, The Encyclopedia of Sikhism
(over 1000 Entries) (New Delhi: Hemkunt Publishers, 2000), 83.
Permits and official documentation for the construction of the Mata Gujri Rose Garden were not available, the
SikhNet article evidences the opening of the rose garden in 2014.
Figure 4.15: Aerial view of Mata Gurji Rose Garden showing Khalsa symbol. Map
source: Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data ©2018 Google.

52

At the southeast corner of the garden, is a slanted, block base composed of flagstone.
(Figure 4.16) An extremely large Khalsa symbol composed of metal is found on top of the base.
This is the largest depiction of the Khalsa symbol on the entire site. Its location at the corner of
the rose garden is where Tierra Buena Road and True Road intersect making it visible to
passersby. (Figure 4.17) Upon entering the garden, a path composed of red sandstone pavers
leads throughout garden. The remainder of the garden is composed of strips of grass and planted
areas with various shrubs and plants orchestrated to create a Khalsa symbol from an aerial point
of view. (Figure 4.18) Around the perimeter of the entire garden are various granite benches with
the names of families and individuals involved in the creation of the gurdwara, the garden, or
have been active members of the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community. (Figure 4.19)

Figure 4.16: Entrance to rose garden, September 2017.
Photo taken by author.

53

Figure 4.17: Khalsa symbol on flagstone base,
September 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 4.18: Overall view of rose garden, September
2017. Photo by author.

54

The remainder of the temple site is composed of recreational features such as a basketball
court in front of Dahsmesh Hall and adjacent to the surface parking lot. A large grassy area
surrounded by a dirt track is also found in the southeast corner of the overall site. Figure 4.20) A
map of the entire gurdwara complex is found at the front facade of the main hall. (Figure 4.21)

Figure 4.19: Example of granite benches located
throughout perimeter of garden, September 2017.
Photo by author.

55

Figure 4.20: Basketball court and field in
background, December 2017. Photo by author.
Figure 4.21: Map of overall site, May 2017. Map by Yuba City Gurdwara,
photo taken by author.

56

History
The Yuba City Gurdwara opened its doors in 1969 as the first Sikh temple in the Yuba-
Sutter area.
143
The first Sikh temple constructed in California was the Stockton Gurdwara. Built
in 1912, it became the religious and social center connecting Punjabi immigrants in the larger
California region.
144
From the first Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter to the most recent
immigrants arriving just before 1969, the Stockton Gurdwara was the only Sikh house of
worship for miles around. They often traveled to Stockton several times a year, typically for
special religious occasions and events.
145
In 1948, the second gurdwara in California was built in
El Centro in the Imperial Valley where another prominent Punjabi immigrant community had
formed.
146
Despite the construction of a second gurdwara in California in El Centro, the Stockton
Gurdwara was still the closest in proximity for those living in Yuba-Sutter with the Stockton
Gurdwara being located about 90 miles away while the El Centro Gurdwara was a drastic 640
miles. (Figure 4.22) Eventually, the increasing influx of Punjabi immigrants, especially after the
passage of the Hart-Cellar Bill, resulted in a more stabilized Punjabi population in Yuba-Sutter
with nuclear families and a sound economic base. Traveling to the Stockton Gurdwara became
increasingly difficult and its role as the religious center for Punjabi Sikhs in Yuba-Sutter became
a less feasible option not only due to distance and the difficulties of traveling with children, but it
was not large enough to serve both the Stockton and broader community including Yuba-Sutter
community.
147

143
Julie Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town, 79.
144
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 11.
145
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 15.
146
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 21-22; Roots in the Sand, dir. Jayasri Majumdar Hart (United States:
Center for Asian American Media, 1998), DVD; Bruce La Brack, “A Century of Sikhs in California,” The Sikh
Foundation International, July 3, 2011, accessed May 1, 2018, http://www.sikhfoundation.org/sikh-punjabi-
language-studies/a-century-of-sikhs-in-california-by-bruce-la-brack/.
147
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.

57

Even before the Hart-Cellar Bill of 1965, Yuba-Sutter had one of the largest
concentrations of families of South Asian descent.
148
During the early 1960s, discussions
regarding the need for a local gurdwara in Yuba-Sutter began. The decision to move forward
with the process of constructing a temple was finalized in 1967.
149
The creation of the gurdwara
was a collective effort among a number of Punjabis active in the post-1947 Yuba-Sutter
community. The names of twenty-six individuals are engraved on a plaque at the front facade of
the gurdwara for their contributions in helping create the gurdwara. (Figure 4.23) Two such
families are the Tumber and Johl family, who were interviewed for the purpose of gaining a
more personal insight to shed light on the community’s role in creating the gurdwara.

148
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 22.
149
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 22.
Figure 4.22: Map showing regional context of Yuba City, Stockton, and
El Centro Gurdwaras. Map created by author using Map Stack by
Stamen, accessed June 5, 2018 (http://mapstack.stamen.com/).

58

On a surface level, creating a gurdwara that would fulfill its religious function was the
community’s main priority throughout the planning process. However, the cultural and social
resource it would serve as for the Punjabi community, especially for the children and the youth,
in Yuba-Sutter was also a major point of consideration.
150
It was within this context that the
desire to create a gurdwara that served as more than just a religious space, but also a community
resource, a repository of Punjabi culture, and a symbol of the Punjabi community’s identity
began to take shape. Acquiring the funding and land were two key tasks to tackle before
construction could take place. The money was initially raised through Sangrand, which is a term
for the first day in the month of the Sikh calendar. The Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter would gather
during Sangrand, often at a local community member’s house, and money was slowly collected
this way through donations. However, the individuals working to raise the needed money
realized they would need a faster strategy to achieve their goal. They reached their goal when a

150
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
Figure 4.23: Plaque recognizing contributors to Yuba
City Gurdwara, May 2017. Photo by author.

59
member of the Punjabi community graciously donated a large sum of the remaining money
needed to begin planning and construction
151
Punjabis that had achieved financial stability in
their agricultural ventures in the orchards were able to contribute not just money but also land,
exhibiting a domino effect of social and financial mobility in the post-1947 era.
152

A number of potential locations for the gurdwara were debated before it was decided that
it would be located on Tierra Buena Road in Yuba City. Among these options included the city
of Pennington, city of Live Oak, and a potential location on Lincoln Road.
153
According to a
Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin, brothers Bakhtawar Singh and Udam Singh Purewal
donated the three acres of land on Tierra Buena Road where the temple was constructed.
154

Bakhtawar had been in Yuba-Sutter for about sixteen years and his younger brother, Udham,
about twelve years at the time they donated the land. Bakhtwar had immigrated in 1951 and
Udham around 1955.
155
These brothers were just two of the many dedicated community members
that played an active role from the inception of the idea of creating a gurdwara, to its actual
construction. The brothers exhibited how many individuals went beyond contributing to just the
financial aspect and volunteered their time to the daily operation of the gurdwara when it opened.
The brothers could often be found in the kitchen preparing food.
156
The eagerness and active
participation of the community resulted in the gurdwara being completed within almost a three-
year time span. Approximately two years were spent planning including fundraising, picking a
location, and obtaining the land while about seven months were spent on the construction itself.
Although the original building permit is not available, interviews reveal that the Lamon
Brothers served as the builders and contractors for the gurdwara, however the original architect
does not appear to be listed on any of the documentation available for the gurdwara. According
to Dr. Johl, the Lamon Brothers were a local company and are located along Highway 20 in
Yuba City today.
157
The company’s website reveals they were founded in 1950 and operated
under the name the “Lamon Brothers” for thirty years. Their portfolio demonstrates their work in

151
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
152
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 22.
153
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
154
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 22.
155
Nicole Ranganath, “Purewal Brothers,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed July 25, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/purewal-brothers/.
156
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
157
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.

60
the Yuba-Sutter region through projects such as the Yuba City High School and Yuba City
College stadium.
158

They worked with those involved in the planning of the gurdwara to adapt their proposed
plans and features to fit their budget. Although the design of the gurdwara is monumental with
elements reminiscent of Indo-Islamic architecture, this was not something proposed by the
community members planning the temple who knew very little about architecture and design.
159

Dr. Johl recalls that the only instance in which the group behind the planning of the gurdwara
turned to an architectural reference point was when they consulted with a member of the
community that was designing his own house in Stockton. Although this did not provide much
relevant reference given it was a residential building versus a religious structure, the design of
the gurdwara was not something the committee was particular about. In the end, it was a design
the community found appropriate, but nobody appeared to have a particular design or aesthetic in
mind throughout the process. Instead, they were more focused on the structure and functionality
of the building.
It is interesting to note the design of the Yuba City Gurdwara differs dramatically from
the Stockton Gurdwara and the El Centro Gurdwara. The Stockton Gurdwara’s original building,
now used as a library, is a vernacular Craftsman style structure. (Figure 4.24) In 1929 the temple
sought to expand and moved into a larger building which now serves as the main gurdwara
today. This is a brick building with little architectural embellishment.
160
(Figure 4.25) The El
Centro Gurdwara on the other hand is a much smaller one-story building that was formerly a
Buddhist Temple. The vernacular structure is essentially a stucco box with an arcaded porch at
the front and shaped parapet.
161
(Figure 4.26) A comparison of the gurdwaras in Yuba City,
Stockton, and El Centro reveal there is no standard design for how these Punjabi immigrant
communities have designed their religious centers. They are often repurposed buildings that are
shaped to fit the needs of the community rather than prioritize the aesthetics of the structure. At

158
“History,” Lamon Construction Co., accessed June 5, 2018, http://lamonconstruction.com/history-1/; “Stadium
Projects,” Lamon Construction Co., accessed June 5, 2018, http://lamonconstruction.com/new-page-1/.
Author contacted the firm regarding any information they may have about the Yuba City Gurdwara but no response
was received.
159
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
160
Rachel Kanner, “History: Stockton Gurdwara Sahib,” San Joaquin Magazine, February 2, 2014, accessed July
25, 2018, https://sanjoaquinmagazine.com/2014/02/history-stockton-gurdwara-sahib/; Nicole Ranganath, “Stockton
Gurdwara,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed July 27, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/stockton-temple/.
161
Kanner, “History: Stockton Gurdwara Sahib.”

61
the same time, the personal tastes and reflections of the prominent individuals behind the scenes
of planning the temple manifested itself in many of the minor design details of the gurdwara.

Figure 4.24: Original Stockton Gurdwara, 1916. Courtesy of SAADA,
(https://www.saada.org/item/20121224-1186).
Figure 4.25: Stockton Gurdwara, second building, 1929. Courtesy of Amelia
Singh Netervala and SAADA, https://www.saada.org/item/20111222-572).

62

Mehar Singh Tumber, a prominent member of the post-1947 Punjabi community played
an active role in the agricultural industry, the social aspects of the community, and subsequently
helping oversee the process of creating a gurdwara.
162
Many informal meetings were held at his
house where individuals, such as Dr. Johl, gathered to discuss the gurdwara through casual
conversation. Tumber was also actively involved in the day to day minor design decisions for the
gurdwara. His daughter, Rajinder “Raji” Tumber recalls her father searching for a contractor as
well as coming home with various carpet samples and asking her family’s opinion. They chose
blue for the original carpet in the main prayer hall of the gurdwara, given it was her dad’s
favorite color but also a significant color in the Sikh religion. It is representative of the Khalsa
order and is worn during religious festivities.
163
Other minor details arising from community

162
Nicole Ranganath, “Mehar Singh Tumber and Surjit Kaur Tumber,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive, accessed October 4, 2017, https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/meha-tumber/; Rajinder
Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
163
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018; Parul Bhatti,
“Significance of Color in Sikh Turbans,” Sikh Turbans: The Identity of Sikh Community (Bombay: IDC, IIT),
accessed June 22, 2018, http://www.dsource.in/resource/sikh-turbans/significance-color-sikh-turbans.
Figure 4.26: El Centro Gurdwara. Photo from Google Street view, image capture May 2012 ©2018 Google.

63
involvement include the magnolia trees at the front of the overall site, which were planted by
both Mehar Singh Tumber and Dr. Gulzar Johl, and donated from Dr. Johl’s nursery.
Creating the gurdwara did not end once the construction was complete. Orchestrating the
granthi, or priests, that would oversee the religious service and events was another major
component to make the gurdwara a functional, religious space. Within the first year of opening, a
granthi from India and another from Stockton were asked to join the Yuba City Gurdwara.
164

Another step in finalizing the temple’s operations and management was forming a temple
committee. Various community members opted to join as committee members with the titles
ranging from directors to members of the managing committee.
165
Through the piecemeal
arrangement of obtaining a contractor, completing construction, creating a committee, and
acquiring priests, the community’s vision for a local gurdwara they could call their own quickly
came to life.
In 1969, on the 400
th
birthday of Guru Nanak, the first guru and founder of the Sikh
religion, the Yuba City Gurdwara officially opened.
166
Within the first ten years of its opening,
the gurdwara transformed into the religious center for Punjabi Sikhs in Yuba-Sutter, as well as
space for forming social networks. (Figure 4.27) The documentary Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba
City, depicts Yuba-Sutter from 1981 to 1982 with lengthy footage of the Yuba City Gurdwara.
The combination of the historical footage of this documentary along with historical photos of the
temple depicts its evolution over the years from its opening in 1969 to present day. Historical
photos from a Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin on the Punjabi community in Yuba-
Sutter depict various photos of the gurdwara in 1978, before its expansion. (Figure 4.28) Photos
of the interior in 1978 show crowds of people gathered in the main prayer hall. (Figure 4.29)
This photograph in particular shows the vast number of Punjabis in the Yuba-Sutter area that
utilized the temple as a religious space. A photo of the Langar Hall also from 1978 supplements
the notion of equality and serving the community embodied in this space early on. (Figure 4.30)
A photo from 1983 of prominent Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community member Hari Singh Everest
and others inside the main prayer hall shows a glimpse of the interior near the altar where the
Guru Granth Sahib is kept, as well as the social relations fostered through the process of
planning the gurdwara and subsequently after its opening. (Figure 4.31)

164
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
165
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
166
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 23.

64

Figure 4.27: Hari Singh Everest and members of the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community in front
of Yuba City Gurdwara, 1983. Photo courtesy of UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive and the Everest family,
(http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/photo/)
Figure 4.28: Yuba City Gurdwara, 1978. Photo by John Lewith in Balwant Singh Brar’s “East Indians
of Cutter County” in the Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No. 2, April 1978.
Courtesy of the Sutter County Memorial Museum.

65

Figure 4.29: Main prayer hall, Yuba City Gurdwara, 1978. Photo by John Lewith in Balwant Singh Brar’s
“East Indians of Cutter County” in the Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No. 2, April
1978. Courtesy of the Sutter County Memorial Museum.
Figure 4.30: Langar Hall, Yuba City Gurdwara, 1978. Photo by John Lewith in Balwant Singh Brar’s “East
Indians of Cutter County” in the Sutter County Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XVII, No. 2, April 1978.
Courtesy of the Sutter County Memorial Museum.

66

Aerial footage of the gurdwara in the documentary shows how its setting has remained
largely the same with the temple nestled among the agricultural and rural background of Tierra
Buena Road and orchards and various houses scattered around the gurdwara complex.
167
It also
shows how the gurdwara is the focal point of this road, appearing as if the orchards and houses
are oriented around it.
168
This documentary is particularly special because it shows the aftermath
of the expansion of the gurdwara in 1981 to include the northwest wing with the library, priest
residences, community room, and Dasmesh Hall, and how these spaces accommodated the influx
of Punjabis settling in Yuba-Sutter at the time. A powerful scene of a wedding ceremony taking
place in the main prayer hall shows the integral role of the temple in the community as an
alternate cultural sphere, where the Punjabi Sikhs were able to practice their religion and carry
out their own ceremonies for events such as weddings. The following scenes also depict the

167
See Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, directed by Beheroze F. Shroff for visual depiction of aerial footage of
Yuba City Gurdwara filmed in 1981 and 1982.
168
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, dir. Beheroze F. Shroff (United States), 1985.
Figure 4.31: Hari Singh Everest with two men at Yuba City Gurdwara, 1983. Photo courtesy of the
UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive and the Everest family.
(http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/photo/).

67
social and communal function of the gurdwara in bringing the Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter together
for more than just religious purposes.
169

A scene of the Langar Hall and the kitchen shows the role of this space in creating a
social atmosphere, particularly for women. Groups of women are shown huddled in the kitchen
preparing mass amounts of food to be served in the Langar Hall after the festivities. They are
shown chatting, singing, laughing, and socializing with one another, demonstrating how the
gurdwara was especially important as a safe, familiar space for the Punjabi women in the
community to gather.
170
It also shows how the religious and social layers of the gurdwara overlap
to create distinct experiences for the Punjabi diaspora, particularly based on gender and age.
171
A
final scene depicts children playing outside the gurdwara on the concrete pavement where the
basketball courts and adjacent field are today.
172
This demonstrates how part of the gurdwara
complex served as a recreational facility and community resource for the Punjabi youth.
The gurdwara’s function also transcended into the political realm, allowing Yuba-Sutter
to make connections in the broader northern California region. A collaborative press release from
the major Sikh religious centers in northern California including the Yuba City Gurdwara, El
Sobrante Gurdwara, Stockton Gurdwara, and Fremont Gurdwara on June 6, 1978 inform the
public of a gathering to take place on June 10
th
in Berkley to protest the murder of fourteen Sikhs
in India.
173
Known as the Sikh Nirankaris clash of 1978, the killing of the fourteen Sikhs
occurred during an event being held by the Nirankaris in Amritsar. The Nirankaris formed
around the mid-ninteenth century as a separate religious group that practiced traditions based on
Hindu and Sikh beliefs. Tensions between the Nirankaris and Sikhs began to heighten during the
mid-twentieth century and culminated in the1978 massacre in Amritsar.
174

The massacre of 1978 further demonstrates how the meaning of “homeland” has changed
for Punjabi Sikhs in India and has translated to the social and religious lives of immigrants
settled in places such as Yuba-Sutter. Following the1947 partition of India into Pakistan and

169
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.
170
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.
171
Beheroze Shroff & Trisha Mitra (2004) Documentary Filmmaker Beheroze Shroff, Interviewed by Trisha Mitra,
South Asian Popular Culture, 2:2, 185-193, DOI: 10.1080/1474668042000275743.
172
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.
173
Sikhs of Northern California, “Sikh temple press release,” June 6, 1978, San Jose State University, Special
Collections and Archives, South Asian Collection, accessed April 25, 2018,
https://calisphere.org/item/9a70fac3d0b0f86495dfa859f093e338/.
174
Jugdep S. Chima, “Beginnings of Sikh Extremism (1978-1981),” The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in India:
Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements (Delhi: Sage Publications India, 2008), 42-43.

68
India, and the subsequent scattering of Sikhs across political borders, the idea of creating a
separate Sikh state gained more traction. In 1952, the Akali Dal, a Sikh political party, raised the
idea of creating a “new” Punjab as a distinct country founded on Punjabi heritage practices such
as language and traditions.
175
Through several campaigns and the trauma caused by Operation
Bluestar in 1984, the movement for an independent Sikh state culminated in the call for the
creation of Khalistan.
176
This separatist movement also manifested in Punjabi Sikh communities
in the United States, as seen with the engagement of the Yuba City Gurdwara in the protest
against the 1978 massacres. Annual gatherings have occurred at the Yuba City Gurdwara to
commemorate Operation Bluestar and the losses suffered by the Sikh community in 1984. An
article from the Appeal-Democrat in 2004 describes a gathering at the Yuba City Gurdwara for
the twentieth anniversary of the 1984 massacre. The day was filled with guest speakers and
discussion of the events that have left deep scars not only within the Punjabi Sikh communities
of India, but immigrant groups in the United States.
177
Through these political events, it is clear
that the Yuba City Gurdwara has become a critical component of the identity of the Punjabi
community in Yuba-Sutter, allowing them to engage with other Punjabi Sikh communities in
California who share a connection to the religious and political happenings in India. More
importantly, it demonstrates how the gurdwara also serves as a site of political activism, showing
how political turmoil in India and Pakistan affect immigrant communities in the diaspora.
Finally, the Yuba City Gurdwara has also served as a space of refuge for the community.
Dr. Johl recalls how during the summer of 1972 there were approximately 100 people living in
the gurdwara while working in the orchards during the summer, showing how this was a safe,
welcoming space for later immigrants adapting to Yuba-Sutter.
178
Throughout the various
functions it has served in the community, the Yuba City Gurdwara has only strengthened,
expanded, and grown to serve as one of the most important resources for the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi
community, even today. This is evidenced by not only its physical expansion, but its role in

175
Darshan Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood (London: UCL Press, 1999) 11.
176
Tatla, The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood, 17.
Operation Bluestar in 1984 was an organized attack on the Golden Temple. The Indian Army was ordered to attack
the Golden Temple to establish control over Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and what the Indian government perceived
to be Sikh terrorists. See Radhika Chopra, "1984 – Disinterred Memories," Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture,
Theory, vol. 11, no. 3 (2015), 306 and Radhika Chopra,” A Museum, A Memorial, and A Martyr," Sikh Formations:
Religion, Culture, Theory, vol. 9, no. 2 (2013), 97 for more information.
177
Ching Lee, “Sikhs remember carnage,” Appeal-Democrat, November 22, 2004, accessed July 27, 2018,
https://www.ensaaf.org/home/news/media/Appeal-Democrat.pdf.
178
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.

69
religious, political, and social contexts, setting the precedent for two additional gurdwaras to
open in Yuba-Sutter as well.
179

Comparative Analysis
Beyond a local and regional history, the Yuba City Gurdwara cannot be understood
without situating the gurdwara in a global context. The Sri Harimandir Sahib, more commonly
known as the Golden Temple, and the city it is situated in, Amritsar, serves as the most
prominent case study for understanding the transmission of religious heritage from Punjab to the
United States, and how it is has specifically manifested itself in the Yuba City Gurdwara.
Amritsar, Punjab is a fortified city located along the Grand Trunk Road, near the
Pakistan border.
180
Amritsar was founded in 1577 A.D. by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh
guru.
181
The city of Amritsar developed around the excavation of the Sarovar, or the water
surrounding the Golden Temple. Guru Ram Das had founded a settlement where Amritsar sits
today initially called “Guru Ka Chak,” and he eventually began the process of digging for the
tank.
182
The settlement around the tank grew in terms of population and resources and the town
became known as Ramdaspur.
183
Guru Ram Das deemed this new village the seat of the Sikh
faith, influencing its growth over the years into a pilgrimage site for Sikhs.
184
Guru Ram Das’
successor Guru Arjun began the task of constructing the Golden Temple at the center of the
Sarovar well after the establishment of Amritsar.
185
The construction of the temple became an
ongoing process, with various historical figures adding to it. Maharaja Ranjit Singh facilitated
the addition of gold cladding around the entire temple. He also incorporated a marble floor
around the Sarovar, which encloses the Golden Temple.
186
(Figure 4.32)

179
Julie Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town, 79.
180
Balvinder Singh, "Redevelopment and Conservation: The Case of Amritsar," Context, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2012), 35.
181
J. S. Bawa, The Heritage of Amritsar (Amritsar: Faqir Singh, 1978), 5.
182
Sodhi Hazara Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar (Amritsar, India: Bazar Mai Sewan,
1938), 18.
183
Jakobsh, Sikhism, 26.
184
H.H. Cole, Major R.E., "Golden Temple at Amritsar, Punjab," The Journal of Indian Art, 1886-1916, October
1980, 40.
185
Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, 20.
186
Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, 89-90.

70

Figure 4.32: Golden Temple, Amritsar, December 2017. Photo from author’s family’s personal
photograph collection.

71

Throughout the history of Amritsar from its founding to its various phases of
construction, it has become a distinguished city due to the manner in which religion permeates
every aspect of life within this metropolis.
187
Kirtan is performed continuously inside the Golden
Temple until its closure for the day.
188
The marble walkway surrounding the Sarovar, called the
Parikarma or “encircling walkway,” has a tradition of its own with visitors walking around the
Sarovar in a clockwise manner and visiting sites of importance to the Sikh religion along the
way.
189
The Langar hall, or community kitchen, is an additional aspect of the temple complex
that manifests both tangible and intangible aspects. Located to the east of the Golden Temple,

187
Bawa, The Heritage of Amritsar, 37.
188
Satbir Singh, "Daily Routine of Golden Temple Amritsar," Sri Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple, Amritsar),
accessed May 5, 2018, http://www.goldentempleamritsar.org/daily-routine-of-sri-harmandir-sahib.php.
189
Allenwalla, "New Plan of Harmandar,” Sikh Wiki: Encyclomedia of the Sikhs, September 3, 2008, accessed May
5, 2018, http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/File:New-Plan-of-Harmandar-rp.jpg.
Figure 4.33: Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar, 2013. Photo by Sunkata Pal, October 13, 2013, Wikimedia
Commons, (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jallianwala_Bagh,_Punjab.jpg).

72
Langar is a critical component of the Sikh religion where free meals prepared by volunteers are
served to anyone regardless of ethnicity, caste, or age.
190

Amritsar and the Golden Temple are two of the most importance pieces of heritage to the
Punjabi Sikh community in India. The process by which Punjabi Sikhs immigrants in the United
States have appropriated and adapted certain elements of the Golden Temple to their micro
communities exemplifies the importance Amritsar holds for these immigrant communities as it
does for those back in Punjab. Several central elements in the Golden Temple are found in the
Yuba City Gurdwara that have been appropriated in a way to shape itself to the Yuba-Sutter
Punjabi Sikh community. The Darbar Sahib, or main prayer hall, is the first shared characteristic
between the Golden Temple and Yuba City Gurdwara. This overlap goes beyond the design or
morphology of the space, it is the idea of it being the heart of the gurdwara complex and the
sanctuary of the Guru Granth Sahib. Although kirtan is not continuously performed in the Yuba
City Gurdwara like it is at the Golden Temple, the idea of kirtan and the recitation of the Guru
Granth Sahib as a mode to transmit the religious and spiritual elements of the Sikh religion is
still part of the Yuba City Gurdwara’s regular pattern. The Langar Hall is another similar aspect
between the Golden Temple and the Yuba City Gurdwara. Again, it goes beyond the design or
location of the Langar Hall, rather it is what the idea of langar stands for and its role as one of the
key components of the Sikh religion. The idea of equality, selflessness, and philanthropy evoked
by the Langar Hall is an element the Punjabi Sikh immigrants of Yuba-Sutter have incorporated
into their house of worship.
A comparison of the Jallianwala Bagh and the Mata Gujri Rose Garden also reveal how
features of the bagh or garden in Amritsar have been incorporated into the meaning and function
of the Yuba City Gurdwara’s rose garden. On April 13, 1919 during the period of British rule, a
large crowd assembled at the Jallianwala Bagh garden was violently massacred by the British.
191

In 1960, the Jallianwala Bagh became a memorial site and landmark. (Figure 4.33) Artwork and
historic documentation of the 1919 massacre are depicted in the park as educational tools.
192
The
Mata Gurji Rose garden utilizes this idea of merging Sikh history into a landscaped public space.
The garden blends the commemoration of a historical Sikh figure, Mata Gujri, with the

190
Allenwalla, "New Plan of Harmandar,” Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, 19.
191
Derek Sayer, "British Reaction To The Amritsar Massacre, 1919–1920," Past and Present, no. 131 (May 1991),
130-131.
192
CRCI (India) Pvt. Ltd. And IPE Global PVT Ltd., City HRIDAY Plan for Amritsar, Volume I, February 2016,
accessed April 15, 2018, http://hridayindia.in/downloads/chp/amritsar/CHP_for_Amritsar_Volume_I.pdf, 67.

73
simultaneous remembrance of those that have made significant contributions to the Punjabi
community of Yuba-Sutter.
The primary difference between the Golden Temple and the Yuba City Gurdwara is the
absence of the Sarovar or tank that surrounds the Golden Temple. Comparing the urban,
metropolis context of Amritsar versus the rural landscape of Yuba-Sutter provides a possible
justification for this. The spirituality of the Sarovar is something unique to the Golden Temple
and a central component of its authenticity. It demonstrates how transnational immigrant
communities pick and choose the heritage of their homeland that they wish to incorporate into
their built environment, paying tribute to their homeland and the community they have built in
the United States.
This comparative analysis reveals the way heritage shapes and forms for transnational
immigrant communities, taking precedent from the country of origin while existing in its own
right and as its own authentic form of heritage in the diaspora. The Golden Temple as one of the
most significant gurdwaras and religious sites for Punjabi Sikhs serves as a model with both
tangible and intangible aspects that the Yuba-Sutter community has reformulated into their own
religious center. A broad overview of the religious, spiritual, and functional components of the
Golden Temple helps create a contextual framework that explains the manner in which the Yuba
City Gurdwara developed and operates today.

Significance
The Yuba City Gurdwara is significant for its role as the first and most prominent
religious space for Punjabis in Yuba-Sutter that are of the Sikh faith, which the majority of the
Punjabi immigrants are. While the design is interesting with elements stemming from Indo-
Islamic architecture, it is the Yuba City Gurdwara’s role as a community resource that makes it
significant rather than its aesthetic. The Yuba City Gurdwara was the first gurdwara to open in
Yuba-Sutter, making it a valuable asset for the community who previously traveled more than
ninety miles to Stockton to participate in religious events.
193
Tracing the physical evolution of the

193
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 11; Nicole Ranganath,
“Yuba City Gurdwara,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed May 25, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/tierra-buena-temple/.
The first gurdwara to open in California and the Northern California region was the Stockton Gurdwara, the second
to open in California was the El Centro Gurdwara. The Yuba City Gurdwara was the second gurdwara to open in the
Northern California region.

74
gurdwara exemplifies how it has grown from the main prayer hall and Langar Hall to
incorporating ancillary structures that would come to form an overall gurdwara complex. The
addition of an entire wing dedicated to in-house residence quarters for the priests, a Punjabi
school, various community meeting rooms, Dasmesh hall, and the Mata Gurji Rose Garden
signify how the Yuba City Gurdwara began to transform into more than just a place to conduct
religious services, but become a community facility for local Punjabis and a repository of their
heritage.
Temples play a crucial role in connecting the homeland and the diaspora through the
rituals and traditions practiced in these spaces. This is especially seen when looking to the
Golden Temple and Amritsar for an originating precedent. The heritage practices of the Punjabi
community as followers of the Sikh faith, but even just as the Punjabi ethnic group, are
embedded in the physical fabric of the Yuba City Gurdwara. This is especially seen with the
various religious and social functions embodied in the different spaces of the gurdwara complex.
The recitation of the Guru Granth Sahib in the main prayer hall forms the religious core of the
gurdwara, as seen with the first Akand Path done at the Yuba City Gurdwara in 1970, where the
Guru Granth Sahib was read continuously.
194
Other religious and cultural events such as
weddings also frequently take place at the gurdwara. The documentary Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of
Yuba City, depicts the multifaceted role of the gurdwara for various members of the community.
For instance, the gurdwara also serves as a recreational area for children to play in the basketball
courts and fields surrounding the temple.
195
In the Langar Hall, not only is the fundamental idea
of equality transmitted through the operation of this free kitchen, but members of the community,
especially women, volunteer their time to prepare food and form social networks throughout the
process.
196

Today, the gurdwara is still a vibrant cultural resource that is the cornerstone of the
Punjabi community. The gurdwara is significant for the story it tells of the Punjabi Sikh residents
of Yuba-Sutter and the resource it serves as for every-day religious and social life, as well as
more prominent events. The site is more than just a temple and place to pray, it’s a place for

194
Brar, “East Indians of Sutter County,” 22.
195
Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.
196
Allenwalla, "New Plan of Harmandar,” Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, 19; Sweet
Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City, 1985.

75
community gathering, forming networks, volunteering, socializing, for children to play, and it
represents the success the Punjabi community has achieved in overcoming immigration obstacles
and building a life for themselves in this community. Finally, it speaks to how transnational
immigrant groups maintain connections to the homeland as revealed by the continuity and
differences between the Golden Temple and Yuba City Gurdwara. The Yuba-Sutter Punjabi
community has adopted specific elements of the Golden Temple and the religious heritage they
value in Punjab to create the Yuba City Gurdwara and continue the religious traditions they
practiced in Punjab while creating a gurdwara in the landscape of Yuba-Sutter that specifically
serves their community. This gurdwara was the first religious space serving the prominent
Punjabi Sikh population settling in Yuba-Sutter. It has evolved into the anchor that unites the
Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter, becoming a crucial part of their identity, demonstrating its
significance as a cultural asset and its representation of the history of Yuba-Sutter’s Punjabi
community as well as originating heritage practices in Punjab.

76
Chapter 5: The Yuba City Nagar Kirtan Procession

Introduction
With the establishment of the Yuba City Gurdwara in 1969, Yuba-Sutter not only built a
solid religious foundation for Punjabi immigrants of the Sikh faith by creating their first religious
structure, they also set the stage for a domino effect of additional religious growth to occur
through tangible and intangible traditions. The most prominent heritage practice is the annual
Yuba City Nagar Kirtan held every November. Kirtan is a general term for praising through
religious hymns. In the context of the Sikh religion, this form of heritage is often defined as a
practice that is predominantly musical. However, the manner in which kirtan is performed,
though having musical elements, is also a form of conserving the history of the Sikh religion.
197

In the context of the Nagar Kirtan, this tradition is the act of performing kirtan through a
procession in a public setting such as a local town or neighborhood.
198
Yuba City had its first
Nagar Kirtan in 1979 and it has occurred annually every year since then, evolving in multiple
aspects from its route, to its events, to its attendance.
199
Interviews with long-time residents and
contributors to the Nagar Kirtan, newspaper articles, historical photographs, and scholarly work
on the Sikh religion piece together the story of this phenomenal piece of both tangible and
intangible heritage and its role in place-making for the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi Sikh community.

Description of Resource
200

The description of the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan is based on the author’s observations
made during the weekend of the event. Having gone to multiple Nagar Kirtan processions
throughout the years, this event was not just a homecoming but also a chance to analyze the
procession through a heritage conservation lens. This analysis is based on the experience as a
bystander among the crowd engaging with the various religious and cultural events with an
emphasis on Sunday’s procession.
The Yuba City Nagar Kirtan is just one of many events that take place during the first
weekend of November. The Yuba City Gurdwara schedules this event during the weekend of

197
Bhai Baldeep Singh, "What Is Kirtan?: Observations, Interventions, and Personal Reflections," Sikh Formations:
Religion, Culture, Theory, Vol. 7, No. 3 (2011), 240; 247.
198
H.S. Sangha, The Encyclopedia of Sikhism (over 1000 entries), 150.
199
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018.
200
For the purposes of describing the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan, the description will focus on the procession and route
itself with general descriptions regarding the surrounding activities and events.

77
Guru Gaddi or the annual date of when the Guru Granth Sahib became the last and eternal
Guru.
201
The most recent Yuba City Nagar Kirtan on November 5, 2017 began Friday night with
kirtan in the gurdwara and followed by fireworks. Saturday morning, beginning at 9 a.m., the
official flag for Sikhs, known as the Nishan Sahib, was raised. The rest of Saturday consisted of
vendors and businesses creating a makeshift shopping market with tables and tents in the
gurdwara parking lot. Seminars, a tour of the gurdwara, and kirtan were recited throughout
Saturday. Sunday, the same shopping market continued to operate outside of the gurdwara. The
main event for Sunday was the Nagar Kirtan with the procession lasting from approximately 11
a.m. to 4 p.m. and concluding the end of the weekend commemorating Guru Gaddi.
202

The Nagar Kirtan procession begins in front of the Yuba City Gurdwara on Tierra Buena
Road. The procession is a mix of logistical, religious, and social components. A series of
decorated floats comprise the tangible aspects of this procession. Security measures are taken
due to the size of attendance and its public nature. Hovering at a distance ahead of the procession
is the local police department in their cars. (Figure 5.1) The front of the procession is marked by
several men clothed in blue carrying a sign that reads, “Welcome to the Yuba City Sikh Parade.”
These individuals serve as the public face of the procession as messengers relaying a description
of the event taking place to the community. Several men behind them, also clothed in blue, are
carrying the American flag and California flag. Behind them are men clothed in orange carrying
the Nishan Sahib, or Sikh flag, signifying that the procession is being put on by members of the
Sikh faith. Orange and blue are both important colors in the Sikh religion that are reserved for
religious events.
203
The combination of the American flag, California flag, and Nishan Sahib also
denotes that this is an immigrant community with ties to both India and the United States,
distinguishing it from Nagar Kirtan processions happening in different parts of the world. (Figure
5.2)

201
Sukhmandir Khalsa, “Yuba City Annual Sikh Parade Illustrated,” ThoughtCo., March 18, 2017, accessed May
15, 2017, https://www.thoughtco.com/yuba-city-annual-sikh-parade-illustrated-4123259.
202
Kayla Webster, “Sikh Festival and Parade: All of the work that goes into it,” Appeal-Democrat, November 2,
2017, accessed May 15, 2017, http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/sikh-festival-and-parade-all-of-the-work-that-
goes/article_992737b0-c044-11e7-8c62-63c671e90d96.html?referer_url=/news/sikh-festival-and-parade-all-of-the-
work-that-goes/article_992737b0-c044-11e7-8c62-63c671e90d96.html; Surinder Singh Bakshi, Sikhs in the
Diaspora: A Modern Guide to The Practice of Sikh Faith: A Knowledge Compendium for the Global Age (Amritsar:
Singh Bros, 2010), 18.
203
Parul Bhatti, “Significance of Color in Sikh Turbans.”

78

Figure 5.1: Sheriff distantly located at the front of the
Nagar Kirtan procession. November 2017. Photo by
author.
Figure 5.2: Sign for Nagar Kirtan and various men holding the Nishan Sahib,
American Flag, and California flag, November 2017. Photo by author.

79
The beginning of the religious component of the procession is led by five men, known as
the Panch Piyare, or five beloved. (Figure 5.3) These five men are visual representations of the
historical event of the first five individuals baptized into the Sikh faith. In 1699, Guru Gobind
Singh, the tenth guru, ordered a gathering on Baisakhi. He asked for five volunteers to sacrifice
themselves. Although to those watching the five volunteers appeared to have been beheaded,
Guru Gobind Singh had in fact returned with goat’s blood creating the illusion that the five men
had been sacrificed. At the end, the five men that volunteered returned and the Guru
commemorated them as the Panch Piyare, or five beloved. These were the first five individuals
to be baptized into the Sikh faith and the official creation of the Khalsa. Basaikhi is therefore
known not just as the annual beginning of the Sikh calendar and harvest season, it also has
religious significance.
204
Khalsa translates to “pure” which is representative of how this order
created by Guru Gobind Sikh signified a pivotal turning point in Sikh history and religion.
Following the Rahit, or set of guidelines collectively known as the “Rahit namas,” this new order
became a distinguished set of followers of the Sikh religion in comparison to the rest of the Sikh
community.
205
These followers are seen as being rebirthed physically and spiritually severing
ties to their caste, career, former religious practices, etc.
206
Nagar Kirtans around the world vary
slightly on the days they take place. In general, they occur on days of significance for the Sikh
faith, such as when Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa on Baisakhi.
207
It is a visual display,
homage, and tribute to the roots of their religion, such as the creation of the Khalsa. Local
volunteers sweep the street just in front of the Panch Piyare throughout the procession.

204
Singh, A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar, 55; Anita Ganeri and Mary Saunders, The First Book
of Festivals: A Resource Book (London: Evans, 2005), 17.
205
Louis E. Fenech, “The Khalsa and the Rahit,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies, ed. Pashaura Singh,
Louis E. Fenech (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 240.
206
Jagraj Singh, A Complete Guide to Sikhism (Chandigarh, India: Unistar Books, 2009), 93.
207
Gurveen Kaur Khurana, “The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora,” Sikhism in Global Context, ed. Pashaura Singh
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012), 229.

80

Following directly behind the Panch Piyare is the focal point of the Nagar Kirtan – the
Guru Granth Sahib. The same holy book of scriptures located in the main prayer hall of the
gurdwara is nestled in its own float and leads the entire procession. This is the centerpiece of the
entire event. The Guru Granth Sahib is considered the last and eternal guru for the Sikhs.
208
The
most embellished of the floats, the Guru Granth Sahib is surrounded by a teal colored cloth that
steps-down and drapes the base of the float. The inside of the float resembles the altar inside the
gurdwara where the Guru Granth Sahib is placed. The float is covered with a makeshift canopy
covered on top with royal blue and gold trim. Marigolds hang from the canopy serving as
additional decorative elements. One individual is seated behind the Guru Granth Sahib similar to
the granthi that sits behind the Guru Granth Sahib at the altar inside the gurdwara. In the
gurdwara, the granthi may be reciting from the Guru Granth Sahib but he can always be seen
waving a fan-like object called a chaur sahib. Made of yak hair, it is waved over the Guru Granth

208
Hari Singh Everest, “An Open Invitation,” Appeal Democrat, March 8, 1982, accessed May 20, 2017,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-303.
Figure 5.3: The Panch Piyare, or five beloved,
leading the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib,
November 2017. Photo by author.

81
Sahib as a sign of respect.
209
Similar to the gurdwara, the Guru Granth Sahib and kirtan is recited
throughout the procession and projected through speakers to the crowd. Additional seats are
located to the left and right of the Guru Granth Sahib continuing in rows towards the back of the
float. (Figure 5.4)

Although the procession is based on the principles of the Sikh faith, the Nagar Kirtan
brings together members of the Yuba-Sutter community hailing from diverse backgrounds as
well as Sikh communities from surrounding regions. Members of the navy and the marines can
be seen marching in the procession carrying the American flag. (Figure 5.5) Members of
gurdwaras from the broader northern California region also participate in the procession. One
such float decorated by the Sacramento Gurdwara follows behind in the series of floats in the
procession. A sign on the side of the float reads “Sacramento Sikh Society.” Hoisted on the

209
Michael Keene, New Steps in Religious Education, Book 2 (Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2003), 38; Kristina
Myrvold, Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities, and Representations, ed. Knut. A Jacobsen (Burlington, VT:
Ashgate Publishing, 2011), 431.
Figure 5.4: Main float holding the Guru Granth Sahib,
November 2017. Photo taken by author.

82
flatbed of a truck, these floats of additional gurdwaras and organizations embody a more
vernacular and industrial aesthetic compared to the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib. The
Sacramento Gurdwara’s float is composed of orange and blue metal panels on the side, blue
metal railings framing the float, and topped with an orange metal ceiling. (Figure 5.6) This float
demonstrates how the decoration and placement of the subsequent floats in the procession
remain secondary to the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib. The entire procession’s
morphology is oriented around the Guru Granth Sahib. The string of floats supports the main
float, following behind but allowing the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib to command
authority.

Figure 5.5: Members of the navy and marines
walking in the Nagar Kirtan procession, November
2017. Photo taken by author.

83

Crowds of people stand between the orchards lining Tierra Buena Road and the
procession itself. Although the intention is for the crowd to follow the procession in an orderly
fashion, groups of people hover and move around the procession trying to get the best view as
demonstrated by many attendees holding out their phone to capture a picture. People attending
are dressed casually with most women wearing a simple Indian suit and men in business casual
attire. However, an important component of the procession is everyone covers their head, just as
they would inside the gurdwara. Men cover their heads with a turban, or cloth bandana while
women cover their heads with a loose scarf known as a chunni. (Figure 5.7) Covering one’s head
is a fundamental aspect of the Sikh religion. This is why everyone covers their head while
Figure 5.6: Sacramento Gurdwara’s float in the Nagar
Kirtan procession, November 2017. Photo taken by
author.

84
following the procession, despite it being outside. Especially since they are in the presence of the
Guru Granth Sahib, this is seen as equivalent to being in the presence of God.
210

The current route begins at the Yuba City Gurdwara on Tierra Buena Road. Traveling
south on Tierra Buena Road, the procession then travels east onto Butte House Road. Next, it
travels south onto Civic Center Boulevard. It continues west onto Poole Boulevard, north onto
Tharp Road, and west back onto Butte House Road. Finally, the procession heads north back
onto Tierra Buena Road and ends at its original starting place, the Yuba City Gurdwara.
Although there does not appear to be any historic or cultural significance behind this specific
route, the current route was modified to bypass the neighborhoods it originally went through due
to noise complaints and instead travels through the city’s civic center.
211
The procession crosses
through both Yuba and Sutter County, covering a total of 4.5 miles.
212
(Figure 5.8) Additional

210
Satwant Kaur Rait, Sikh Women in England: Their Religious and Cultural Beliefs and Social Practices (Sterling,
VA: Trentham Books, 2005), 38.
211
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
212
“Map of 2017 Nagar Kirtan Route,” Yuba City Police Department.
Figure 5.7: View of part of crowd hovering
behind procession, note Punjabi attire and many
covering their head, November 2017. Photo taken
by author.

85
events and displays take place as well along the procession route, such as Gatka, or Sikh martial
arts.
213
(Figure 5.9)

213
Gurveen Kaur Khurana, “The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora,” 235; Kamalroop Singh, “Sikh Martial Art
(Gatka),” The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies, ed. Pashaura Singh, Louise E. Fenech (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2016), 459.
Figure 5.8: Map of Nagar Kirtan procession’s current route. Map adapted by author from
Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data ©Google.

86

The gurdwara itself plays a crucial role in the events not just for the Nagar Kirtan, but the
overall weekend. It is the central meeting place for the events and its facilities are utilized to
serve the tens of thousands attending the weekend’s events. Those unable to attend or walk the
entire route of the procession are able to engage in the weekend’s activities through the
gurdwara. Crowds of people can be seen gathered in and around the gurdwara complex, many
slowly making their way into the main prayer hall through the entrance vestibule. (Figure 5.10)
Inside the Darbar Sahib, or main prayer hall, almost every portion of the ground is filled with
individuals sitting and listening to kirtan. (Figure 5.11)

Figure 5.9: Gatka, or Sikh martial arts, often performed at Nagar Kirtan, 2008.
Photo by Jasleen Kaur, Wikimedia Commons, April 10, 2008,
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Gatka#/media/File:Gatka_at_Yu
ba_City.jpg).

87

Figure 5.10: Main entrance of Yuba City Gurdwara
during Nagar Kirtan weekend, November 2017.
Photo by author.
Figure 5.11: Darbar Sahib, or main prayer hall,
during Nagar Kirtan, November 2017. Photo taken by
author.

88
Commerce and food are the two main social aspects of the weekend. Set up in the in front
of Dashmesh Hall, the parking lot is transformed into an outdoor shopping market. Photos from a
recent Nagar Kirtan display volunteers preparing food in the parking such as peeling onions or
making roti, the traditional wheat based tortilla that is a staple of Punjabi cuisine.
214
(Figure 5.12
and 5.13) Many also gather to shop for clothes, fabrics, and shoes as well.
215
(Figure 5.14) The
continuation of Punjabi immigrants wearing Punjabi attire including dresses or turbans allow
them physically represent themselves as belonging to the Punjabi ethnic group in the American
landscape.
216
The Langar Hall, or community kitchen, serves thousands of free meals for the
weekend with many volunteers donating supplies and helping prepare food.
217

214
“Festival: Sikh culture celebrated at bevy of events on big weekend,” Marysville Appeal-Democrat, November 6,
2016, accessed May 25, 2018, https://www.pressreader.com/usa/marysville-appeal-
democrat/20161106/281608124998782.
215
Festival: Sikh culture celebrated at bevy of events on big weekend,” Marysville Appeal-Democrat.
216
Anjali Gera Roy, Imperialism and Sikh Migration: The Komagata Maru Incident (London: Routledge, 2018), 88.
217
Punjabi American Heritage Society, “The 2000 Yuba City Sikh Parade – PAHS Press Release,” Punjabi
American Heritage Society, accessed May 27, 2018, http://www.punjabiheritage.org/2000/11/01/the-2000-yuba-
city-sikh-parade-pahs-press-release/.
Figure 5.12: Women peeling onions to help prepare food for Nagar Kirtan, 2016.
Photo from “Festival: Sikh culture celebrated at bevy of events on big weekend,”
Marysville Appeal-Democrat, November 6, 2016, pg. A1,
(https://www.pressreader.com/usa/marysville-appeal-
democrat/20161106/281608124998782).

89

Figure 5.13: Volunteers preparing traditional flatbread for Nagar Kirtan.
Photo from “Festival: Sikh culture celebrated at bevy of events on big
weekend,” Marysville Appeal-Democrat, November 6, 2016, pg. A1,
(https://www.pressreader.com/usa/marysville-appeal-
democrat/20161106/281608124998782).
Figure 5.14: Outdoor shopping markets set up in parking lot of gurdwara.
Photo from “Festival: Sikh culture celebrated at bevy of events on big
weekend,” Marysville Appeal-Democrat, November 6, 2016, pg. A1,
(https://www.pressreader.com/usa/marysville-appeal-
democrat/20161106/281608124998782).

90
History
The first known Nagar Kirtan in North America occurred in Canada on January 19, 1908
after the passage of the Continuous Journey regulation and the construction of the first gurdwara
in Vancouver. This event combined a religious observance with a political stance protest for the
Canadian Sikh community that had been facing discriminatory practices.
218
Nagar Kirtans have
also historically occurred in the United States. Prominent Punjabi communities on the east coast
began the 1988 “New York Vaisakhi parade.” This event also aligns with Guru Gobind Singh’s
formation of the Khalsa and serves as an educational tool for community members that are not
knowledgeable about the Sikh religion.
219
A similar event is held in Queens by the Sikh Cultural
Society.
220
Nagar Kirtans have also occurred in Europe. The first Nagar Kirtan in Noveralla,
Italy, occurred in 2004 during Baiskahi. Although small in size in comparison to other Nagar
Kirtans with 5,000 attendees, the Sikh population of this town was able to create a platform for
themselves in the public sphere of Noveralla, increasing their visibility as a community to
broader society that may be unaware of their presence or know little about the Sikh religion.
221

The Yuba City Nagar Kirtan began as a collective idea among the members running the
gurdwara and serving on the temple committee at the time. Many of the members, such as Didar
Singh Bains, Mehar Singh Tumber, and Gulzar Singh Johl discussed the idea of starting their
own Nagar Kirtan upon seeing the Nagar Kirtan in Vancouver, Canada. The facilitation of a
weekend full of events, including the procession, was a tremendous task to take on and it took
collaboration between members of the committee to bring this idea to life.
222
Given the gurdwara
had been operating for about a decade, the framework was already set to create the Nagar Kirtan
and for the gurdwara to begin celebrating religious events at a larger scale. On November 1980,
the Yuba City Gurdwara had its very first Nagar Kirtan. At the time, the route began at the Yuba
City Gurdwara and traveled south on Tierra Buena Road. It proceeded east on Butte House

218
Anjali Gera Roy, Imperialism and Sikh Migration: The Komagata Maru Incident, 116; “Sikh Canadian History,”
ExplorAsian: Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Festival, accessed May 27, 2018,
https://explorasian.org/learn/education/sikh-canadian/.
219
Gurinder Singh Mann, Paul Numrich, and Raymond Williams, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America: A Short
History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 123.
220
Pyong Gap Min, Preserving Ethnicity Through Religion in America: Korean Protestants and Indian Hindus
Across Generations (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 66.
221
Ester Gallo, Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspective on South Asian Experience (London:
Routledge, 2016), 182.
222
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5, 2018; Nicole Ranganath,
"Yuba City’s Sikh Parade," UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed May 27, 2018
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/yuba-citys-sikh-parade/.

91
Road, took a left onto Stabler Lane, and traveled through the neighborhoods surrounding Stabler
Lane back to the gurdwara.
223
(Figure 5.15)

Although the route has since changed due to complaints by the neighborhood residents,
many of the fundamental traditions tied to the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan stem back to this original
route. The Tumber family, a prominent family in the post-1947 Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community,
began an important tradition relating to food served during the Nagar Kirtan. During the original
route, the procession would pass their house. The Tumber family began putting out a table with
food and refreshments for those walking along with the Nagar Kirtan procession. (Figure 5.16)
At the time, nobody else was setting up tables with food for attendees to refuel and refresh
during the long walk. This led to the tradition of free food being set up to give out to attendees
for years to come by various families located along the route as well.
224

223
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
224
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
Figure 5.15: Map showing approximate original route of Nagar Kirtan procession.
Map adapted by author from Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data ©Google.

92

Figure 5.16: Refreshments set up outside Tumber residence for Yuba City Nagar Kirtan,
early 1980s. Photo courtesy of UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive and the Tumber family
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/meha-tumber/).

Historical photos of the Nagar Kirtan during the early 1980s show how many of these
traditions have carried into present day and have only expanded in size. A photograph from the
first Nagar Kirtan shows the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib decorated in an embellished
manner just as it is today. (Figure 5.17) An additional photo from 1984 shows the Panch Piyare
leading the procession and being adorned with marigold garlands. (Figure 5.18) This
demonstrates how the historical event of the first five individuals being baptized into the Sikh
faith has remained the fundamental religious event from which the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan
stems from and the subsequent use of the procession as a platform for the public, visual display
of this event.

93

Figure 5.17: First Nagar Kirtan in 1980. Photo courtesy of Punjabi American
Heritage Society, (http://www.punjabipioneers.com/exhibits/Traditions).

Figure 5.18; Panch Piyare, Yuba City Nagar Kirtan, 1984. Photo courtesy of UC Davis
Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive and the Tumber Family,
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/meha-tumber/).

94
Newspaper articles dating back to the early years of the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan signify
the impact this event has had not just in a religious sense, but socially, politically, and
commercially by enabling Yuba-Sutter to engage with other Punjabi Sikh communities in the
northern California region. A letter by Hari Singh Everest, long-time educator and contributor to
the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi Sikh community, expresses his and the community’s success at the 1982
Yuba City Nagar Kirtan. He describes the event as the “274
th
Coronation Anniversary of the Sri
Guru Granth Sahib Ji.” Despite the changes in the procession and events over the years, this
article demonstrates how the religious significance behind the Nagar Kirtan has remained
consistent and united the event as a whole over time.
225
He also thanks the additional gurdwaras
that participated, indicating how the Nagar Kirtan has allowed the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi Sikh
community to create a network with other religious centers and Punjabi Sikhs in northern
California.
226
With the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan serving as an annual gathering place for other
gurdwaras in the broader region, the presence of its Punjabi community became more visible and
put Yuba-Sutter on the map as an area known for its Punjabi population.
The Nagar Kirtan has also been subject to political pressure during times of difficulties
both in India and the United States. The year 1984 is the most prominent of these politically
charged times, showing how experiences in the diaspora are affected by events in the homeland
and how these historic events can translate into the built environment. From June 5
th
to June 7
th
,
1984 Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to attack the Golden Temple in
Amritsar to establish control over Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and what the Indian government
perceived to be Sikh terrorists under Bhindranwale’s leadership.
227
Known as Operation
Bluestar, after the army’s attack, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated, leading to the
Delhi Riots and a cycle of political and religious violence to continue in India.
228

These traumatic events affected Punjabis living in the United States as well. During the
Yuba City Nagar Kirtan of 1984, much of the media and many journalists anticipated unrest at
the event. Crowds of local reporters and camera crews gathered and the police department
implemented extra safety precautions. However, the Nagar Kirtan unfolded peacefully and

225
Hari Singh Everest, “Sikh Parade,” India West, Nov 26, 1982, pg. 5, accessed May 27, 2018,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-308.
226
Hari Singh Everest, “Sikh Parade.”
227
Radhika Chopra, "1984 – Disinterred Memories," Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, vol. 11, no. 3
(2015), 306; Radhika Chopra, "A Museum, A Memorial, and A Martyr," Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture,
Theory, vol. 9, no. 2 (2013), 97.
228
Radhika Chopra, "1984 – Disinterred Memories,” 309.

95
without any issues, just as it had in its preceding years. Locals behind the planning of the Nagar
Kirtan, such as Hari Singh Everest, expressed that the events in India had affected many Punjabis
living in Yuba-Sutter.
229
The debate and conversations occurring during the Nagar Kirtan of
1984 show how heritage that evolves over time can be reflective of the political and social
atmosphere both in their local community and in the homeland.
Volunteers are a critical component in ensuring the smooth operation of the Yuba City
Nagar Kirtan every year. Their contributions have become more integral to the event as the
Nagar Kirtan has increased in size over time. These volunteers help keep those walking along the
procession in an orderly fashion as best they can, as well as cleaning up during the procession.
The day following the Nagar Kirtan is dedicated to cleaning up any litter or debris left after the
event.
230
These volunteers are often times local residents of the Yuba-Sutter community and
participating even in the logistical matters of the event gives them a chance to engage with other
Punjabi Sikhs as well as dedicate their service and time to their community. Known as seva,
meaning a selfless service or act of volunteering, the idea behind these philanthropic acts is a
fundamental idea in the Sikh faith through which one shows their dedication to their community
and their faith.
231

By 2000, nearly two decades after the first Nagar Kirtan, approximately 40,000 to 50,000
people attended the event.
232
By 2015, the numbers reached 80,000 in attendance and over the
years, more members outside of Yuba-Sutter attend the annual event as tourists, putting Yuba-
Sutter on the map.
233
Today, approximately over 100,000 attend the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan
from all over the United States and Canada and it has become one of the largest Nagar Kirtans
and processions put on by South Asian Americans in the nation.
234

229
Christine Leyser, “Yuba City Sikh Parade Foils Expectations,” India West, November 9, 1984, accessed May 30,
2018, http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-
305.
230
Hari Singh Everest, “The Sikh Parade,” The Appeal-Democrat, November 14, 1992, accessed May 30, 2018,
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-309.
231
Gurmit Singh Virdee, "Labour of Love: Kar Seva at Darbar Sahib’s Amrit Sarover," Sikh Formations: Religion,
Culture, Theory, vol. 1, no. 1 (June 2005), 13.
232
Punjabi American Heritage Society, “The 2000 Yuba City Sikh Parade – PAHS Press Release.”
233
Andrew Creasey, “Sikh festival bringing a parade of activity,” Appeal-Democrat, October 26, 2015, accessed
May 26, 2018, https://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/sikh-festival-bringing-a-parade-of-
activity/article_9eca6e30-7c71-11e5-a74c-77a4a2c2ec4d.html.
234
Sukhmandir Khalsa, “Yuba City Annual Sikh Parade Illustrated;” Nicole Ranganath, "1965-1983: Community
Revival,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, accessed May 27, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/eras/1965-1983/.

96
Comparative Analysis
Nagar Kirtans happen all over the world today, from India, to the United States, to
Canada. Its origins stem from the Sikh religion and the celebration of Gurupurabs in India.
Gurupurab is a general term for a significant day in the Sikh religion, either associated with the
births or deaths of the ten gurus, or other historical events with religious significance such as the
founding of the Khalsa order.
235
In general, the manner in which a Gurupurab is commemorated
and the different celebratory and religious aspects it entails are common across the board, despite
the specific event they are being celebrated for being different. The city of Amritsar, Punjab and
its most significant landmark, the Golden Temple, provide an excellent case study for how a
Gurupurab takes places, the role of the Nagar Kirtan in this overall event, and how the Yuba City
Nagar Kirtan is similar to and differs from its counterpart in Punjab.
The Golden Temple’s schedule lists the various events for which a Gurupurab is
celebrated ranging from the birthdates of the ten gurus, to their appointment to the guruship, to
their deaths.
236
In general, a Gurupurab begins with the continuous recitation of the Guru Granth
Sahib, known as Akand Path. The Akand Path is a key intangible component that the Yuba City
Nagar Kirtan and overall Guru Gaddi also incorporates throughout the weekend. This is the
spiritual core of the weekend’s festivities and its intangible nature has made it an easy element
for Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter to carry over from Punjab.
237

Typically, a Nagar Kirtan takes place a day before a Gurupurab as a “public procession”
where the Guru Granth Sahib is transported on a decorated float.
238
The Gurupurab held for Guru
Nanak in Amritsar provides a comparison for how the Nagar Kirtan held in this holy city
compares to the Nagar Kirtan in Yuba-Sutter. In this case, the Nagar Kirtan was held the day
before the Gurupurab serving as a preliminary event. In contrast to the Yuba City Guru Gaddi,
the main day is filled with additional kirtan and religious events, but the idea of this procession
being the public face of the Sikh religion and its historical events is the same.
239
The main float
of the Nagar Kirtan with an embellished palanquin holding the Guru Granth Sahib leads the

235
Kartar Singh Bhalia, Let’s Know Festivals of India (New Delhi: Star Publications 2005), 20.
236
“Gurupurabs, Gurupurab Dates,” Sri Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple Amritsar), accessed May 25, 2018,
http://www.goldentempleamritsar.org/gurpurbs.php.
More comprehensive list for Gurupurab dates is found Kartar Singh Bhalia’s Let’s Know Festivals, pg. 20.
237
Bhalia, Let’s Know Festivals of India, 20; Harbans Singh Bhatia and Shiri Ram Bakshi, Religious Traditions of
Sikhs (New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 2000), 58.
238
Bhalia, Let’s Know Festivals of India, 20.
239
Bhalia, Let’s Know Festivals of India, 20.

97
procession. However, the palanquin is transported by devotees carrying the physical box-like
structure.
240
The Yuba-Sutter Nagar Kirtan instead places the palanquin on a vehicle-operated
float rather than it being carried by the public. This is likely due to Yuba-Sutter expanding the
Nagar Kirtan into a procession of multiple floats. The Nagar Kirtan in Amritsar appears to only
incorporate the palanquin with the Guru Granth Sahib, and not keeping it in its palanquin form
rather than incorporating it into a float.
241

Additional photographs reveal that gatka or Sikh martial arts are also performed during
the Amritsar Nagar Kirtan held for the Guru Nanak Gurupurab, almost identical to Yuba-Sutter’s
Nagar Kirtan. Finally, the Nagar Kirtan in Amritsar ends its route at the Golden Temple.
242
This
connection between the Nagar Kirtan and the gurdwara has also been adopted by the Yuba City
Nagar Kirtan which not only begins and ends at the Yuba City Gurdwara, but utilizes the
gurdwara space as the central meeting grounds for the weekend’s events. Various Nagar Kirtans
are held in Amritsar for different Gurupurabs throughout the year. However, this specific
example of the Nagar Kirtan held for the Guru Nanak Gurupurab in Amritsar demonstrates the
originating precedents and influences that resulted in the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan. The idea of
the continuous recitation of kirtan, the performance of gatka and other Sikh visual displays, and
the connection of the procession to the gurdwara are the three main elements that overlap
between Amritsar and Yuba-Sutter. The intangible nature of these aspects have not only made it
easier for the community of Yuba-Sutter to almost identically transplant these heritage practices
to the American landscape, it also reveals how intangible heritage operates within transnational
immigrant groups as an element provides a strong connection to both the homeland and the
diaspora. The specific route, the transportation of the Guru Granth Sahib, and the development of
the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan into a choreography composed of floats separates Amritsar and
Yuba-Suter.
While both processions share the same religious core, the Yuba-Sutter community has
molded their Nagar Kirtan to the agricultural environment of Yuba-Sutter rather than the urban
metropolis of Amritsar, resulting in the physical outcomes of the processions differing. Not only

240
“Nagar Kirtan taken out on eve of Gurpurb in City,” Tribune India, November 25, 2015, accessed May 25, 2018,
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/nagar-kirtan-taken-out-on-eve-of-gurpurb-in-city/162712.html.
241
Nagar Kirtan taken out on eve of Gurpurb in City,” Tribune India; “Sikh procession in Amritsar: Nagar Kirtan on
the 344
th
anniversary of the birth of Guru Gobind Singh, The Telegraph, accessed May 25, 2018,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/6932703/Sikhs-process-in-Amritsar-for-the-Nagar-
Kirtan-on-the-344th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-Guru-Gobind-Singh.html?image=6.
242
“Nagar Kirtan taken out on eve of Gurpurb in City,” Tribune India.

98
are they shaping the procession to fit their landscape, the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter is
creating a hybrid or blended procession that fits in the global context and history of Nagar
Kirtans but is still their own community’s authentic experience. It is crucial to remember that the
procession itself is just one part of the overall festivities of a Gurupurab and the Guru Gaddi to
commemorate significant events and dates in the Sikh religion. There are multiple facets to these
celebrations that involve both the public and private sphere, incorporating social, religious, and
commercial aspects.

Significance
Across the urban landscapes of various countries, religious heritage often contain both
tangible and intangible aspects. UNESCO began studying intangible heritage during the 1980s
and categorized this element as traditions, practices, and skills stemming from the manner in
which communities interact with their environment.
243
The relationship between these two forms
of heritage reveals how the tangible aspects of heritage often operate within the larger framework
of the intangible values associated with a space, as seen with religious heritage. The materiality
of religious heritage is a manifestation of the spirituality and sacredness associated with a space
or tradition. This phenomenon is especially seen with South Asian forms of heritage, given the
multiple layers of history, architectural elements, natural features, rituals, and traditions
contained in these places.
244
It is this interplay seen between the relationship of material and
abstract elements that results in South Asian religious heritage often blurring the boundaries
between tangible and intangible heritage. The Yuba City Nagar Kirtan is one such case study of
a religious heritage practice that is at the nexus of tangible and intangible heritage, representing
both Sikh history, the heritage of Punjab, as well the story of the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi
community.
The procession itself embodies both material and abstract elements. The floats, the
physicality of the Guru Granth Sahib book, and the role of the gurdwara in the procession are
material features. The choreography of the procession, the kirtan performed with the Guru
Granth Sahib, the gatka display, and the subsequent commemoration and transmission of the

243
Susan Keitumetse, "UNESCO 2003 Convention on Intangible Heritage: Practical Implications for Heritage
Management Approaches in Africa," The South African Archaeological Bulletin, vol. 61, no. 184 (2006), 166.
244
Vaisali Krishna Kumar, "Routledge Research in Landscape and Environmental Design," review of Cultural
Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management, accessed May 5, 2018,
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13527258.2017.1333523, 909.

99
Sikh religion in the public sphere is intangible, cannot be captured, and evolves over time. The
Yuba City Nagar Kirtan is a phenomenal transformation of the rural, agricultural landscape of
Yuba-Sutter. It gives the Punjabi Sikh community a platform through which they are able to
stake their claim in their own temporal and physical realm, also serving as a tool to bring
visibility to their community.
245
As a public display, the Nagar Kirtan also enables the Punjabis
of Yuba-Sutter to reconstitute their own community in Yuba-Sutter while maintaining a
connection to the homeland. In this way, the Nagar Kirtan is a repository for Sikh culture,
religion, and a vehicle through which those heritage practices are conserved.
246

The structure of the Nagar Kirtan over the years indicates that despite its evolution over
time, several fundamental elements remain in place. The Guru Granth Sahib is the religious
foundation for both the tangible and intangible aspects of the Nagar Kirtan. It is the main float
and its recitation is the overriding spiritual event for the weekend of Guru Gaddi.
247
Although the
manner in which the procession for Nagar Kirtans are carried out vary across the globe, the
relation of the procession to its environment and the activities going on within these ancillary
spaces also sheds light on how this piece of heritage plays a significant role in place-making for
the Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter. The Yuba City Gurdwara, an important site in itself,
serves as the starting point and ending point for the procession, despite changes in the
procession’s route. It is the anchor of the Nagar Kirtan and the focal point around which the
procession is oriented. Within the gurdwara grounds and complex, multiple layers of heritage
practices that are part of the overall Guru Gaddi event also take place such as shopping in the
bazaar set up in the parking lot, the preparation of free food, and seminars. The current route of
the Nagar Kirtan transitions from beginning in an agricultural landscape along Tierra Buena
Road to the civic and administrative center of Yuba City, allowing the message of the Sikh faith
and the visibility of their community to be expressed in the most public space in the city. Finally,
the Nagar Kirtan serves as a special homecoming for many Punjabi residents with ties to Yuba-
Sutter who may have moved outside of the area, reminding them and the general public of why

245
Khurana, “The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora,” 229.
246
Khurana, “The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora,” 229; 31.
247
Knut A. Jacobsen, South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions in South Asian and in the Diaspora
(London: Routledge, 2009), 150; 225.

100
Punjabis first settled in the agricultural region of Yuba-Sutter and how this area came to be the
first home of many Punjabi immigrants.
248

Furthermore, it demonstrates the critical role religion plays for transnational Punjabi Sikh
groups in helping them reconstitute their community in a new region while maintaining ties to
their country of origin.
249
The Nagar Kirtan is a unique phenomenon that allows the Yuba-Sutter
Punjabi community to negotiate their identity as a transnational immigrant community with the
Yuba-Sutter region as their laboratory. The blending of tangible and intangible elements
constitutes the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan as a short-lived and almost ephemeral experience that
pays homage to the Nagar Kirtan processions seen in Punjab while operating as its own unique
heritage practice representative of the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community. A comparative analysis
of the spiritual elements, physical appearance, and morphology of the Nagar Kirtan for the Guru
Nanak Gurupurab in Amritsar against the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan reveals how it is the intangible
aspects of the procession that the Yuba-Sutter community has duplicated in its community, while
creating their own variation of the physical appearance of the procession.
Through these religious, political, social, and economic avenues, the Punjabi community
of Yuba-Sutter is able to create their own cultural sphere in Yuba-Sutter through the procession
of the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan that is visible in the public domain, if only for the weekend. The
procession, its route, the activities that occur during the procession, and the secondary events
occurring at the gurdwara show how the Nagar Kirtan is a form of place-making which blurs the
line between tangible and intangible heritage, as well as the line between the private and public
sphere. It shows the prominence of the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter with thousands
attending both as local residents and visitors from out of town. The message and history of the
Sikh faith, as well as the settlement of the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter, is displayed
through this procession and transmitted to the community. Beyond its local and regional
significance, the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan demonstrates how intangible heritage creates links and
a network for transnational immigrant groups to the homeland. The Nagar Kirtan has become a
major component of the identity of the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter, a repository for the
Sikh faith, and the Punjabi culture, demonstrating its significance as a cultural resource and form
of both tangible and intangible heritage for the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community.

248
“80,000 People to Participate in Yuba City Sikh Parade,” India Abroad, November 23, 2007, A30.
249
Kristina Myrvold, Sikhs Across Borders: Transnational Practices of European Sikhs, ed. Knut. A Jacobsen
(London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), 3.

101
Chapter 6: The Punjab Bazaar

Introduction
In addition to the role that the agricultural industry and religious life has played in the
community building of Yuba-Sutter’s Punjabi population, commerce, specifically Punjabi
immigrants engagement with foodways, is also a critical component of this community’s history
and the formation of their identity. Although it is not the predominant economic sector that
Punjabi and early South Asian immigrants engaged in, there were several early South Asian
merchants and stores in Marysville.
250
However, it was not until the post-1947 period that the
Yuba-Sutter region saw the development of one of its most prominent, stable, and largest South
Asian grocery stores. The Punjab Bazaar opened its doors in 1964 and continues to operate today
in Yuba City.
251
Housed in a vernacular warehouse, the Punjab Bazaar has grown alongside the
post-1947 Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter, expanding in both its size and its wide range of
South Asian products. The Punjab Bazaar has evolved into more than just a place to purchase
South Asian grocery items, it has helped foster Punjabi heritage traditions and enabled the
process of place-making, shedding light on how vernacular sites of cultural significance build
connections between the homeland and diaspora to help define the identities of immigrant
communities.
252

Description of resource
The Punjab Bazaar is located at the corner of Poole Boulevard and Stabler Lane in Yuba
City. Situated at the northeast corner of a rectangular lot, it is set within a commercial and
industrial context with various businesses and retailers surrounding the building. (Figure 6.1)
Connected as one large building, the Punjab Bazaar is composed of two distinct masses. The first
and primary mass is where the main entrance to the building is found along Stabler Lane. The
front facade faces south rather than onto the street. This portion of the building is the only
entrance for customers and where the main retail and grocery items are located inside. It is
square shaped in plan, one-story in height and topped with a hipped roof. It has a horizontal
emphasis due to its low height and the low pitch of the roof.

250
See Allen P. Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, Manuscript,
1950 (UC Berkeley, South/Southeast Asia Library), pg. 97-98 for a description of these early businesses.
Several of these early businesses are described in detail in the history section of this chapter.
251
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
252
Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California,” 118; 127.

102

A trapezoid shaped sign is found at the front facade that reads “Punjab Bazaar Imported
Silky Fabrics, Groceries & Spices, Wholesale & Retail, Manufacturers of Various Flours.” A
Khalsa symbol is found just above this sign. Although the bazaar caters to more than just the
Punjabi Sikh population, given the predominant number of residents that are of Punjabi descent
and the Sikh faith, this sign welcomes them and indicates the market’s specialization in Punjabi
food, ingredients, and materials. The signage is characteristic of many South Asian ethnic
grocery stores that often incorporate large, plain signs that list the common products sold at the
store.
253
Two metal posts run from the base of the sign to the ground. The columns and trim of
the roof and sign are painted blue. The remainder of the building retains a plain, industrial look
with this portion of the bazaar clad with beige vertical vinyl siding. A pair of fully glazed doors
set within a metal frame serves as the main entrance for customers. Single pane storefront
windows flank both sides of the door. (Figure 6.2) Facing east onto Stabler Lane is the side
facade of this central mass of the entire building. At the center of this facade is a simple six panel
door that is no longer serves as a public entrance for customers. (Figure 6.3 and Figure 6.4) It

253
Arijit Sen, “Creative Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces,” InTensions Journal, Issue 2 (Spring
2009: 8, accessed May 23, 2018, http://www.yorku.ca/intent/issue2/articles/pdfs/ArijitSenArticle.pdf.
Figure 6.1: Aerial view of the Punjab Bazaar at 1190 Stabler Lane and
surrounding context. Map source: Imagery ©2018 Google, Map data
©2018 Google.

103
likely dates from when the building originally served as an office and warehouse when it was
first constructed.
254

254
“Permit #B4287,” July 10, 1979, City of Yuba City, Development Services Department.
Figure 6.2: Primary mass of overall bazaar, main entrance, and sign, May 2017. Photo
by author.
Figure 6.3: Side (east) facade along Stabler Lane, May 2017. Photo by author.

104

A surface parking lot is located in the southern portion of the site, with the main access to
the lot situated near the front entrance of the store. When one is traveling south on Stabler Lane
and turns right, they are greeted by a pair of operable metal gates. Beyond the gate is a narrow
strip of parking stalls set up diagonally. (Figure 6.5) The second mass composing the remainder
of the subject property is a warehouse connected to the primary, smaller mass. The second mass
is rectangular shaped in plan and is two-stories in height. It is clad with corrugated metal siding,
also the same beige color as the rest of the building. Two metal roll up doors are found on the
side facade of the warehouse that faces south towards the surface parking lot. The warehouse is
topped with a flat, metal roof. (Figure 6.6) The rear of the warehouse facing north onto Poole
Boulevard incorporates two additional metal roll up doors. There is a small bump out at the
center of the rear facade that maintains the same industrial look with corrugated metal siding and
a flat roof. (Figure 6.7) The side facade of the warehouse that faces east onto Stabler Lane and
connects with the smaller, main mass of the bazaar has a sign identical to the one found at the
front facade. Given the warehouse is taller in height than the central portion of the bazaar, this
sign is visible to those driving on Stabler Lane. (Figure 6.8) Although the warehouse is two
stories in height and has a larger massing and scale, it is set behind the main portion of the bazaar
and remains secondary to this central mass so it does not detract from it.
Figure 6.4: Detailed view of side (east) facade along Stabler Lane, May 2017.
Photo taken by author.

105

Figure 6.5: Surface parking lot directly south of the Punjab Bazaar, May 2017. Photo taken
by author.
Figure 6.6: Warehouse portion of bazaar, May 2017.
Photo taken by author)

106

The interior of the bazaar is divided into three main sections with the first section
dedicated to clothing, the second to food items, and the third to a warehouse and storage area.
Like many ethnic grocery stores, the morphology of the interior of the store seems disorganized
at first glance. However, it is actually an adaptable space with merchandise and products
following the ebb and flow of the community’s needs. In addition, the three portions of the
Figure 6.7: Rear (north) facade of the Punjab Bazaar facing north onto Poole Boulevard, September 2017. Photo
from Google street view, image capture Sep 2017, ©2018 Google.

Figure 6.8: Signage along side (east) facade, September 2017. Photo from Google street view, image capture Sep
2017, ©2018 Google.

107
interior of the bazaar integrates overlapping layers of both private and public spaces, each with
their own distinct experience as one moves through the store.
255
Upon entering the main entrance
doors, the cash register is found immediately to the right. This is considered the most public of
the spaces inside the store with customers gathered around the register waiting in line,
conversing with the store owners, or even with other customers.
Beyond the register in the eastern portion of the overall building is the first delineated
section of the store dedicated to clothing. Countless rolls of fabric set in drawers, stacked on
countertops, and on hangers are found scattered throughout this room. (Figure 6.9 and 6.10)
Despite appearing disorganized, the physical clutter of the fabric and clothing is representative of
shopping markets in Punjab. It creates a connection between the homeland and the diaspora,
evoking “place-based memories” of shopping and retail settings familiar to Punjabi
immigrants.
256
The bazaar specializes in selling fabrics for customers to choose from to have
custom-made Punjabi attire made, whether it is for casual everyday wear or for a special
occasion such as a wedding. There are also pre-packaged suits stacked throughout the room
ready to be sewn together by a tailor. (Figure 6.11) There are several clothing items that are more
casual, pre-made, and meant for everyday wear. Several racks around the center of the room and
along the wall are filled with hangers of various cardigans, vests, sweaters, and outwear. (Figure
6.12). Various accessories are also available for purchase such as bangles, necklaces, and
earrings. (Figure 6.13). Near the rear of the store is an internal set of stairs that are currently not
in use, but in front of the stairs are stacks of packaged blankets and comforters that combine with
the clothing section. (Figure 6.14) This intimate corner of the bazaar dedicated to a product
beyond grocery items shows the multifaceted nature of the Punjab Bazaar. The distinct
experience of feeling as if one is shopping in a bustling bazaar in Punjab is compartmentalized
into this one corner of the building, also demonstrating how ethnic grocery stores such as the
Punjab Bazaar can be a one-stop destination, offering more than just food items.
257

255
Arijit Sen, “Queens, South Asian Commercial Corridor: Decoding ethnicity in the Jackson Heights South Asian
shopping strip,” (paper presented at the Vernacular Architecture Forum Conference, New York City, June 2006), 6,
accessed May 12, 2018, https://senspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/jackson-heights-tour-vaf-booklet-scan.pdf.
256
Arijit Sen, “Food, place and memory: Bangladeshi fish stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago,” Food and Foodways:
Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment, 24, no. 1-2 (March 2016), 67, accessed May 20,
2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2016.1145026; Sen, “Queens, South Asian Commercial Corridor:
Decoding ethnicity in the Jackson Heights South Asian shopping strip,” 5.
257
Sen, “Creative Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces,” 12.

108

Figure 6.9: Rolls of imported fabric stacked in
drawers, April 2018. Photo by author.
Figure 6.10: Various imported fabric on hangers,
April 2018. Photo by author.

109

Figure 6.11: Pre-packaged suits, April 2018. Photo by author.
Figure 6.12: Sweaters, vests, cardigans, and various
outwear, April 2018. Photo taken by author.

110

Figure 6.13: Jewelry and various accessors, April 2018. Photo taken by author)

Figure 6.14: Stacks of imported blankets in front of
internal set of stairs, April 2018. Photo taken by author.

111
The second section of the bazaar is the heart of the entire store and showcases their
specialty in Punjabi groceries and ingredients. This section is located in the center of the overall
building near the main entrance doors and the cash register. Several aisles filled with shelves fill
this portion of the bazaar. The shelved are stacked with a wide range of Punjabi ingredients and
cooking items. One aisle is dedicated to packaged Punjabi biscuits, cookies, and snacks that are
often eaten with cha or traditional Indian tea. (Figure 6.15) The bulk of the food items are dried
and packaged lentils or beans. Daal (lentils) and channa (garbanzo beans) are a common staple of
Punjabi cuisine and multiple shelves in one aisle are dedicated to different kinds of daal such as
kala channa (black garbanzo beans), red lentils, moong daal, kabuli channa, and whole urad
among others. (Figure 6.16) Additional packaged items such as canned goods are also an
important part of the bazaar’s stock. Mango pulp, tamarind concentrate, and coconut cream are
among the canned items, sauces, and base products used for many recipes. Multiple kinds of
packaged teas are also found given that this is one of the most popular drinks for Punjabi and
overall South Asian cuisine. (Figure 6.17) Powders, leaves, and spices are additional key
products found on the shelves of the bazaar including turmeric, aflateen, korh tuma, amala
powder, lodh powder, ginger powder, methi leaves, and tulsi leaves. (Figure 6.18)

Figure 6.15: Various crackers, cookies, biscuits,
and snacks, April 2018. Photo by author.

112

Figure 6.16: Wide range of beans, lentils, and dried packaged goods, February 2018. Photo taken
by author.

Figure 6.17: Packaged teas and canned goods, March 2018. Photo by author.

113

Along the interior wall of the front facade of the building are refrigerated and frozen
goods, many items that are pre-made and can be heated on the stove or baked in the oven such as
frozen naan or samosas. Finally, near the center of the bazaar is an area dedicated to household
and hygiene items. Three shelves are filled with haircare products, mehndi, soaps, and South
Asian medicines. (Figure 6.19) As the center of the bazaar and the central circulation space that
sees the most foot traffic, this section connects all of the other spaces throughout the building,
appearing as the most public space inside the bazaar. However, the experience of this space blurs
the line between public and private for customers. One could be shopping alone, browsing
through the items while on the other hand one could also chat and socialize with other customers.
This space is also representative of the day to day lives of immigrants needing a small quantity
of items to mostly cook at home. Depending on the context, one can have a private experience in
this public space, or a public experience in this public space, demonstrating that it is not just the
convenience of buying South Asian products at the bazaar that makes this ethnic grocery store
special, but the experiences, social networks, and reformulated identities created in these spaces
by Punjabi immigrants.
258

258
Sen, “Food, place and memory: Bangladeshi fish stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago,” 71; Sen, “Creative
Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces,” 8.
Figure 6.18: Variety of leaves packaged in boxes, February 2018. Photo by author.

114

The western portion of the bazaar is the third and final section of the overall building.
Located in the warehouse section of the building, wholesale items, bulk items, and oversized
items are available for purchase in this area. The predominant item stored in the warehouse are
the specialty flours made by the bazaar. Various kinds of flours are stacked on wooden
platforms. White whole wheat flour, chana basin, and bhatura flour are just a few of the specialty
flours found in bulk. (Figure 6.20) The remainder of the warehouse area is full of floor to ceiling
shelves that house larger sized items. A large number of these products are cooking tools
including large pots, pans, tavas (flat frying pans used to make Punjabi roti), baking sheets, and
cooking utensils. (Figure 6.21 and 6.22) This is the third and final space contained within the
bazaar. Rather than being representative of the customs and rituals of day to day life like the
center of the bazaar, this section is representative of more ceremonial and festive events in the
lives of immigrants. Often times, items such as flour or cooking equipment are purchased in
Figure 6.19: South Asian hygiene products, April 2018. Photo
taken by author.

115
large quantities for grand events such as weddings, religious ceremonies, or a gathering at one’s
house.
259

259
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
Figure 6.20: Specialty flours stored in warehouse section, February 2018. Photo by author.

Figure 6.21: Cooking equipment stored in warehouse section, April 2018. Photo
by author.

116

According to the permit history and a visual inspection of the property, several changes
appear to have been made to the exterior and interior. The building the bazaar is currently
located in at 1190 Stabler Ln. was built in 1979 according to what appears to be an original
building permit. It was built as a vernacular office/warehouse.
260
Several years later, the surface
parking lot was paved in 1985.
261
In 1992, a metal building on site was demolished however it is
not clear where this building was located, although it was likely a storage facility.
262
A year later,
a 60’ x 100’ metal building was constructed on site and interior tenant improvements were
done.
263
It is not clear where this building was constructed, it is possible this is the warehouse
portion of the bazaar. The manner in which the warehouse connects to the smaller mass makes it
quite possible that this was added on at one point. One of the more prominent changes was the

260
“Permit #B4287,” July 10, 1979, City of Yuba City, Development Services Department; “Certificate of
Occupancy,” September 20, 1979, City of Yuba City, Department of Building Inspection.
261
“Permit #850615,” October 14, 1985, City of Yuba City, Development Services Department.
262
“Permit #920238,” March 11, 1992, Building Division, City of Yuba City, Development Services Department.
263
“Permit #920294,” March 23, 1993, Plan Check and Building Permit Application City of Yuba City,
Development Services Department.
Figure 6.22: Assortment of pans for cooking, April
2018. Photo by author.

117
increasing of square footage and an interior remodel in 1995. Again, it is not clear where this
addition was made, but it is likely it could have been an expansion of the warehouse section.
264

The most recent change appears to be the reroofing of the flat portions of the building in 2010.
265

However, it is important to note that the bazaar is not significant for its architecture, but rather its
role in community building for the Punjabi population of Yuba-Sutter and its reflection of
Punjabi heritage through foodways and clothing.

History
The Punjab Bazaar opened in 1964 at its original location on Plumas Street in Yuba City.
This business has been operated by the same family since it first opened to present day. Sunita
Nakhwal, the current owner, and her father originally operated the bazaar at 629 Plumas Street
and 624 Plumas street with one building dedicated to retail services and the other to wholesale
products. It was the first business operated by the family and they initially sold household items
before they began specializing in food items. They sold beds, brassware, handcraft items,
household decorations, and even jewelry. Sunita expressed how at the time there were only a
handful of Punjabi families in the Yuba-Sutter area and the demand for grocery items was not as
high as it is now.
266

As they began selling food and grocery items, they ventured into selling specialty flours.
Rather than selling one type of flour, they chose to sell several different types as mentioned in
the description of the bazaar. They also began grinding their own flour instead of selling flour
from another manufacturer. Around 1979 they purchased a warehouse on Industrial Drive, using
it as an offsite space to grind and mill their variety of flours. This quickly became one their most
popular products, making their business stand out from others. When the Punjab Bazaar first
opened, there were no other stores at the time selling these types of household items and food
products consistently or at the scale the bazaar did.
267
Little documentation is available on
sources of South Asian groceries and food items for early Punjabi immigrants. Allen Miller’s An
Ethnographic Report on the (Sikh) East Indians of the Sacramento Valley, researched during

264
“Permit #950728,” August 10, 1995, Building Permit Record, City of Yuba City, Development Services
Department.
265
“Permit #10110011,” November 1, 2010, Building Permit Record, City of Yuba City, Development Services
Department.
266
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
267
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.

118
1947, appears to be one of the only sources that provides descriptions of how Punjabi immigrants
in Yuba-Sutter cooked and the early businesses they owned. One method of obtaining Punjabi
food items described by Miller was the creation of gardens in the labor camps that Punjabi
immigrants worked and lived in, or their homes. Early Punjabi immigrants grew both commonly
used vegetables in American cuisine as well as vegetables used in South Asian recipes such as
okra, eggplant, or bitter melon.
268
U.S. Bains’ home incorporated one such of these gardens.
Immigrating in 1924 and working in the agricultural industry, Bains was eventually able to
purchase his own land.
269
His house simultaneously served as a labor camp for those working in
his orchards. He had his own garden in his backyard along with roosters used to cook Punjabi
cuisine for the laborers.
270
(Figure 6.23)

268
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 59.
269
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 94.
270
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 95.
Figure 6.23: Garden at U.S. Bain’s home/labor
camp, circa late 1940s. Photo courtesy of the UC
Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive,
(https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/eras/1923
-1945/), from Allen P. Miller, An Ethnographic
Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the
Sacramento Valley, 1950, MS, South/Southeast
Asia Library, University of California, Berkeley,
pg. 138.

119
Historically, Marysville has served as the commercial center of the Yuba-Sutter region
with residents working in the agricultural fields of Yuba City and shopping in Marysville.
271

Miller documented several of these early South Asian businesses in Marysville. However, almost
all of these stores changed ownership, were taken over by a different business, or the building is
no longer extant today.
272

The Bharat Grocery Store was another early South Asian business located at 316 First
Street in Marysville. (Figure 6.25) The owner of this store was Karam Chand.
273
Miller describes
Chand as a prominent Punjabi immigrant in the Yuba-Sutter area due to his involvement in the
agricultural industry, his business ownership, and his role as an advisor and information source
for new Punjabi immigrants needing interpretation or assistance settling in Yuba-Sutter. He
owned and operated the Bharat Grocery Store from 1931 to WWII. There appears to be a
discrepancy in the history of the Bharat Grocery Store described by Miller. The photo caption
describes how upon the closure of the Bharat Grocery Store, Chand began operating the Sinoala
Café in the same building and later as a gathering center for Punjabi Sikhs in the Yuba-Sutter
area. However, the written history of the Bharat Grocery Store describes the closure of the store
in WWII and Chand’s opening of the Sinoala Café at a different address, 302 First Street, which
later became the social center for Sikhs. It is not clear whether the same building in which the
Bharat Grocery Store was operated was converted into the café and social center, or whether this
was at a different address. However, it appears the building at 316 First Street, which was
described as the original location of the Bharat Grocery Store no longer appears to be extant. A
portion of the original building appears to be still standing on site, but according to a historic
photograph, the portion of the building and storefront in which the grocery store was located
appears to have been demolished to make room for a surface parking lot (Figure 5.29). In
addition, the building at 302 First Street, described as the address for the café and social center
also appears to no longer be extant.
274
Four additional South Asian businesses are briefly

271
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
272
One such store was the East India National Company that was located at 122 Second Street in Marysville. The
dates this business operated as a grocery store are not clear, but Miller notes it eventually went out of business. A
comparison of the historical photograph of the East India National Company on pg. 124 to contemporary conditions
reveals that this original building no longer appears to be extant at the listed address on the photo caption. See Allen
P. Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, Manuscript, 1950 (UC
Berkeley, South/Southeast Asia Library), pgs. 123-125 for complete description and photograph.
273
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 125.
274
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 97-98; 123-126.

120
described in Miller’s manuscript as “business houses.” (Table 6.1) The turnover rate and brief
operations of these businesses were likely due to agricultural work yielding more money and job
stability.
275

275
Miller, An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, 98.
Figure 6.24: Bharat Grocery Store, 316 First Street. Photo,
courtesy of the UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive,
(http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/destinations/yuba-
city/historic-yuba-city/), from South Asians in North America
Collection, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

121

The Punjab Bazaar on the other hand has been continuously operated since its opening
and their products and services have remained consistent, despite a change in location. The
growth of the Punjab Bazaar is also reflective of the growth in Yuba-Sutter’s Punjabi population
and the changes this group experienced in the post-1947 era. At the time of its opening, only a
handful of nuclear Punjabi families were living in the Yuba-Sutter area, approximately 15-20
during the late 1960s. As a steady influx of Punjabis began immigrating to Yuba-Sutter with the
changes in immigration laws, the Punjab Bazaar slowly became the go-to grocery store
recommended to newcomers in Yuba-Sutter looking for a place to buy South Asian groceries,
food, and household items. The demand for these items only increased with the population
growth of the Punjabi community, as reflected in the types and quantity of products sold at the
bazaar. In 1980, the bazaar further expanded their inventory and began selling clothes including
yards of fabric, cardigans, sweaters, and everyday clothes. Imported from India, Japan, and
Korea, customers began purchasing these fabrics from the bazaar to get their Indian suits custom
made. It also represents a shift from early South Asian businesses located in Marysville to Yuba
City. The Punjab Bazaar was one of the first major ethnic grocery stores to open in Yuba City.
276

By 1995, the business moved to its new and current location at 1190 Stabler Lane, but the
services and products they offered remained the same, only expanding in size. The specialty
flours are still made at the offsite warehouse on Industrial Drive. The bazaar continues to sell
items to customers wholesale but the business on Stabler Lane is predominantly dedicated to
their retail services.
277
Although their products seem simple in nature, the Punjab Bazaar’s
business operations have cultivated connections to the social and religious aspects of the Yuba-

276
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
277
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
Table 6.1: Early South Asian businesses in Yuba-Sutter described in Allen Miller’s An Ethnographic
Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley, Manuscript, 1950. Table created by author
based off data in Miller’s manuscript.

122
Sutter’s Punjabi community as well. Not only are customers shopping at Punjab Bazaar for their
day to day needs, it is also the premiere shop for larger events such as weddings, miscellaneous
ceremonies held at the gurdwara, holidays, and even the Nagar Kirtan. Community members
often come to the bazaar to buy food and supplies for weddings as well as clothing and
accessories. The bazaar donates items such as food and paper plates for the Nagar Kirtan with
additional customers coming to the bazaar to purchase mass amounts of flour, beans, utensils,
and plates for the thousands attending the weekend’s events.
278

Throughout its history in Yuba-Sutter, the Punjab Bazaar has gone beyond being just a
place to buy Punjabi groceries and food items, it has also become representative of the Yuba-
Sutter Punjabi community’s identity over time. An article from the Appeal Democrat in 2002
details the rise of Islamophobia after the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent violence Punjabi Sikhs
experienced due to their appearance of wearing turbans and a beard. In response, a film titled
“Mistaken Identity: Sikhs in America” was created as a tool to educate those unfamiliar with
Punjabi communities residing in the United States, their religious practices, and their heritage
traditions. Part of this was filmed in Yuba City, given its concentration of Punjabi immigrants
that have integrated their practices from back home into the urban landscape of Yuba-Sutter. A
photograph of the Punjab Bazaar with co-owner Surjan Nakhwal, Sunita’s husband, is shown in
the article, demonstrating how the Punjab Bazaar is representative of the roots Punjabis have put
down throughout the United States and how this immigrant community is settled and thriving in
Yuba-Sutter. (Figure 6.25) It also demonstrates how the Punjab Bazaar as a Punjabi-owned and
operated business is able to use their platform to take a stand on specific social and political
issues. Overall, the image of Surjan Nakhwal posed in the fabric section of the bazaar functions
in the article as a glimpse into the vibrant community Punjabi immigrants have created in Yuba-
Sutter.
279

278
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
279
Daniel Witter, “Turning ignorance into understanding: Sikhs hope new film will help to dispel mystery,” Appeal-
Democrat, October 21, 2002, A6.

123

Most recently in 2012, the United States Department of State Bureau of International
Information Programs through the United States Embassy created an educational piece on the
Punjabi Sikhs of Yuba-Sutter as part of the American community series. A photo of the Punjab
Bazaar and the owners, Sunita and Surjan Nakherwal, standing in the warehouse with stacks of
their special made flour frames the top of the pamphlet. (Figure 6.26) Giving a brief history on
the Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter, the pamphlet goes on to detail how about 100,000
individuals residing in the Yuba-Sutter area are of Punjabi descent and the strong presence of
these individuals in the agricultural industry, healthcare, and retail, as seen with the Punjab
Bazaar. This piece demonstrates how the Punjab Bazaar has grown along the lines of the Punjabi
population itself in Yuba-Sutter, allowing immigrants to stay connected with their roots through
food items and clothes but also becoming a representation of the Punjabi community itself.
280

Sunita operated the store when it first opened with her father, has overseen its move from Plumas
Street to Stabler Lane, and operates the store today with her husband, Surjan, and her children.
She can be found at the cash register regularly, as well as her family, most days of the week.
281

280
Yuba City California: American Punjabi Sikhs, American Communities, (United States Department of State
Bureau of International Information Program, April 2012), 1; 4, accessed May 20, 2018,
https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_AmericanCommunities_Punjabis_1_.pdf.
281
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
Figure 6.25: Surjan Nakhwal, co-owner of the Punjab Bazaar, pictured in retail section of the
bazaar. Photo taken by Chris Kaufman, “Turning ignorance into understanding: Sikhs hope new
film will help to dispel mystery,” Appeal-Democrat, October 21, 2002, A6.

124
Today, the Punjab Bazaar is still operated by the same family that started this business back in
1964 with a strong connection rooted not just to the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community, but the
broader Punjabi community of California as well with a client base that expands to Lodi,
Stockton, and even as far as Los Angeles.
282

Comparative Analysis
The concept behind the Punjab Bazaar can be traced back to bazaars or shopping markets
found in India. In particular, the maze of bazaars in Amritsar surrounding the Golden Temple
provide precedents for how the Punjab Bazaar is evocative of these vernacular, makeshift
shopping stalls that sell a range of Punjabi foods, clothing, jewelry, etc. The bazaars along the
crowded, dense streets surrounding the Golden Temple complex including Mai Sewan Bazaar,
Guru Bazaar, and Katra Jaimal are among the multitude of shops selling everything from food to
clothing.
283

Guru Bazaar in particular is one specific shopping area in Amritsar that demonstrates
how the Punjab Bazaar incorporates not just the products found in the markets of Punjab, but the
rituals and daily routines and traditions that go along with the act of shopping in the bazaar. It
also demonstrates the critical role religious history has played in the development of these

282
Sunita Nakhwal, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal via phone, February 4th, 2018.
283
Swati Mitra, Punjab Travel Guide (New Delhi: Eicher Goodeath Limited, 2006), 61.
Figure 6.26: Surjan Singh (left) and Sunita Nakhwal (right), co-owners, in warehouse
section of bazaar. Photo by Dean Tokuno from “Yuba City, California: American Punjabi
Sikhs,” in the American Communities series, by the United States Department of State
Bureau of International Information Program, Embassy of the United States of America,
2012,
(https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_AmericanCommunities_Punjabi
s_1_.pdf).

125
bazaars and how these religious concepts have translated to the Punjab Bazaar in Yuba City as
well. Guru Bazaar has a deep-seated history that stretches back to the initial settlement of
Amritsar. The area was once home to artists that had settled in this part of Guru ka Chak and
what was the beginnings of Amritsar and is now a major bazaar in the area.
284
Approximately
fifty-two artists and craftsman settled in this area following Guru Ramdas’ invitation and their
complex of markets became known as Guru Bazaar.
285
Many of these markets also trace back to
what is often known as the golden age of Amritsar when commerce flourished in the city during
Maharaja Ranjit’s rule. These merchants established markets for trade in places known as Misri
Bazaar, Bazaar Bansanwala, Bazaar Kaserian, Guru Bazaar and Mai Sewan Bazaar as mentioned
before.
286

In general, the bazaars of Amritsar, although appearing disorganized, adhere to a specific
morphology that fits the needs of its residents. Given most are passing through and shopping by
foot, the streets are dominated by pedestrians. The physical layout of the bazaars do not just
accommodate the various products sold, they also foster the social rituals of the bazaar.
287
The
City HRIDAY Plan for Amritsar identifies this as a “specialized bazaar system existing in the
walled city” with the markets on the ground floor and housing in the upper stories.
288
The Punjab
Bazaar in Yuba City, although not located in the streetscape of Amritsar, has a similar
relationship between the layout of its internal space and the social rituals it cultivates as a result.
Similar to bazaars in Amritsar, the products although seeming to have no organization are
generally separated by categories with clothing in one section, cookware in another, and hygiene
products in its own area. The layout of the Punjab Bazar with rows of aisles and shelves stacked
with items, although different from the stalls often seen in Amritsar, serve the same purpose of
allowing the shopper to browse in and around the various products. An open circulation pattern
is incorporated allowing shoppers that may be looking at different products to pass by one

284
Anshuman Tiwari and Andindya Sengupta, Laxminama: Monks, Merchants, Money and Mantra (New Delhi:
Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018), 86-87.
285
CRCI (India) Pvt. Ltd. And IPE Global PVT Ltd., City HRIDAY Plan for Amritsar, Volume I, February 2016,
accessed June 5, 2018, http://hridayindia.in/downloads/chp/amritsar/CHP_for_Amritsar_Volume_I.pdf, 51.
286
Shika Jain, “Revisiting planning for Indian Cities: The pilgrim city of Amritsar,” Religion and Urbanism:
Reconceptualising Sustainable Cities for South Asia, ed. Yamini Narayanan (New York: Routledge, 2016), 113.
287
Balvinder Singh, “The Tangible and Intangible Heritage of the Walled Cities of Amritsar and Lahore: Need for
an Integrated Conservation Approach,” (paper presented at the THAAP Conference “Portrait of Lahore: Capital City
of the Punjab,” Lahore, Pakistan, 2012), 82, accessed June 7, 2018, http://www.thaap.pk/assets/balvinder-singh.pdf.
288
CRCI (India) Pvt. Ltd. And IPE Global PVT Ltd., City HRIDAY Plan for Amritsar, 91.

126
another and engage not just with the merchandise, but one another. (Figure 6.27 and 6.28) Most
importantly, the relationship between Sikh religious history and commerce as demonstrated by
the Guru Bazaar is a foundational element that has been appropriated and adapted by the Yuba-
Sutter community. The Punjab Bazaar’s role as a pre-cursory resource for food items, cooking
tools, and clothing for religious events such as weddings, the Nagar Kirtan, and additional
religious events at the gurdwara such as an Akand Path show how beyond the day to day use of
the products in the bazaar, the Yuba-Sutter community also needed a space to purchase products
that help facilitate large-scale Punjabi cultural events and Sikh traditions.

Figure 6.27: Bazaar east of Golden Temple and
north of Jallianwala Bagh, December 2017.
Photo from author’s family personal photo
collection.

127

Significance
The Punjab Bazaar provides insight on the engagement of Punjabis with economics,
commerce, and foodways in the post-1947 period. Characterized as an ethnic grocery store, the
bazaar is a staple of the Punjabi community and is representative of both the day to day lives and
ceremonial events experienced by the Punjabi community. With its history in Yuba-Sutter
tracing back to 1964, the Punjab Bazaar has established itself as one of the most prominent
Punjabi businesses in the post-1947 era. Although there were several small South Asian
businesses documented in Miller’s work and historic photographs, it is unclear what specific
products these businesses sold and the majority of them ceased to operate after a number of years
with the buildings these businesses were housed in mostly no longer being extant. The Punjab
Bazaar on the other hand, is one of the most prominent ethnic grocery stores in the Yuba-Sutter
community in terms of having the longest continuous operation among other South Asian
businesses and being one of the first businesses to specialize in Punjabi food and ingredients.
Their growth and expansion into selling products that go beyond just simple food items, such as
Figure 6.28: Bazaar east of Golden Temple and
north of Jallianwala Bagh, December 2017. Photo
from author’s family personal photo collection.

128
clothing and specialty flours, in addition to their stock growing over the years, reflects and
parallels the growth of the post-1947 Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter.
As a more stable Punjabi community developed in Yuba-Sutter that was able to live in
the public eye, purchase property, and permanently settle in Yuba-Sutter with nuclear families,
the Punjab Bazaar grew alongside this distinct community. By providing various spices, beans,
lentils, powders, and flours that are the base ingredients for many Punjabi recipes, the bazaar
became a very important source for the community, representing not just the day to day life of
preparing food at home, but larger events as well such as weddings or the Nagar Kirtan.
Although a vernacular building, the role this market has played in fostering the Punjabi
community and helping them make the transition from Punjab to Yuba-Sutter has been an
invaluable source and a form of place-making for its residents. It is the precursory site to many
events, festivities, as well as the daily routine of preparing food at home, showing its significance
to the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter in the economic and commercial sense.
For many immigrant groups, place-making is connected to memories of the homeland
and place-making as a process for these groups is often the experiences contained within spaces
such as the Punjab Bazaar. Foodways are a significant avenue for exploring how the Punjabi
community of Yuba-Sutter participates in place-making, through the Punjab Bazaar in this
case.
289
Although the bazaar is not significant for its architecture, it does represent a specific form
of design and building typology seen with South Asian immigrant groups. Like the interior of the
store, the exterior is also flexible and has adapted to the growth and needs of the community,
which is why immigrant groups usually utilize spaces such as the bazaar that are industrial,
vernacular, and often repurposed.
290
As an alternate cultural sphere, it is the familiarity and sense
of security evoked by ethnic grocery stores such as the Punjab Bazaar that allow immigrants to
reformulate their identity and sense of belonging in a new place. As demonstrated by a
comparative analysis between the bazaars of Amritsar, such as the Guru Bazaar, and the Punjab
Bazaar, the Yuba-Sutter community had adopted certain elements of these markets to fulfill its
purpose as ethnic grocery story that is adapted to the Yuba-Sutter landscape. The vernacular
nature, open circulation pattern, and multitude of loosely organized products that serve both
daily and more ceremonial functions show how the Punjab Bazaar is a microcosm of the large-

289
Sen, “Food, place and memory: Bangladeshi fish stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago,” 67-68.
290
Sen, “Creative Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces,” 2.

129
scale bazaars seen in Amritsar. Embodying the look, sound, and smells evocative of shopping
experiences in Punjab, the bazaar allows these immigrants to maintain a connection to their
heritage practices in their homeland through food, clothing, and socializing with others shopper
all while staking their claim in the landscape of Yuba-Sutter.
291

As one of the first and most successful Punjabi businesses in the post-1947 period and
one of the most popular places today to buy Punjabi ingredients, food, and clothing, the Punjab
Bazaar is a significant cultural resource for the Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter. It represents
the history of the post-1947 community in terms of the creation of a steady population base and
how changes in circumstances such as citizenship and property ownership brought in a different
wave of immigrants to Yuba-Sutter, which also manifested itself in the built environment. It also
creates a connection between the religious and heritage practices in Punjab that are enabled
through markets such as the Guru Bazaar that are now possible to practice in Yuba-Sutter as
well. Most importantly, it sheds light on how despite its industrial, vernacular appearance, it is
not the architecture of the store that makes it a significant cultural resource for the Yuba-Sutter
Punjabi community, but its role in community building for almost six decades, place-making, the
reconstitution of Punjabi identity, and its embodiment of Punjabi traditions and heritage through
its products.

291
Leonard, "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural California,” 118; 127; Sen, “Food,
place and memory: Bangladeshi fish stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago,” 67.

130
Chapter 7: Conservation Solutions
Existing Conservation Solutions
Heritage conservation within the broader South Asian American community, like many
immigrant groups, is vastly underrepresented in the mainstream world of historic preservation.
Traditional preservation practice entails the designation of historic resources, whether significant
for their history, association with people, architecture, or archaeology, on lists such as the
National Register of Historic Resources, state, and local registers. Even more prestigious, the
National Historic Landmarks program recognizes sites significant at a national level.
292
A
growing collection of scholarly work on South Asian Americans and more broadly, Asian
Americans, is available.
293
However, there is still a significant gap in the translation of this
information into the heritage conservation field. This is not to say educational programming,
discussion, and initiatives have not been undertaken in recent years such as the National Historic
Landmarks Theme Study, the creation of various walking tours in South Asian American
communities, the “Becoming American” exhibit at the Sutter County Community Memorial
Museum, and the UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
One of the most recently completed studies within the heritage conservation field is the
National Historic Landmarks Theme Study for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Started in
2013, this study called on scholars of various professional backgrounds working with Asian
American and Pacific Islander history to contribute research to create a collection of essays to
serve as a framework for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities interested in
designating heritage sites important to their communities.
294
This theme study is groundbreaking

292
Franklin Odo, “Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to the National
Historic Landmarks Theme Study,” Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic
Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior), accessed July
15, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/00-Introduction.pdf, 2.
293
Odo, “Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to the National Historic
Landmarks Theme Study,” 3.
Select existing South Asian American scholarship includes: Karen Isaksen Leonard, The South Asian Americans
(Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1997); Karen Isaksen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices: California’s
Punjabi Mexican Americans, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992); Seema Sohi, Echoes of Mutiny: Race,
Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014); Joan M.
Jensen, Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988);
Nayan Shah, Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and the Law in the North American West (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2011; Diditi Mitra, Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation
Through Race and Class (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
294
Odo, “Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to the National Historic
Landmarks Theme Study,” 2-3.

131
in terms of shifting the dialogue for historic preservation to be inclusive of Asian American and
Pacific Islander immigrant groups that have put down roots in the United States with several of
the essays incorporating South Asian American history.
“Imperialism and Migration” by Gary Y. Okihiro touches on the presence of South
Asians during American imperialism, from working on plantations to serving in the Civil War.
295

A history of the beginnings of the South Asian immigration to the United States, primarily from
Punjab, and subsequent anti-immigration and discriminatory laws enacted against them are
discussed in “Immigration, Exclusion, and Resistance, 1800s-1940s.”
296
“Establishing
Communities” by Nayan Shah provides insight into the impact of Asian American immigrants,
including South Asian immigrants, on shaping their built environment through their
organizations and institutions such as the Hindustani Welfare and Reform Society, Pacific Coast
Kalsa Diawn Society, and the Stockton Gurdwara.
297
Lane Ryo Hirabayashi’s, “Asian American
Businesses, 1845 to 2015 Accommodation and Eclectic Innovation,” briefly explores South
Asian Americans’ involvement in business and commerce such as Jawala Singh’s success in the
potato industry and the Mexican-Punjabi community in Imperial County.
298
“New Asian
American Communities: Building and Dismantling” by Catherine Ceniza Choy discusses the
creation of South Asian American micro-communities across the U.S. from the agricultural fields
of northern California to Jackson Heights in Queens.
299

295
Gary Y. Okihiro, “Imperialism and Migration,” Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander
National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the
Interior), accessed July 18, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/01-Essay-1-Imperialism-and-Migration.pdf,
19; 21; 29.
296
Erika Lee, “Immigration, Exclusion, and Resistance, 1800s-1940s,” Finding a Path Forward: Asian American
Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National Park Service, U.S.
Department of the Interior), accessed July 15, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/04-Essay-4-
immigration.pdf, 92-93; 96-97; 100.
297
Nayan Shah, “Establishing Communities, 1848-1941,” Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific
Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National Park Service, U.S. Department of
the Interior), accessed July 20, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/05-Essay-5-establishing-communities.pdf,
116, 117.
298
Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, “Asian American Businesses, 1848 to 2015 Accommodation and Eclectic Innovation,”
Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin
Odo (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior), accessed July 20, 2018,
https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/07-Essay-7-Asian-American-Business.pdf, 151.
299
Catherine Ceniza Choy, “New Asian American Communities: Building and Dismantling,” Finding a Path
Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National
Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior), accessed July 15, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/16-
Essay-16-New-Asian-American-Communities.pdf, 314-316.

132
However, in terms of South Asian Americans, and specifically Punjabi immigrants, there
is still ample work to be done. Only one site associated with the South Asian community is
identified as eligible for the National Historic Landmarks list, the Stockton Gurdwara.
300
This is
certainly one of the most important sites for the Punjabi Sikh community that speaks to their
history at the national level. However, there are additional cultural resources and heritage
practices at the local, state, and possibly national level that contribute to the complex and diverse
history of South Asian immigrants.
A review of strategies used to recognize sites, both traditional and non-traditional
preservation practices, reveal the different ways in which South Asians are attempting to
interpret and recognize these sites through formal designations, educational programming, and
public history initiatives. As mentioned before, the Stockton Gurdwara has been recognized as a
site eligible for the National Historic Landmark designation in the Asian American and Pacific
Islander theme study.
301
This site is already listed as a California Historical Landmark as, “…one
of the first religious centers for Indians in the United States.”
302
This is one of the only known
examples of a site associated with Punjabi history designated on a list or register. The Ghadar
Memorial in San Francisco is an additional site associated with not just Punjabi history but South
Asian immigrants that fought for the end of British colonial rule. Originally located at 436 Hill
Street in San Francisco and known as “Yungantar Ashram,” the Ghadar Party moved their
operations to a new building at 5 Wood Street in 1917. As the headquarters of the Ghadar Party
and the center of one of the most significant South Asian American political organizations, the
memorial hall is certainly a site that would be eligible for designation.
303

For the most part, the conservation of South Asian American sites has been done through
non-traditional techniques. Walking tours are a popular method used to educate and recognize

300
“Appendix 2: AAPI National Historic Landmarks Study List,” Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific
Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo (National Park Service, U.S. Department of
the Interior), accessed July 15, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/upload/19-Appendix-
II-Study-List.pdf, 368.
301
“Appendix 2: AAPI National Historic Landmarks Study List,” 368.
302
“No. 1039 Sikh Temple Site,” Office of Historic Preservation, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21483.
303
“Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965: Chapter 7: Gadar,” University of California
Berkeley, South/Southeast Asia Library, accessed August 5, 2018, http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/echoes-of-
freedom/chapter7; Satish Chandra, “Gadar Memorial Center, San Francisco,” SikhPioneers.Org, May 20, 2003,
accessed August 5, 2018, https://www.sikhpioneers.org/gadar-memorial-center-san-francisco/.

133
these sites in the public realm, as well as promote heritage tourism.
304
The Berkeley South Asian
Radical Walking Tour takes its participants on a walk throughout the UC Berkeley area focusing
on Telegraph Avenue. The tour route stops at places that tell the history of South Asian
Americans that worked as activists, particularly during the period of the Ghadar Party, writers,
and business owners among other roles stretching as far back as a hundred years ago.
305
On the
other side of the United States in New York and Chicago, walking tours have also been
implemented in cities with significant South Asian immigrant groups. Arijit Sen, professor of
architectural design, urbanism, and cultural landscapes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and Milwaukee as well as a scholar of South Asian immigrant communities has prepared
walking tours for the South Asian commercial corridor of Jackson Heights and Devon Avenue of
Chicago. His work highlights primarily vernacular structures that have played important roles in
these communities, particularly through shopping experiences and foodways.
306

In terms of conservation in the Yuba-Sutter region, traditional historic preservation
practice has been utilized to recognize buildings and sites predominantly significant for their
architecture or association with the early history of the region. In 2007, the Sutter County
Historical Society hired Galvin Preservation Associates (GPA) to conduct a historic resources
survey of Sutter County. 385 properties were identified through this effort.
307
However, none of
these properties are associated with the Punjabi community. Yuba City also does not have a local
historic preservation ordinance. There is a provision within their zoning code calling for Historic
Combining Districts. This district is meant to support the Cultural Resources section of the
general plan for the city allowing buildings, sites, structures in areas rezoned to be a part of the
Historic Preservation Combining District to be recognized as historic resources in the city. In
addition, any property on a local, state, national register or historical site, place, or landmark are
also considered historic resources. A Historic Preservation Review committee composed of three

304
See Russell Staiff, Robyn Bushell, and Steve Watson, Heritage and Tourism: Place, Encounter, Engagement
(London: Routledge, 2013) for more information on heritage tourism.
305
“About,” Berkeley South Asian Radical Walking Tour, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/.
306
Sen, “Queens, South Asian Commercial Corridor: Decoding ethnicity in the Jackson Heights South Asian
shopping strip,” 1-11; Arijit Sen, “Intertwined Cultures: Devon Avenue, Chicago,” Intertwined Cultures, accessed
July 5, 2018, http://intertwinedcultures.weebly.com/; “About Me,” Arijit Sen: Associate Professor of Architecture,
Buildings-Landscapes-Culture, accessed July 7, 2018, https://senspeaks.wordpress.com/.
307
“Historic Properties,” Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County, accessed May 20, 2018,
http://www.suttercountyhistory.org/historic-properties.html.; Galvin Preservation Associates, “Historic Properties
Index by street name,” Sutter County Historic Resources Survey.

134
people has also been set designated for the purposes of conducting design review for extensive
changes to historic properties that cannot be approved at staff level.
308
Given that the Historic
Preservation Combining District is the only mechanism within the legislative framework of Yuba
City available to recognize historic resource, this makes their historic preservation tools and
incentives weak. This provision also does not clarify the criterion for designation. Marysville on
the other hand does have a comprehensive local historic preservation ordinance with a local
register.
309
Given that the majority of the still extant resources significant to the Punjabi
community are in Yuba City rather than Marysville, this tool is not as useful for recognizing
Punjabi heritage sites.
In the end, the cultural resources significant to the Punjabi community of Yuba-Sutter
would likely not fit the criteria to be a part of the Historic Preservation Combining District or the
local Marysville register given the majority of their sites are not architecturally significant or
tangible heritage. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the stark differences between the pre-1947
and post-1947 Punjabi community, there is a significant gap between when Punjabi immigrants
first arrived in the U.S. versus when they were able to put roots down in new communities and
purchase property. Given the racial tension and anti-immigration laws in place for more than half
of the twentieth century, it was not until these laws were lifted that Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-
Sutter were able to economically and socially stake their claim in the built landscape of Yuba-
Sutter. For these reasons, only one of the four heritage sites identified dates from the pre-1947
period, Eager Orchards, while the remainder stem from the post-1947 period. This gap between
the first immigrants and the ability to own land is often seen with communities of color,
including Punjabis, and is often another reason their sites do not fit the traditional benchmark and
criteria for historic preservation.
Like the walking tours described above, Yuba-Sutter has also used alternative techniques
to spearhead the effort to recognize the contributions of the Punjabi community. An exhibit
dedicated to the “Punjabi Pioneers” of Yuba-Sutter and greater California region is permanently
installed in the Community Memorial Museum as part of the Becoming American series. The
exhibit showcases videos, pictures, and household items donated by Punjabi families in the

308
“Historic Preservation Combining District,” Sutter County Zoning Code, accessed July 13, 2018,
https://www.suttercounty.org/assets/pdf/cs/ps/zoning_code.pdf, 8-9-8-12.
309
“Chapter 18.94 Historic Preservation,” The Marysville Municipal Code, December 19, 2017, accessed July 14,
2018, http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Marysville/html/MarysvilleCA18/MarysvilleCA1894.html.

135
Yuba-Sutter area that tell their immigration story.
310
The South Asian American Digital Archive
(SAADA) with 3,180 items in their archive and over ten years of documentation efforts has a
comprehensive digital platform dedicated to photographs, interviews, videos, and newspapers
among other historical items that strive to tell a story that is inclusive of all South Asian
American groups.
311
One of the most important tools created to document the history of this
community is the Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive by UC Davis, created by Dr. Nicole
Raganath. A continuation of the Becoming American exhibit, this digital archive is a visual
collection of the people, places, and contributions of Punjabi immigrants in the Yuba-Sutter area
and beyond. Farmers, writers, healthcare providers, and the everyday people of Yuba-Sutter are
documented in this online source.
312
These resources provide a framework for interpreting the
history of Yuba-Sutter’s Punjabi immigrants and connecting their history to the idea of place.

Conservation of Eager Orchards
Although the four preliminary sites identified do not ideally fit the designation criteria for
current historic preservation tools, there are several options that allow recognition and provide a
means of protection for these resources. Eager Orchards is the earliest of the identified sites with
its history and association with the Punjabi community stretching back to 1907. Its connection
with the everyday lives of early Punjabi immigrants such as Tuly Singh Johl, and the role these
individuals have played in the evolution of Eager Orchards makes its designation as a historic
vernacular landscape the most feasible conservation solution. As a cultural landscape associated
with an immigrant group, it is important to ask what features of this site are representative of its
association with Punjabi immigrants and how these features can be protected. A cultural
landscape report on the comprehensive history of Eager Orchards, its connection to early Punjabi

310
Punjabi American Heritage Society, “Mission,” Becoming American Museum, accessed July 15, 2018,
http://www.punjabipioneers.com/Mission.
311
“About,” SAADA South Asian American Digital Archive, accessed August 5, 2018, https://www.saada.org/about;
“Mission, Vision, and Values,” SAADA South Asian American Digital Archive, accessed August 5, 2018,
https://www.saada.org/mission.
312
Nicole Ranganath, “Introduction to the Archive,” UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive: A New Source
Documenting the History of the South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-Present, accessed July 15, 2018,
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/.

136
immigrants in the region, and identification of the character-defining features that allow this
landscape to convey its association with the Punjabi community would be a valuable resource.
313

A second possible conservation solution would be the recognition of Eager Orchards as a
California Point of Historical Interest. According to the designation criteria, Eager Orchards
would be eligible under the criteria for history which states, “Associated with an individual or
group having a profound influence on the history of the local area.”
314
Owner consent is required
for a resource to be designated a California Point of Historical Interest, which may be complex
for Eager Orchards given its expansive size and multiple owners.
315
However, this would provide
potential protection under CEQA if any development threats came up In addition, a sign could be
placed on site allowing the public and passersby to recognize Eager Orchards and learn about its
history and significance.
316

Conservation of the Yuba City Gurdwara
As the most tangible and monumental resource out of all four identified sites, the
conservation of the Yuba City Gurdwara is the most straightforward. The gurdwara’s association
with significant contributions to the Yuba-Sutter area and the Punjabi community, especially the
post-1947 immigration wave, would make it eligible for the California Register.
317
Although the
gurdwara does embody an interesting architectural style with Indo-Islamic influences, it is its
role as the first religious and social gathering space for Punjabi residents of Yuba-Sutter that
makes it significant. For this reason, the changes that have been made to the gurdwara such as
the addition of the northwest wing, second prayer hall, and rose garden do not take away its
ability to convey its significance. Generally, a building’s ability to convey its significance is
determined through an evaluation of the property’s integrity. However, the gurdwara does not
meet the seven aspects of integrity given it is not significant for its architecture but rather its

313
Charles A. Birnbaum, ASLA “Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning, Treatment and
Management of Historic Landscapes,” (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, September 1994),
accessed July 15, 2018, https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/36-cultural-landscapes.htm.
314
“California Points of Historical Interest,” Office of Historic Preservation, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21750.
315
“California Points of Historical Interest,” Office of Historic Preservation.
316
“California Points of Historical Interest,” Office of Historic Preservation.
317
“California Register of Historical Resources,” Office of Historic Preservation, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21238.

137
social and cultural use.
318
Extensive and inappropriate changes to a historic structure are often
seen as having a negative effect on the building’s integrity, and given the number of changes and
expansion of the gurdwara over the years, it is difficult to assess its authenticity and evaluate the
building’s integrity. That being said, the growth of the gurdwara as a community resource and
repository of both cultural and religious heritage is embodied in its physical expansion over the
years and further exemplifies its representation of the settlement and success of the Punjabi
community in Yuba-Sutter, likely making it eligible for the California Register.

Conservation of the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan Procession
The Nagar Kirtan is the most complex resource to formulate a conservation plan for
given its tangible and intangible nature. The procession is constantly evolving – its route has
changed, the cultural events that take place have changed, and several floats have changed over
the years. The tangible aspects of the Nagar Kirtan consist of the actual floats used in the
procession. Although the gurdwara and organizations that participate often store their floats, the
design and look of the float can change from year to year.
319
The storage of these floats,
specifically the main float with the Guru Granth Sahib, is one conservation effort that is already
in place to protect the tangible aspects of the Nagar Kirtan.
The processional element of the Nagar Kirtan on the other hand, is more difficult to
pinpoint and conserve. Current historic preservation legislation, framework, and designation
criteria do not provide a mechanism for protecting intangible heritage in the United States.
320
The
conservation of intangible heritage, particularly festivals and religious events, is discussed and
dealt with in greater depth at the global level. At the 2003 UNESCO General Conference, the
Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was passed. This created a

318
For more information on the process of evaluating a property’s integrity see “National Register Bulletin:
Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Historic Aids to Navigation to the National Register of Historic
Places.” (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior),
https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb34/nrb34_8.htm.
319
Dr. Gulzar Johl, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 5
th
, 2018; Rajinder Tumber,
interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
See Gurveen Kaur Khurana, “The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora” in Sikhism in Global Context, ed. Pashauara
Singh (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012) for a description of the floats prepared by various organizations
each year.
320
See “Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage,” (National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior),
https://www.nps.gov/articles/tangible-cultural-heritage.htm for information on intangible heritage and a description
of organizations and partnerships that work with intangible heritage. Note here is no method to designate intangible
heritage on a list or register in the United States.

138
framework for the global community to recognize and protect the heritage they valued that did
not fit the framework used for the protection of tangible heritage.
321
The convention defines the
safeguarding and protection of intangible heritage as including, “…identification,
documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement, transmission,
particularly through formal and non-formal education, as well as the revitalization of the various
aspects of such heritage.”
322
Additional techniques for the protection of intangible heritage are
identified such as creating an inventory to ensure recognition, adopting policies to weave
intangible heritage into planning and mainstream society, creating a committee or body
dedicated to the protection of intangible heritage, supporting research dedicated to intangible
heritage, and promoting financial and legislative provisions dedicated to the management and
documentation of intangible heritage.
323

Intangible heritage, especially in the context of religion, can be thought of as “living
heritage.” It is also important to remember that intangible heritage operates within the framework
of tangible heritage. The non-material, abstract elements are inextricably linked to some form of
tangible heritage whether it is the environment, people, objects, etc.
324
This is certainly the case
for the Nagar Kirtan, whose intangible aspects such as the recitation of the Guru Granth Sahib,
the procession route, and its overall morphology based on religious history are directly
associated with its tangible elements such as the gurdwara, the floats, and the agricultural
backdrop of Yuba-Sutter.

321
“The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible and Cultural Heritage,” UNESCO Office in Santiago:
UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean, accessed July 14, 2018,
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-heritage/; “Text
of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,” United Nations Educational, Scientific,
and Cultural Organization, October 17, 2003, accessed July 16, 2018, https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention.
322
“Article 2 – Definitions,” Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, October 17, 2003, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-heritage/.
323
“Article 12 – Inventories,” Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, October 17, 2003, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-heritage/;
“Article 13 – Other measures for safeguarding,” Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, October 17, 2003, accessed
July 16, 2018, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-
heritage/.
324
Nobuko Inaba, “The Ise Shrine and the Gion Festival,” Conservation of Living Religious Heritage,” Herb Stovel,
Nicholas Stanley-Price, Robert Killick, ed., (Papers from the ICCROM 2003 Forum on Living Religious Heritage:
conserving the sacred), accessed July 15, 2018,
https://www.iccrom.org/sites/default/files/ICCROM_ICS03_ReligiousHeritage_en.pdf, 45-46.

139
The idea of living heritage highlights key issues that arise in the conservation of the
Nagar Kirtan that are commonly seen with heritage that blurs the boundaries of being tangible
and intangible. For one, living heritage, especially living religious heritage, constantly evolves
over time. This brings up the question as to what exactly should be conserved, what should be
allowed to change, and how the integrity and authenticity of the resource changes as a result.
325

Looking to global case studies provide precedent for possible conservation solutions for the
Nagar Kirtan. The Gion Matsuri, or festival, in Kyoto is one such example of a procession that
integrates elements similar to the Nagar Kirtan. Its tangible aspects are composed of embellished
floats while its intangible aspects stem from the religious traditions it is based on known as
goryoe or the idea of promoting health in the city by preventing disease as well as assisting the
journey of souls through makeshift palanquins and shrines known as mikoshi.
326
This is very
similar to the Nagar Kirtan which breaks down into two similar components with its material
decorated floats and its religious aspect of transporting the Guru Granth Sahib. In the case of the
Gion Matusri, the original twenty-nine floats that remain have been designated under the folk
cultural property subsection of the city’s laws as tangible heritage while the procession is
designated separately under the same subsection as intangible heritage.
327

At this point in time, there is no mechanism for designating the Nagar Kirtan floats or
procession under the current historic preservation framework in place in the United States. This
indicates that with the increasing discussion of intangible heritage in the United States and how
to safeguard these resources, initiative should be taken to create a framework to protect these
forms of heritage. Measures can still be taken to recognize the Nagar Kirtan and educate the
public on its importance for the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi community. The storage of specifically the
main float with the Guru Granth Sahib at the gurdwara is one measure that is already in place
and should continue. Documentation of the visual and audio aspects of the Nagar Kirtan should
be implemented as well. Photographs and videos of the activities taking place along the
procession route as well as the organization and morphology of people involved should be
documented and compared each year. Adding these resources to the UC Davis Pioneering
Punjabis Digital Archive is one method of safeguarding the documentation of the procession.
With the rapid rate of technological developments today, the current procession route can be

325
Inaba, “The Ise Shrine and the Gion Festival,” 46-47.
326
Inaba, “The Ise Shrine and the Gion Festival,” 55.
327
Inaba, “The Ise Shrine and the Gion Festival,” 56.

140
virtually marked with the same videos and pictures of the procession, depicting the religious and
cultural activities taking place along the route on an interactive map. Adding this virtual marker
of the current route with a chronological timeline could also be made available on the UC Davis
Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.

Conservation of the Punjab Bazaar
The Punjab Bazaar is also one of the more tangible resources of the four identified sites.
Its tangibility lies however, in its vernacular structure, which in itself has evolved and expanded
due to the bazaar’s expansion in products and the community’s growing needs. The bazaar has
moved from its original location but its importance does not lie in its tangible aspects, which
would be its vernacular structure and design. It is the actual products, merchandise, and social
experiences in the bazaar that have made it a significant resource for the community. In terms of
the available conservation tools, listing on the California Register would be the most feasible
option for the bazaar. The business itself has been around since 1964 but it has only been in its
current building since 1995, less than fifty years. However, the California Register does not have
a strict fifty-year rule unlike the National Register as long as sufficient time has gone by to
evaluate the events and significance behind the resource.
328
Even the bazaar’s tenure at 1190
Stabler Lane since 1995 in combination with its prior years on Plumas Street provide a sufficient
time period to evaluate the bazaar’s role and contributions to the city and the Punjabi
community.

Additional Conservation Solutions
Conservation solutions aside from designation can also be implemented to weave these
preliminary resources together given their proximity to one another. A walking or driving tour
would be one possible measure to create a cohesive conservation solution that educates and
engages the local community and visitors with the Punjabi history of Yuba-Sutter. Beginning at
the gurdwara, the tour could showcase the route of the Nagar Kirtan, continue to the Punjab
Bazaar, and end with Eager Orchards, showing additional sites of interest along the way
pertaining to the Punjabi community such as the Becoming American exhibit at the Community

328
“CEQA and the California Register: Understanding the 50- year Threshold,” California Office of Historic
Preservation, CEQA Case Studies, Vol. VI, September 2015, accessed July 16, 2018,
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1071/files/VI%20Understanding%20the%2050-year%20Threshold.pdf.

141
Memorial Museum and the Sikh Community Center. Building off of the Sikh Community
Center, educational programming could also be integrated into the local Punjabi school and
youth programs to educate them on the history of the Punjabi community in Yuba-Sutter,
highlighting the sites associated with them through presentations or more interactive methods
such as field trips. The Community Memorial Museum’s Becoming American exhibit is a strong
conservation solution that is already in place and could be expanded to incorporate more
emphasis on the places that tell the Punjabi community’s history. Additions to the exhibit
focusing on Eager Orchards and Tuly Singh Johl’s story, the Yuba City Gurdwara, the Nagar
Kirtan, and the Punjab Bazaar would allow the community and visitors to make concrete
connections between the history of the community and its translation to the built environment.
The UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive, as mentioned before, is one the strongest
conservation methods available and should be the primary tool used to collect documentation on
this community. Continuing to add additional information and visual materials on these four sites
and additional sites associated with the Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter would provide educational
awareness of these places.

142
Conclusion
The identification and documentation of the heritage and cultural resources significant for
the Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter is just one aspect of telling their story. The mechanisms utilized to
conserve these sites is an equally if not more important step to ensure these resources are
safeguarded and able to continue to thrive in the built landscape of Yuba-Sutter and serve as
repositories of the Punjabi community’s history. These sites do not just speak to the struggles,
contributions, and achievements of Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter and the U.S., they also
showcase how heritage operations and functions within transnational immigrant groups as a
hybrid between the homeland and the diaspora.
Heritage conservation and the Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter does not stop with these four sites.
There are additional historic avenues in Yuba-Sutter and the greater California region that
require further identification, documentation, and conservation. In terms of the Punjabi Sikh
community of Yuba-Sutter, additional sites of interest that warrant further research and
documentation include the Punjabi American Heritage Festival and the homes and agricultural
operations of prominent Punjabi pioneers including Tuly Singh Johl, Mehar Singh Tumber, Hari
Singh Everest, Puna Singh, and Nand Kaur. There is an additional gurdwara located at 2269
Bogue Road that is another potential significant resource for the Punjabi Sikh community.
329

It is important to note that the Punjabi population of Yuba-Sutter although predominantly
composed of members of the Sikh faith, also has Hindu, Muslim, and Christian community
members. Hindus have historically been a small percentage of the immigration statistics of
Punjabis, composing only 5% until 1947 and Muslims about 33% or 1/3.
330
Sites associated with
the Muslim and Hindu Punjabi immigrants in Yuba-Sutter should also be researched and
documented to relay the complete story behind Punjabi settlement in this region. Two potential
sites to explore would be the Sri Narayan Hindu Temple at 1829 Franklin Road built in 1996 and
the Islamic Center of Yuba City at 3636 Tierra Buena Road.
331
Built in 1994, The Islamic Center
is of particular interest given it was the first site of a hate crime that resulted in the destruction of
a mosque.
332
The mosque was near completion when it was destroyed through an act of arson on

329
Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town 79.
330
La Brack, The Sikhs of Northern California, 71.
331
Stark et al., Yuba City, Our Home Town, 79.
332
“About,” An American Mosque, accessed July 16, 2018, http://www.anamericanmosque.com/.

143
September 1, 1994.
333
The community was able to rebuild the mosque by 2000 through
donations from not only the Muslim community, but the Sikh, Mormon, and Christian
community as well.
334

Marysville is another area of interest given it has historically served as the commercial
center of the Yuba-Sutter region. The early South Asian businesses described in Chapter 6,
although mostly no longer extant, are additional avenues that require further research. Identifying
additional South Asian businesses and the places early Punjabi immigrants shopped could reveal
additional potential cultural resources. Jane Singh, daughter of Puna Singh and Nand Kaur and
former professor at UC Berkeley, conducted a walking survey of commercial properties in
Marysville. The year and the whereabouts of this survey are unknown but this would serve as a
valuable source for the conservation of businesses and commercial operations associated with
Punjabi immigrants in Marysville.
335
Finally, the Mexican Punjabi communities that developed
not just in the Yuba-Sutter area, but around California, especially El Centro and the Imperial
Valley are an often an overlooked part of Punjabi and Latinx history. Scholarship, primarily by
Karen Leonard, exist on the topic but additional identification of the sites linked to these
communities is also an avenue for further research in terms of conservation in Punjabi and
Latinx communities.
336

Despite the differences in each of these four sites’ characteristics and conservation
solutions, they are all interconnected due to the fact that they are not significant not for their
architecture, but for their shared histories and their foundational role in formulating a Punjabi
immigrant community in Yuba-Sutter. The comparative analysis for each of these sites also
demonstrates their shared connection to heritage sites in Punjab that have provided precedent for
the place-making techniques utilized by the Yuba-Sutter Punjabi communities. Beyond
demonstrating the historical trends of vernacular, socially, and culturally significant sites within
the Punjabi community, these four heritage sites situate this community within a global context.

333
Paul M. Barrett, American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (New York, NY: Picador, 2008), 200.
334
Zaineb Mohammed, “Documentary Tells Story of First Mosque Destroyed by Arson,” East Bay Express,
February 20, 2014, accessed August 7, 2018,
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/CultureSpyBlog/archives/2014/02/20/documentary-tells-story-of-first-mosque-
destroyed-by-arson.
335
Rajinder Tumber, interviewed by Deepeaka Dhaliwal at Yuba City, California, January 4
th
, 2018.
Author reached out to UC Berkeley regarding Jane Singh’s survey of Marysville, no items of this kind were donated
to UC Berkeley following Dr. Singh’s retirement.
336
For more information on Punjabi-Mexican marriages see Karen Isaksen Leonard, Making Ethnic Choices:
California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans, (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992).

144
The Punjabis of Yuba-Sutter have appropriated and adopted specific elements from prominent
heritage sites in Punjab such as the Golden Temple, the Nagar Kirtans part of various
Gurupurabs, the bazaars, and the agriculture to create their own hybrid, blended versions that fit
within the Yuba-Sutter landscape. Analyzing the heritage of the Yuba-Sutter community against
the heritage of Punjab also brings up the question of authenticity and whether these sites are their
own authentic forms of heritage given that they draw heavy influence from heritage sites in
Punjab while incorporating characteristics that fit the American landscape. In the end, these sites
help this transnational immigrant group maintain ties to the heritage of their homeland while
simultaneously staking their claim in a new country.
South Asian Americans as an overall ethnic group are an integral part of the American
story. Like many other immigrant groups, there is a lot of work to be done to identify the
heritage that tells the South Asian American story. It is the goal of this thesis to demonstrate how
studying these communities from the perspective of place in combination with the scholarly
work done on South Asian Americans and Punjabi immigrants can uncover untold stories and
provide additional insight about religious, economic, and social life. As stated in the introduction
of the Asian American and Pacific Islander theme study, “We can make serious connections
among critical issues of the day and relate them to the past when we locate and interpret sites
where important events, people, and ideas occurred.”
337
The overall goal of this research is
demonstrate how Yuba-Sutter can serve as a case study for others interested in the intersections
between heritage conservation and Punjabi immigrants and to serve as a starting point for
understanding how Punjabis and South Asian Americans have engaged with their built
environment.

337
Odo, “Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to the National Historic
Landmarks Theme Study,” 2.

145
Bibliography

“1954 Assessor's Map.” Book 10, pg. 26, Office of Sutter County Records.

“2007 Assessor's Map.” Book 10, pg. 21, Office of Sutter County Records.

“2010 Assessor's Map.” Book 10, pg. 26, Office of Sutter County Records.

"80,000 People to Participate in Yuba City Sikh Parade." India Abroad, November 30, 2007,
A30.

"About." Berkeley South Asian Radical Walking Tour. Accessed July 16, 2018.
http://www.berkeleysouthasian.org/.

"About." SAADA South Asian American Digital Archive. Accessed August 5, 2018.
https://www.saada.org/about.

"About." An American Mosque. Accessed July 16, 2018. http://www.anamericanmosque.com/.

"About Me." Arijit Sen: Associate Professor of Architecture, Buildings-Landscapes-Culture.
Accessed July 7, 2018. https://senspeaks.wordpress.com/.

"About Us." Punjabi American Heritage Society. Accessed July 7, 2018.
https://www.punjabiheritage.org/about-us/.

Allenwalla. "New Plan of Harmandar." Sikh Wiki: Encyclomedia of the Sikhs, September 3,
2008. Accessed May 5, 2018. http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/File:New-Plan-of-
Harmandar-rp.jpg.

"Alien Land Law to Be Invoked Against Yuba City Hindu Landowner." The Sacramento Union,
November 10, 1922.

"Amelia Singh Netervala Oral History Interview -- Part 1." Interview by Randa Cardwell.
SAADA (South Asian American Digital Archive). March 2, 2015. Accessed October 11,
2017. https://www.saada.org/item/20160802-4582.

"Appendix 2: AAPI National Historic Landmarks Study List." Finding a Path Forward: Asian
American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, edited by Franklin
Odo. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed July 15, 2018.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/tellingallamericansstories/upload/19-Appendix-II-Study-
List.pdf.

"Article 12 – Inventories." Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible
Cultural Heritage, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.
October 17, 2003. Accessed July 16, 2018.

146
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-
cultural-heritage/.

"Article 13 – Other Measures for Safeguarding." Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of
the Intangible Cultural Heritage, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
Organization. October 17, 2003. Accessed July 16, 2018.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-
cultural-heritage/.

Bakhshi, Surinder Singh. Sikhs in the Diaspora: A Modern Guide to The Practice of Sikh Faith:
A Knowledge Compendium for the Global Age. Singh Bros., 2010.

Barkan, Elliott Robert. From All Points: Americas Immigrant West, 1870-1952. Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2007.

Barrett, Paul. American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion. New York, NY: Picador,
2008.

Baucom, Randy. Telephone interview by author. March 21, 2018.

Bawa, J. S. The Heritage of Amritsar. Amritsar: Faqir Singh, 1978.

Bhalia, Kartar S. Let’s Know Festivals of India. New Delhi: Star Publ., 2005.

Bhatia, Harbans Singh, and Shiri Ram Bakshi. Religious Traditions of Sikhs. New Delhi: Deep &
Deep Publications Pvt., 2000.

Bhatti, Parul. Significance of Color in Sikh Turbans. Bombay: IDC, IIT. Accessed June 22, 2018.
http://www.dsource.in/resource/sikh-turbans/significance-color-sikh-turbans.

Birnbaum, Charles A., ASLA. "Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning,
Treatment and Management of Historic Landscapes." National Park Service, U.S.
Department of the Interior. September 1994. Accessed July 15, 2018.
https://www.nps.gov/tps/how-to-preserve/briefs/36-cultural-landscapes.htm.

Boyle, Susan Calfate. "Natural and Cultural Resources." Cultural Landscapes: Balancing Nature
and Heritage in Preservation Practice, edited by Richard Longstreth. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2008.

Brack, Bruce La. The Sikhs of Northern California: A Socio-historical Study. PhD diss.,
Syracuse University, 1980.

Brar, Balwant Singh. "East Indians of Sutter County." Sutter County Historical Society News
Bulletin XVII, no. 2 (April 1978).

147
Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices From the Partition of India. Durham, NC:
Duke Univ. Press, 2003.

"California Points of Historical Interest." Office of Historic Preservation. Accessed July 16,
2018. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21750.

"California Register of Historical Resources." Office of Historic Preservation. Accessed July 16,
2018. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21238.

"CEQA and the California Register: Understanding the 50- Year Threshold." California Office of
Historic Preservation, CEQA Case Studies VI (September 2015). Accessed July 16, 2018.
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/pages/1071/files/VI Understanding the 50-year Threshold.pdf.

"Certificate of Occupancy." September 20, 1979. City of Yuba City. Department of Building
Inspection.

Chandra, Satish. "Gadar Memorial Center, San Francisco." SikhPioneers.Org. May 20, 2003.
Accessed August 5, 2018. https://www.sikhpioneers.org/gadar-memorial-center-san-
francisco/.

"Chapter 18.94 Historic Preservation.” The Marysville Municipal Code. December 19, 2017.
Accessed July 14, 2018.
http://www.codepublishing.com/CA/Marysville/html/MarysvilleCA18/MarysvilleCA1894
.html.

Chima, Jugdep S. Beginnings of Sikh Extremism (1978-1981), The Sikh Separatist Insurgency in
India: Political Leadership and Ethnonationalist Movements. Delhi: Sage Publications
India, 2008.

Chopra, Radhika. "A Museum, A Memorial, and A Martyr." Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture,
Theory 9, no. 2 (2013).

Chopra, Radhika. "1984 – Disinterred Memories." Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory
11, no. 3 (2015).

Choy, Catherine Ceniza. "New Asian American Communities: Building and Dismantling." In
Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks
Theme Study, edited by Franklin Odo. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the
Interior. Accessed July 15, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/16-Essay-16-New-
Asian-American-Communities.pdf.

"Classes." Sikh Community Center. Accessed July 7, 2018.
http://sikhcommunitycenter.com/index.php/courses/.

"Cling Peach Production Pours Fortune Into Area." Appeal Democrat, January 23, 1960.

148
Cole, H.H, and Major R.E. "Golden Temple at Amritsar, Punjab." The Journal of Indian Art,
1886-1916, October 1980.

CRCI (India) Pvt. Ltd. And IPE Global PVT Ltd. City HRIDAY Plan for Amritsar. Vol. 1.
February 2016. Accessed April 15, 2018.
http://hridayindia.in/downloads/chp/amritsar/CHP_for_Amritsar_Volume_I.pdf.

Creasey, Andrew. "Prep for 80,000 at Yuba City For Celebration." SikhNet. October 28, 2014.
Accessed May 01, 2018. https://www.sikhnet.com/news/prep-80000-yuba-city-
celebration.

Creasey, Andrew. "Sikh Festival Bringing a Parade of Activity." Appeal-Democrat, May 26,
2018. https://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/sikh-festival-bringing-a-parade-of-
activity/article_9eca6e30-7c71-11e5-a74c-77a4a2c2ec4d.html.

Delay, Peter J. History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, California: With Biographical Sketches of
the Leading Men and Women of the Counties Who Have Been Identified with Their
Growth and Development from the Early Days to the Present. Los Angeles, CA: Historic
Record, 1924. Accessed March 2, 2017. https://archive.org/details/historyofyubasut00dela.

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. "Founding of Yuba City." Leaving Yuba City: Poems. New York:
Anchor Books, 1997.

"Eager and Kelly Bros. Purchase Laney M. Wilbur Orchard Tract." Marysville Democrat, July 7,
1924.

"Echoes of Freedom: South Asian Pioneers in California, 1899-1965: Chapter 7: Gadar."
University of California Berkeley, South/Southeast Asia Library. Accessed August 5,
2018. http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/echoes-of-freedom/chapter7.

Everest, Hari Singh. "An Open Invitation." Appeal Democrat, March 8, 1982. Accessed May 20,
2017. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-
everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-303.

Everest, Hari Singh. "Sikh Parade." India West, November 6, 1982. Accessed May 27, 2018.
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/pw/sikh-
parade/#!gallery-140-308.

Everest, Hari Singh. "The Sikh Parade." The Appeal-Democrat, November 14, 1992. Accessed
May 30, 2018. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-
everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-309.

"F. Poole Takes Eager Orchard." Appeal Democrat, April 14, 1936.

Fenech, Louis E. "The Khalsa and the Rahit." Edited by Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech. In
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

149

"Festival: Sikh Culture Celebrated at Bevy of Events on Big Weekend." Marysville Appeal-
Democrat, November 6, 2016. Accessed May 5, 2018.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/marysville-appeal-
democrat/20161106/281608124998782.

"Festivals." Punjabi American Heritage Society. Accessed July 7, 2018.
https://www.punjabiheritage.org/punjabi-american-festivals-past-melas/.

"Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930--Population." Ancestry. Accessed October 10,
2017. https://www.ancestry.com/.

“Final Decree of Partition. July 9, 1910. Book 41, pg. 527, Office of Sutter County Records.

"Fire Consumes Big Plant, Orchard Equipment on Frank Poole Ranch." Appeal Democrat,
March 29, 1944.

"Founding of Yuba City." New York.

"Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920--Population." Ancestry. Accessed October 10,
2017. https://www.ancestry.com/.

Gallo, Ester. Migration and Religion in Europe: Comparative Perspectives on South Asian
Experiences. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016.

Galvin Preservation Associates. Historic Properties Index by Street Name. Sutter County
Historic Resources Survey.

Ganeri, Anita. The Guru Granth Sahib and Sikhism. North Mankato, MN: Smart Apple Media,
2004.

Ganeri, Anita, and Mary Saunders. The First Book of Festivals: A Resource Book. London:
Evans, 2005.

Grant Deed. September 29, 1994. Book 1670, pgs. 569-570

"Gurupurabs, Gurupurab Dates." Sri Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple Amritsar). Accessed
May 25, 2018. http://www.goldentempleamritsar.org/gurpurbs.php.

"Have We a Dusky Peril? Hindu Hordes Invading the State." Puget Sound American, September
16, 1906, 16. Accessed October 10, 2017. https://www.saada.org/item/20111215-549.

Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 2006.

150
"Hindus Scared by Plan to Oust Them." Puget Sound American, September 16, 1906, 16.
Accessed October 4, 2017. https://www.saada.org/item/20111215-547.

"Hindus Too Brunette to Vote Here." The Literary Digest, March 10, 1923.
https://www.saada.org/item/20101210-148.

Hirabayashi, Lane Ryo. "Asian American Businesses, 1848 to 2015 Accommodation and
Eclectic Innovation." In Finding a Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander
National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, edited by Franklin Odo. National Park Service,
U.S. Department of the Interior. July 20, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/07-
Essay-7-Asian-American-Business.pdf.

"Historic Preservation Combining District." Sutter County Zoning Code. Accessed July 13,
2018. https://www.suttercounty.org/assets/pdf/cs/ps/zoning_code.pdf,

"Historic Properties." Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County. Accessed May 20, 2018.
http://www.suttercountyhistory.org/historic-properties.html.

"History." Lamon Construction Company, Inc. Accessed June 5, 2018.
http://lamonconstruction.com/history-1/.

Hurley, Russel Fred. The Migratory Worker: A Survey of Marysville Federal Migratory Camp
and the "Pear Orchard" Squatter Camp, Yuba City. PhD diss., University of Southern
California, 1939. 1939.

Inaba, Nobuka. "The Ise Shrine and the Gion Festival." Conservation of Living Religious
Heritage, edited by Herb Stovel, Nicholas Stanley-Price, and Robert Killick. Papers from
the ICCROM 2003 Forum on Living Religious Heritage: Conserving the Sacred. Accessed
July 15, 2018.
https://www.iccrom.org/sites/default/files/ICCROM_ICS03_ReligiousHeritage_en.pdf.

Jacobsen, Knut A. South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions in South Asian and
in the Diaspora. London: Routledge, 2009.

Jain, Shika. "Revisiting Planning for Indian Cities: The Pilgrim City of Amritsar." Edited by
Yamini Narayanan. In Religion and Urbanism: Reconceptualising Sustainable Cities for
South Asia. New York: Routledge, 2016.

Jakobsh, Doris R. Sikhism. Vol. Xi. Honolulu (Hawaii): University of Hawaii Press, 2012.

Jensen, Joan M. Passage from India: Asian Indian Immigrants in North America. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1988.

Johl, Dr. Gulzar. Interview by author. January 5, 2018.

Johl, Dr. Gulzar. Interview by author. May 14, 2018.

151

“Joint Tenancy Deed.” October 27, 1943. Book 56, pgs. 296-298, Office of Sutter County
Records.

Kanner, Rachel. "History: Stockton Gurdwara Sahib." San Joaquin Magazine, February 2, 2014.
Accessed July 25, 2018. https://sanjoaquinmagazine.com/2014/02/history-stockton-
gurdwara-sahib/.

Keene, Michael. New Steps in Religious Education, Book 2. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2003.

Keitumetse, Susan. "UNESCO 2003 Convention on Intangible Heritage: Practical Implications
for Heritage Management Approaches in Africa." The South African Archaeological
Bulletin 61, no. 184 (2006): 166.

Key and Laughlin Civil Engineers. Proposed Addition to Gurdwara Sikh Temple Addition. July
31, 1981. City of Yuba City. Development Services Department.

Khalsa, Sukhmandir. "Yuba City Annual Sikh Parade Illustrated." ThoughtCo., March 18, 2017.
Accessed May 15, 2017. https://www.thoughtco.com/yuba-city-annual-sikh-parade-
illustrated-4123259.

Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. New Haven: Yale
University Press., 2017.

Khurana, Gurveen Kaur. "The Nagar Kirtan and Sikh Diaspora." Edited by Pashaura Singh.
Sikhism in Global Context. New Delhi: Oxford University Pressiversity Press, 2012.

Kumar, Vaisali Krishna. "Routledge Research in Landscape and Environmental Design."
Cultural Landscapes of South Asia: Studies in Heritage Conservation and Management.
Accessed May 5, 2018.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13527258.2017.1333523, 909.

La Brack, Bruce. "A Century of Sikhs in California by Bruce La Brack." The Sikh Foundation
International. July 3, 2011. Accessed May 01, 2018. http://www.sikhfoundation.org/sikh-
punjabi-language-studies/a-century-of-sikhs-in-california-by-bruce-la-brack/.

Lee, Ching. "Sikhs Remember Carnage." Appeal-Democrat, November 22, 2004. Accessed July
27, 2018. https://www.ensaaf.org/home/news/media/Appeal-Democrat.pdf.

Lee, Erika. "Immigration, Exclusion, and Resistance, 1800s-1940s." Finding a Path Forward:
Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, edited by
Franklin Odo. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed July 15,
2018. https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/04-Essay-4-immigration.pdf.

Leonard, Karen. "Punjabi Famers and California’s Alien Land Law." Agricultural History 59,
no. 4, 549. Accessed October 12, 2017. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3743757.

152

Leonard, Karen Isaksen. "Finding One's Own Place: Asian Landscapes Re-visioned in Rural
California." In Culture, Power, Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology, edited by
Akhil Gupta and James Ferguson. Duke University Press, 1977.

Leonard, Karen Isaksen. The South Asian Americans. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997.

Leonard, Karen. Making Ethnic Choices California’s Punjabi Mexican Americans. Philadelphia
PA: Temple University Press, 2010.

Leyser, Christine. "Yuba City Sikh Parade Foils Expectations." India West, November 9, 1984.
Accessed May 30, 2018. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-
singh-everest/pw/sikh-parade/#!gallery-140-305.

"Little Sutter Land Is Sold to Asiatics." The Sacramento Union, June 19, 1920.

Mann, Gurinder Singh, Paul David Numrich, and Raymond Brady Williams. Buddhists, Hindus,
and Sikhs in America a Short History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

"Map from Bill S. 237 Illustrating Asiatic Zone of Barred Citizenship (1945)." South Asian
American Digital Archive (SAADA). May 04, 2013. Accessed October 4, 2017.
https://www.saada.org/item/20120131-609.

"Map of 2017 Nagar Kirtan Route." Map. Yuba City Police Department.

Miller, Allen P. An Ethnographic Report on the Sikh (East) Indians of the Sacramento Valley.
1950. MS, South/Southeast Asia Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Min, Pyong-Gap. Preserving Ethnicity Through Religion in America: Korean Protestants and
Indian Hindus Across Generations. New York: New York University Press, 2010.

"Mission, Vision, and Values." SAADA South Asian American Digital Archive. Accessed
August 5, 2018. https://www.saada.org/mission.

Mitra, Diditi. Punjabi Immigrant Mobility in the United States: Adaptation Through Race and
Class. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Mitra, Swati. Punjabi Travel Guide. New Delhi: Eicher Goodearth, 2006.

Mitra, Trisha, and Beheroze, Shroff. "Documentary Filmaker Beheroze Shroff, Interviewed by
Trisha Mitra." South Asian Popular Culture 2, no. 2 (October 2004): 185-93.
doi:10.1080/1474668042000275743.

Mohammed, Zaineb. "Documentary Tells Story of First Mosque Destroyed by Arson." East Bay
Express. February 20, 2014. Accessed August 7, 2018.

153
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/CultureSpyBlog/archives/2014/02/20/documentary-tells-
story-of-first-mosque-destroyed-by-arson.

Myrvold, Kristina. Sikhs Across Borders: Transnational Practices of European Sikhs. Edited by
Knut A. Jacobsen. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.
Myrvold, Kristina. Sikhs in Europe Migration, Identities and Representations. Edited by Knut A.
Jacobsen. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2011.

"Nagar Kirtan Taken out on Eve of Gurpurb in City." Tribune India. November 25, 2015.
Accessed May 25, 2018. https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/amritsar/nagar-kirtan-taken-
out-on-eve-of-gurpurb-in-city/162712.html.

Nakhwal, Sunita. Telephone interview by author. February 4, 2018.

"Name New Directors." Maryville Appeal, June 3, 1915.

"Name New Directors." Marysville Appeal, June 3, 1915.

"National Register Bulletin: Guidelines for Evaluating and Documenting Historic Aids to
Navigation to the National Register of Historic Places." National Park Service, U.S.
Department of the Interior.
https://www.nps.gov/nr/publications/bulletins/nrb34/nrb34_8.htm.

"No. 1039 Sikh Temple Site." Office of Historic Preservation. Accessed July 16, 2018.
http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21483.

Odo, Franklin. "Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans Revisited: An Introduction to
the National Historic Landmarks Theme Study." Edited by Franklin Odo. Finding a Path
Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study.
Accessed July 15, 2018. https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/00-Introduction.pdf.

Okihiro, Gary Y. "Imperialism and Migration." Finding a Path Forward: Asian American
Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, edited by Franklin Odo.
National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed July 18, 2018.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/01-Essay-1-Imperialism-and-Migration.pdf.

"Permit #10110011." November 1, 2010. Building Permit Record. City of Yuba City.
Development Services Department.

"Permit #850615." October 14, 1985. City of Yuba City. Development Services Department.

"Permit #920238." March 11, 1992. Building Division. City of Yuba City. Development
Services Department.

"Permit #920294." March 23, 1993. Plan Check and Building Permit Application. City of Yuba
City. Development Services Department.

154

"Permit #950728." August 10, 1995. Building Permit Record. City of Yuba City. Development
Services Department.

"Permit #B4287." July 10, 1979. City of Yuba City. Development Services Department.

Piper, Craig S. New Deal Migratory Labor Camps in California, 1935-1942: Three Case
Studies. PhD diss., Mississippi State University, 1999. 146.

Punjabi American Heritage Society. "Mission." Becoming American Museum. Accessed July 15,
2018. http://www.punjabipioneers.com/Mission.

Rait, Satwant Kaur. Sikh Women in England: Their Religious and Cultural Beliefs and Social
Practices. Sterling, VA: Trentham Books, 2005.

Ranganath, Nicole. "1923-1945: Hard Times." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed October 12, 2017. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/eras/1923-1945/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "1965-1983: Community Revival." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive. Accessed May 27, 2018. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/eras/1965-1983/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Hari Singh Everest, M.A." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed November 5, 2017.
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/professionals/hari-singh-everest/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Journey to the US and Early Years in California." UC Davis Pioneering
Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed October 4, 2017.
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-johl/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Mehar Singh Tumber and Surjit Kaur Tumber." UC Davis Pioneering
Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed October 4, 2017.
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/meha-tumber/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Puna Singh and Nand Kaur." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive. Accessed October 17, 2017.
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/puna-singh-and-nand-kaur/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Punjab." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed May 15,
2018. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/origins/punjab/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Purewal Brothers." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed July 25, 2018. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/farmers/purewal-
brothers/.

155
Ranganath, Nicole. "Return to India." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed
November 20, 2017. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-
johl/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Return to the US." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed October 12, 2017. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-
singh-johl/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Stockton Gurdwara." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed July 27, 2018.
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/stockton-temple/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Tuly Singh Johl." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed
February 15, 2018. http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/people/pioneers/tully-singh-
johl/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Yuba City Area." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive. Accessed
March 15, 2018. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/places/destinations/yuba-city/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Yuba City Gurdwara." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed November 5, 2017.
http://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/tierra-buena-temple/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Yuba City's Sikh Parade." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive.
Accessed May 27, 2018.
https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/contributions/religion/yuba-citys-sikh-parade/.

Ranganath, Nicole. "Introduction to the Archive." UC Davis Pioneering Punjabis Digital
Archive: A New Source Documenting the History of the South Asian Pioneers in
California, 1899-Present. Accessed July 15, 2018. https://pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu/.

"Recall History of Live Oak and Its Growth Into a City: Oldest Resident Recounts Saga of Area
from First House to Incorporation." Appeal Democrat, January 20, 1947.

Roots in the Sand. Directed by Javasri Majumdar Hart. United States: Center for Asian American
Media, 1998. DVD.

Rose, David. Sikhism. Dunstable: Folens, 1995.

Roy, Anjali Gera. Imperialism and Sikh Migration: The Komagata Maru Incident. London:
Routledge, 2018.

Sayer, Derek. "British Reaction To The Amritsar Massacre." Past and Present, no. 131 (May
1991).

156
Sen, Arijit. "Intertwined Cultures: Devon Avenue, Chicago.” Intertwined Cultures. Accessed
July 5, 2018. http://intertwinedcultures.weebly.com/.

Sen, Arjit. "Creative Dissonance: Performance of Ethnicity in Banal Spaces.” InTensions
Journal, no. 2 (Spring 2009). Accessed May 23, 2018.
http://www.yorku.ca/intent/issue2/articles/pdfs/ArijitSenArticle.pdf.

Sen, Arjit. "Queens, South Asian Commercial Corridor: Decoding Ethnicity in the Jackson
Heights South Asian Shopping Strip." Paper Presented at the Vernacular Architecture
Forum Conference, New York City, June 2006, 6. Accessed May 12, 2018.
https://senspeaks.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/jackson-heights-tour-vaf-booklet-scan.pdf.

Sen, Arjit. "Food, Place and Memory: Bangladeshi Fish Stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago."
Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment 24,
no. 1-2 (March 2016): 67. Accessed May 20, 2018.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2016.1145026.

Shah, Nayan. "Establishing Communities, 1848-1941." In Finding a Path Forward: Asian
American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, edited by Franklin
Odo. National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed July 20, 2018.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/upload/05-Essay-5-establishing-communities.pdf.

Shah, Nayan. Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality, and the Law in the North American
West. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011.

Shroff, Beheroze. E-mail to author. June 26, 2018.

"Sikh Canadian History." ExplorAsian: Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Festival. Accessed
May 27, 2018.

"Sikh Procession in Amritsar: Nagar Kirtan on the 344th Anniversary of the Birth of Guru
Gobind Singh." The Telegraph. January 04, 2010. Accessed May 25, 2018.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/6932703/Sikhs-process-in-
Amritsar-for-the-Nagar-Kirtan-on-the-344th-anniversary-of-the-birth-of-Guru-Gobind-
Singh.html?image=6.

"Sikh Temple Press Release." Sikhs of Northern California, June 6, 1978. San Jose State
University. Special Collections and Archive, South Asian Collection. Accessed April 25,
2018. https://calisphere.org/item/9a70fac3d0b0f86495dfa859f093e338/.

"Sikhs Allowed to Land." San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 1899. South Asians in North
America Collection. Bancroft Library. UC Berkeley.

Singh, Balvinder. "The Tangible and Intangible Heritage of the Walled Cities of Amritsar and
Lahore: Need for an Integrated Conservation Approach." Accessed June 7, 2018.
http://www.thaap.pk/assets/balvinder-singh.pdf.

157

Singh, Balvinder. "Redevelopment and Conservation: The Case of Amritsar." Context 9, no. 1
(2012): 35.

Singh, Bhai Baldeep. "What Is Kirtan?: Observations, Interventions, and Personal Reflections."
Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory 7, no. 3 (2011): 240.

Singh, Jagraj. A Complete Guide to Sikhism. Chandigarh, India: Unistar Books, 2009.

Singh, Kamalroop. "Sikh Martial Art (Gatka)." Edited by Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Singh, Nikky-Gurinder Kaur. Sikhism: An Introduction. London: I.B Taurus, 2011.

Singh, Pashaura. The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning, and Authority. New Delhi: Oxford
University Press, 2000.

Singh, Satbir. "Daily Routine of Golden Temple Amritsar." Sri Harmandir Sahib (The Golden
Temple, Amritsar). Accessed May 5, 2018. http://www.goldentempleamritsar.org/daily-
routine-of-sri-harmandir-sahib.php.

Singh, Sodhi Hazara. A History & Guide to the Golden Temple, Amritsar. Amritsar: Bazar
Mai Sewan, 1938.

Singha, H. S. The Encyclopedia of Sikhism (over 1000 Entries). New Delhi: Hemkunt Publishers,
2000.

"Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940--Population." Ancestry. Accessed October 10,
2017. https://www.ancestry.com/.

Sohi, Seema. Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance, and Indian Anticolonialism in North
America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Sroka's Design and Drafting. Proposed Additions for Sikh Temple Gurdwara. September 12,
1995. City of Yuba City. Development Services Department.

"Stadium Projects." Lamon Construction Company, Inc. Accessed June 05, 2018.
http://lamonconstruction.com/new-page-1/.

Staiff, Russell, Robyn Bushell, and Steve Watson. Heritage and Tourism: Place, Encounter,
Engagement. London: Routledge, 2013.

Staiff, Russell, Robyn Bushell, and Steve Watson. Heritage and Tourism: Place, Encounter,
Engagement. London: Routledge, 2013.

158
Stark, Julie, Sharyl Simmons, David Rubiales, and Carol Withington. Yuba City, Our Home
Town. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Publishers, 2008.

Sweet Jail: The Sikhs of Yuba City. Directed by Beheroze Shroff. United States, 1985. DVD.

"Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage." National Park Service, U.S. Department of the
Interior. https://www.nps.gov/articles/tangible-cultural-heritage.htm.

Tatla, Darshan. The Sikh Diaspora: The Search for Statehood. London: UCL Press, 1999.

"Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage." United
Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. October 17, 2003. Accessed
July 16, 2018. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-
heritage/convention-intangible-cultural-heritage/.

"The 2000 Yuba City Sikh Parade – PAHS Press Release." Punjabi American Heritage Society.
Accessed May 27, 2018. http://www.punjabiheritage.org/2000/11/01/the-2000-yuba-city-
sikh-parade-pahs-press-release/.

"The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible and Cultural Heritage." In UNESCO Office
in Santiago: UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the
Caribbean. Accessed July 14, 2018.
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/santiago/culture/intangible-heritage/convention-intangible-
cultural-heritage/.

"Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910--Population." Ancestry. Accessed October 10,
2017. https://www.ancestry.com/.

Tiwari, Anshuman, and Andindya Sengupta. Laxminama: Monks, Merchants, Money and
Mantra. New Delhi: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.

Tumber, Rajinder. Interview by author. January 4, 2018.

"Vineyard Company Has Incorporated: Capitalized at $100,000 Divided Into Two Shares."
Marysville Appeal, October 10, 1913.

Virdee, Gurmit Singh. "Labour of Love: Kar Seva at Darbar Sahib’s Amrit Sarover." Sikh
Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory 1, no. 1 (June 2005).

Webster, Kayla. "Sikh Festival and Parade: All of the Work That Goes into It." Appeal-
Democrat, November 2, 2017. Accessed May 15, 2018. http://www.appeal-
democrat.com/news/sikh-festival-and-parade-all-of-the-work-that-goes/article_992737b0-
c044-11e7-8c62-63c671e90d96.html?referer_url=/news/sikh-festival-and-parade-all-of-
the-work-that-goes/article_992737b0-c044-11e7-8c62-63c671e90d96.html.

159
"Who Maintains the Levees in Sutter County?" Sutter County California. Accessed February 15,
2018. https://www.suttercounty.org/doc/government/depts/ds/pw/wr/fp/levee.

Witter, Daniel. "Turning Ignorance into Understanding: Sikhs Hope New Film Will Help to
Dispel Mystery." Appeal-Democrat, October 21, 2002.

"Yuba City California: American Punjabi Sikhs." American Communities, (United States
Department of State Bureau of International Information Program, April 2012). Accessed
May 20, 2018.
https://photos.state.gov/libraries/amgov/133183/english/P_AmericanCommunities_Punjabi
s_1_.pdf.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract Yuba City, a rural town in Northern California, contains the largest concentration of Punjabi-Americans outside of India. Part of the larger Yuba-Sutter area, this region is composed of Yuba City and smaller surrounding towns including Marysville, Tierra Buena, and Live Oak. These cities came together to become a popular destination for Punjabi immigrants during the early twentieth century. Despite the large presence of Punjabis across the nation since the 1900s, virtually no work has been done on Punjabi-Americans within the context of heritage conservation. As conservation moves towards becoming a more inclusive field that strives to tell the overlooked stories of underrepresented communities in American history, it is imperative that the Punjabi-American story is documented as part of the larger South Asian American narrative. Focusing on the Yuba-Sutter area, this study aims to create a basic framework that highlights the Punjabi immigrant story in Yuba-Sutter through the built environment. To do this, this study reformulates agricultural, religious, and economic history through the lens of heritage conservation, given that these three sectors are the core of Punjabi-American life in Yuba-Sutter. ❧ Through research and evaluation, this has resulted in the identification of four preliminary sites worthy of conservation including Eager Orchards, the Yuba City Gurdwara (Sikh Temple), the Yuba City Nagar Kirtan procession, and the Punjab Bazaar. This study concludes that like many communities of color, the sites representative of Punjabi-American history are often intangible traditions, vernacular sites of cultural memory, and associated with the recent past, which often do not fit the criteria of traditional historic preservation. Regardless, they still speak to a powerful story of labor relations, economic transactions, kinship networks, and religious traditions that all came to intertwine in the backdrop of the rural landscape of Yuba-Sutter. By using the Yuba-Sutter area as a case study for heritage conservation within Punjabi-American communities, the ultimate goal of this study is to serve as a starting point for broader work on heritage conservation within South Asian immigrant groups.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

The tent, camel, and coffee: safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage of the Rum Village Bedouins

PDF

Would community design overlay (CDO) be a tool for revitalizing Los Angeles Chinatown?

PDF

The ambivalence of conserving Busan’s colonial heritage

PDF

Examining Feng Shui as tangible and intangible cultural heritage

PDF

Lessons from Little Saigon: heritage conservation and ethnic enclaves in Orange County

PDF

Managing change on Newbury Street: a case study analysis

PDF

Gaining a foothold: conserving Los Angeles' queer Eden(dale)

PDF

Values-based approach to heritage conservation: identifying cultural heritage in Los Angeles Koreatown

PDF

Heritage in practice: a study of two urban rivers

PDF

Adaptive reuse of historic buildings for permanent supportive housing: Los Angeles case studies

PDF

Interpreting historic murals: a case study approach and best practices used in Fengguo Temple

PDF

Empowering communities through historic rehabilitation: creating a maintenance plan for public housing developments in Los Angeles

PDF

Preserving California City: an exploration into the city plan preservation of a mid-century, master-planned community

PDF

Legacy business program implementation in American urban immigrant neighborhoods: a case study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

PDF

Engaging today's youth at house museums: forging a vision for the Gamble House

PDF

Money in the bank: three case studies in the adaptive reuse of midcentury bank branch buildings

PDF

Scanning using a smart phone for heritage conservation: a case study using the Reunion House

Asset Metadata

Creator Dhaliwal, Deepeaka (author)

Core Title Yuba-Sutter: a case study for heritage conservation in Punjabi-American communities

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation

Degree Program Heritage Conservation

Publication Date 10/08/2018

Defense Date 09/07/2018

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Agriculture,cultural memory,ethnic grocery stores,Heritage Conservation,Historic Preservation,intangible heritage,OAI-PMH Harvest,Orchards,Punjabi Americans,Punjabi immigrants,Punjabi Sikhs,Punjabis,Sikhism,South Asian Americans,South Asian immigrants,South Asians,Sutter County,Vernacular architecture,Yuba City,Yuba City Gurdwara,Yuba City Nagar Kirtan,Yuba County,Yuba-Sutter, Marysville, Tierra Buena, Heritage Conservation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmeier, Trudi (committee chair), Bharne, Vinayak (committee member), Shah, Nayan (committee member)

Creator Email ddhaliwa@usc.edu,deepeakad@gmail.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c89-74333

Unique identifier UC11672129

Identifier etd-DhaliwalDe-6787.pdf (filename),usctheses-c89-74333 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-DhaliwalDe-6787.pdf

Dmrecord 74333

Document Type Thesis

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Dhaliwal, Deepeaka

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA