Jewels of the Qila

Hugh J.M. Johnston is a historian affiliated with Simon Fraser University. He is the author of two previous books on Punjabis in Canada, The Voyage of the Komagata Maru and The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life Journey of an Emigrant Sikh.

Harjot S. Oberoi, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia:
Johnston’s vast knowledge of Canadian immigration history has resulted in a book that will long set the standard for those aspiring to recover the social history of British Columbia.

Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of What the Body Remembers and The Tiger Claw:
Hugh Johnston swept me away on the long arc of his narrative ... Jewels of the Qila is a deeply researched and engagingly written story of an unconventional family sustained by faith, friendships made and tested in Canada, and concern for the welfare of the people of India.

Doris Jakobsh, Department of Religious Studies, University of Waterloo:
A wonderful book! Johnston brings his many years of scholarship to bear on a very important family narrative and history, one that spans several continents, generations, and regions in Canada.

Joseph T. O’Connell, University of Toronto:
Historian Hugh Johnston once again has teamed up with a remarkable Canadian Sikh family to weave a richly detailed tapestry of their trials and triumphs as immigrants in an initially alien land they have striven successfully to understand and make their home.