Kartar Dhillon

Kartar Dhillon (Punjabi: ਕਰਤਾਰ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ) was a South Asian American political activist and writer from California. Dhillon grew up in the Ghadar Party, working to end British colonialism in India.[1] As an activist, she supported unions, the Black Panther Party, farm workers, political prisoners, and the Korean reunification movement.[1][2][3]

Kartar Dhillon
Born(1915-04-30)April 30, 1915
Simi Valley, California
DiedJune 15, 2008(2008-06-15) (aged 94)
Berkeley, California
OccupationActivist

Her father Bakhshish Singh Dhillon and her mother Rattan Kaur lived in Oregon and California. Her father wasone of the first Punjabi pioneers to arrive in the United States in 1897.[4] Kartar Dhillon was the fourth child in the family.[5][6] At the time she was born, their family was the only Indian family in Simi Valley.[6] From 1916 to 1922, she and her family lived in Astoria, Oregon, where she and her siblings attended school and her father worked at a lumber mill.[7][8] Her family

During World War II, Dhillon worked as a machinist and truck driver from the Marine Corps. Her youngest brother, Hari, also volunteered for the Marine Corps and was killed in action in Okinawa in 1945 at the age of 18.

She picked crops, worked as a waitress, and was the secretary for the San Francisco, Teamsters and Abestos Worker's unions. She retired in 1983.[2]

Her writing included "The Parrot's Beak," an autobiographical essay about her early life published in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women.[9] In 1994, at age 80, Dhillon founded the Chaat Collective, a South Asian American art and performance collective.[10]

She died on June 15, 2008, in Berkeley, California.[11] She is survived by two children, nine grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.[12]

Writings

Interviews

Media
  • The film Turbans, about a Sikh family in Astoria, Oregon in 1918, is based on Dhillon's memoirs[7][13][14][15]

See also

References
  1. Pisani, Dildar Gill (1999). Kim, Hyung-chan (ed.). Distinguished Asian Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 85–88. ISBN 0313289026.
  2. "Kartar Dhillon". The Daily Journal. July 1, 2008. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  3. "5 South Asian Americans You Should Know About". South Asian American Digital Archive. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  4. "Kartar Dhillion | Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive". pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  5. Mann, Gurinder Singh; Numrich, Paul; Williams, Raymond (2007-12-03). Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America. Oxford University Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780198044246.
  6. Shandas, Padma (2005). Spices in the Melting Pot: Life Stories of Exceptional South Asian Immigrant Women. Orange Tree Pub. p. 12. ISBN 9780976174202.
  7. Bhatt, Amy; Iyer, Nalini (2013-05-15). Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press. pp. 41–45. ISBN 978-0-295-80455-2.
  8. "Interview with the Iron Lady ~ Kartar Kr Dhillon". SikhNet. 2008-07-10. Retrieved 2022-09-06.
  9. Asian Women United of California (1989). Making Waves: An Anthology of Writing By And About Asian American Women. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807059056.
  10. "Chaat: What is Chaat". Chaat: Voices from the South Asian Diaspora. Chaat. Archived from the original on 1998-02-12. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  11. "Interview with the Iron Lady ~ Kartar Kr Dhillon". SikhNet. 2008-07-10. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
  12. "Honoring Kartar Dhillon, Political Organizer and Writer". The Heretic. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  13. Anderson, Erika Surat. "Turbans". Erika Surat Anderson. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  14. "Kartar Dhillon". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  15. Andersen, Erika Surat. "'Turbans' – 30 minute film for PBS". Erika Surat Andersen. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
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