Before I start, a few things to note. Brampton, Ontario is the Punjab of Canada. There is a massive Punjabi-Sikh population here, and South Asian population in general. As of 2011, the population of Brampton, which is now nearly 550,000, included 97,790 Sikhs, 63,390 Hindus, and 36,960 Muslims. Two-thirds of Brampton’s population belongs to visible minorities, comprising an ethnically diverse population that is also very visibly Punjabi [1].
Additionally, for the remainder of my stay in Canada, I’ll be with my friend Parminder Singh and his family. I know Parminder from the Chicago gurdwara, but his home base is in Toronto. Parminder is originally from Nawanshahr, Punjab, and is the first Punjabi sports commentator of professional hockey, soccer, and basketball in Canada. Because of his standing as a public figure, including a role commentating the final match in the 2011 Punjabi-Canadian hockey film Breakaway, Parminder is extremely well-networked among the community of Punjabi YouTubers. Parminder is currently seeking nomination to be the Liberal Party’s MP candidate for East Brampton. While I believe that everything is politics (thanks to my thesis adviser, Dr. Inna Naroditskaya), I will not discuss Parminder’s campaign on this blog.
Rupan Bal’s twitter banner. When he saw my go-to URL for most things, /sirvanderbeek, he paused for a bit. “Sirvander? Is that your Sikh name? Sirvander Singh?”
The first Punjabi YouTube celebrity I met is Rupan Bal, who is known locally for his appearances in JusReign’s videos. Rupan is from Punjab and moved to Brampton when he was 14, and he has been collaborating with JusReign for about as long as JusReign has been on YouTube. The cover photo of Rupan’s twitter profile is of an upcoming Punjabi movie in which the two are starring (Rupan showed me the trailer, and he and JusReign get top billing). Rupan is working to become a Canada-based producer and writer of Punjabi feature films.
I met Rupan when Parminder and I picked him up en route to the Dixie Gurdwara. Parminder was asked to give a guest lecture to a class at Khalsa camp (a Sikh summer school held in the gurdwara), and he brought Rupan along to boost his street cred among the kids, who pointed out the window and waved as they saw Rupan approach the building. “Yo, you’re the guy from JusReign!” “Did you see me point at you? I was the kid who pointed at you!” “Can I take a selfie with you?” Parminder taught the class about Sikh values, essentially the core Sikh values that I discussed in my previous post.
Parminder teaching a class of 12 to 15 year-olds with Rupan sitting to the side. Used with permission from the school’s principal.
The three of us also made an appearance on Rupan’s Instagram channel with a hype video for the Netherlands, who later that day lost to Argentina in penalty kicks. I’m still recovering.
My favorite of Rupan Bal’s roles on JusReign’s YouTube channel is of JusReign’s fictional mother, a fierce, bearded, mile-a-minute Punjabi-speaking whirlwind who shames her (his?) son for every single shortcoming he has. She ultimately wants her son to get married and to make her look good in the process, and any mistake he makes receives threat of a thappar (slap). Rupan, though he is known locally for his connection to JusReign (I was walking in the Brampton library with him and a few friends, and some teenagers stood to the side, their mouths wide open. “Is he… from Jus Reign” “Yeah, that’s Rupan!” “I love you!”), is breaking out of the YouTube scene through film, and is developing a career in the growing Punjabi film market.
Rupan belongs to a distinctly Punjabi scene. Since his output is more catered toward a Punjabi viewership, and his YouTube channel independent of JusReign’s depicts more Punjab-specific scenarios, his target and viewing audiences are not the general global audience that his counterparts hope to attract. His videos, however, are not Sikh-specific, and they do not carry the iconography and visual markers that his peers’ videos do (e.g. JusReign’s turban and full beard, if you don’t mind scrolling to the banner of my blog. I’ll discuss iconography later on, I swear). Though I don’t think Rupan would appreciate the comparison, I view Rupan’s output in a similar vein as Yash Chopra’s, a Punjabi-born Hindu film director whose massively successful films (e.g. Dilwale Dulhuniya Le Jayenge, 1995) always incorporate colors of Punjab. Punjab, to Chopra, is a state of mind that brings out the best of India. Punjab, to Rupan (and a considerable number of Punjabis I’ve met this trip), is one of the few places in India worth visiting. In the words of Raj’s father in DDLJ: “Go east, go west, Punjab is best.”
Punjab’s culture is something the diaspora has held onto tightly, and since Brampton’s population growth (returning to Canada) is due so heavily to immigration from South Asia, the tie back to the homeland is strong — the politics of which I discuss at length, but shall again avoid in this blog.
[1] Dakshana Bascaramurty, “How Brampton demonstrates the new vision of Canada,” The Globe and Mail. Published June 15, 2013.