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. Kartar Dhillon was the fourth child in the family.[4][5] At the time she was born, their family was the only Indian family in Simi Valley.[5] From 1916 to 1922, she and her family lived in Astoria, Oregon, where her father worked at a lumber mill.[6]

During World War II, Dhillon worked as a machinist and truck driver from the Marine Corps. 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.[7] In 1994, at age 80, Dhillon founded the Chaat Collective, a South Asian American art and performance collective.[8]

She died in 2008 in Berkeley, California.

Writings

Interviews

Media
  • The film Turbans, about a Sikh family in Astoria, Oregon in 1918, is based on Dhillon's memoirs[6][9][10][11]

See also

References
  1. Pisani, Dildar Gill. 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. Mann, Gurinder Singh; Numrich, Paul; Williams, Raymond (2007-12-03). Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs in America. Oxford University Press. p. 97. ISBN 9780198044246.
  5. Shandas, Padma (2005). Spices in the Melting Pot: Life Stories of Exceptional South Asian Immigrant Women. Orange Tree Pub. p. 12. ISBN 9780976174202.
  6. 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.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. Asian Women United of California (1989). Making Waves: An Anthology of Writing By And About Asian American Women. Beacon Press. ISBN 0807059056.
  8. "Chaat: What is Chaat". Chaat: Voices from the South Asian Diaspora. Chaat. Archived from the original on 1998-02-12. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  9. Anderson, Erika Surat. "Turbans". Erika Surat Anderson. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  10. "Kartar Dhillon". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
  11. Andersen, Erika Surat. "'Turbans' – 30 minute film for PBS". Erika Surat Andersen. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
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