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Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. MAPPING SPACES BEmENAGING ANID AGENCY HOW OLDER HINDU IMMGRANT WIDOWS RENECOTIATE SPACE AND POWER IN METROPOLITAN VANCOUVER Set among South Asian comrnunities of Meuopolitan Vancouver, this research focuses on the immigrant experience of aging among Hindu widows. The gist of this project rests on identifying the kinds of strategies immigrant widows deploy in order to fulfill their desire, needs and expectations for a ôetter life in Canada and give meaning to their social realities. While acknowledging older Hindu widows' endemic social marginaiity as a distinct social category against the dominant social values and practices among South Asian cornmunities of Greater Vancouver and mainstream Canadian society, my prirnary focus is to examine how the women who participated in this research rnake connections and interact with others. 1 specifically focus on how they reshape their social realities by negotiating new relations of power within a Canadian social landscape. This project is grounded in a qualitative methodology of open-ended interviews that examine the Me-stories of six elderly widowed participants through their references to spatial metaphors and to theu notion of personality that they Iink with autonomy and power. Their Me-stories are set in a postmodern concept of a third-tirne space which considers home and community as dynamic and fiuid spaces that are contingent to hurnan agency and social structures, and, therefore, are grounded in a politics of location that contextualizes their individual immigrant experiences. in that vein, a 'third-time space' becomes a useful theoretical toot that grants women a fluid but provisional space wherein they can select the most effective strategy of the moment in order to manipulate relations of power when the need arises. Hence, their life-stories give us some valuabie insights in the way they are actively engaged in a continuai process of redefining their identities in relation to others and to their social realities as older wornen living in the South Asian diaspora of Metropditan Vancouver. Table of Content Pages TITLE PAGE Title Page Approval Page Abstract Table of Content List of Tables PRELUDE CHAPTER 1 - Methodologies 12 - Aging and Ethnicity 13 - Hindu Communities of Greater Vancouver: A Demographic Profile 16 - Access to Research Sites 19 - Methodological Shifi 23 CHAPTER II - Mapping Third-time Spaces beîween Aghg, Ethniciv & Agency 27 - Third-time space as a Site for Power and Resistance 29 - Edcentric Subjects and Marginalized Agents 34 - Subversive Speeches as "hidden transcripts" 36 CHAPTERIII - Topophilia - Mapping Spaces between 'here ' and 'back there ' - Sites of Empowerment - Continuity through Worship & Rituals CHAPTER IV - Meentrie & Marginalized Widows - Widows Stories - Udsettling Relations CHAPTER V - Balancing Acts: beîween Righi5 and Obligations - Persondity as a Means for Agency - A Brief History of the Status of Women - Mapping Connections: A Widow 's Story ENDMGS 98 References Glossary LIST OF TABLES Tables # 1. South Asian Population: Demographic distribution throughout Greater Vancouver #2. South Asian Population in British Columbia #3. South Asian Women Population in British Columbia: Religious Status, Marital Status and Age #4. South Asian Women in British Columbia: Age sets #5. Immigration Profile of Participants #6. Sites and lengths of Interviews As part of South Asian communities of Greater Vancouver, older Hindu women who immigrate to Canada hold expectations for 'a better life' with their children that will provide emotiond and economic stability in their later years. They also expect to retain their traditional familial role of influence and authority while enjoying some level of autonomy in building sociai ties with other community members. Resettling in a new geographical and cultutal landscape, however, inevitabfy generates dismptions and changes that challenge women's roles and positions as well as their cultural identities. Hence, the fundamental question in consideration is whether Hindu immigrant women's expectations for 'a better life', particularly older widows, are necessarily fulfdled and in what ways? Moreover, what kinds of strategies do they resort to in order to alleviate existing discrepancies between their expectations and the realities of their everyday Iives? How do they map spaces for self-assertion and recenter their position within their families? How do they regain some level of autonomy in their communities and develop social ties? In an attempt to answer (at least partidly) these questions, 1 will focus on the oral accounts of some older immigrant Hindu women living in Metropditan Vancouver with different life experiences. 1 will also analyze in what ways their life-stones reflect the immigrant experience in king located between pst and present and between the 'here and now' and 'back there'. However, before examining those questions a brief historical account of successive influxes of South Asian immigrants to Canada and in British Columbia is mandated. We must fmt specify who we label as "South Asians". South Asians: an Ethnic Mosaic The term "South Asian" is commonly used by Statistics Canada as an overall ethnic category that comprises people from the Subcontinent and people of indian origins from other parts of the world. This term wrongly suggests a culturally hornogenous group despite its diverse ethnic, religious and geographical characteristics. As Buchignani (1985: 144) remarks, "South Asiaas exhibit a greater degree of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity than any other ethnic population in Canada." In fact, South Asians originate not only from India proper but also fkom Pakistan, Sn Lanka, Nepal and across the diaspora in South and East Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji and Great Bntain. Aside from their geographical diversity, South Asians speak at least a dozen different languagesl, from which four linguistic groups emerge: Punjabi in the north of India, Gujarati in the West, Bengali in the East and Tamil in the South. Hindi, however, holds the status of the official language since Independence dong with English. South Asians share not only a linguistic diversity but also practice a religious pluralism. Although Hinduism is still the dominant religion throughout the Subcontinent and has thus influenced every aspect of Indian life in the 1st two thousand years, Buddhism, Islam, Sikhism and Christianity evolved dong with it. Regional differences, linguistic diversity and reïigious pluralism fonned integrai parts of what is broadly termed as South Asian culture which reflects the Indian belief of unity