This is a story about a remarkable Sikh family and the communities they lived in and supported in both Canada and India. Kapoor Singh Siddoo arrived in British Columbia in 1912 and overcame racial prejudice and legal discrimination to transform himself from labourer to lumber baron. He and his wife, Besant Kaur, fostered in their daughters a vision of service and activism that they fulfilled by establishing a hospital in Punjab and introducing an Indian spiritual tradition to their new home in Canada. Hugh Johnston tells their story with warmth and perceptiveness, while telling a larger tale about the trials and tribulations faced by immigrant communities in Canada.

Hugh J.M. Johnston is a professor emeritus in history at Simon Fraser University. Among his publications are two other books on Punjabis in Canada, The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life Journey of an Emigrant Sikh and Jewels of the Qila: The Remarkable Story of an Indo-Canadian Family.

Hugh J.M. Johnston's profile page

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.

Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of What the Body Remembers and The Tiger Claw

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.

Harjot S. Oberoi, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

Jewels of the Qila is not just a success story about one unusual family. This is a splendidly serious, smart and multifaceted investigation of events and characters in both India and Canada. Using Kapoor [Singh Siddoo]'s wide-ranging life as a prism, Johnston has provided an authoritative and engaging overview of Sikhs in B.C.

BC BookWorld, Autumn 2012