Sunder Singh on the left and Jassa Singh on the right
Sunder Singh came to Canada in 1906/1907 where he worked at the Abbotsford Mill as well as on the Railway track. In his short time working at the Trethewey Mill he became the foreman very quickly because of his hard work and how well-respected he was. He managed approximately 30 workers during his time at the mill. At this point, there were already conversations starting about building the Gur Sikh temple in Abbotsford, and these conversations came to a reality fairly quickly for the South Asian community. Sunder Singh, also known as Sunder Singh Thandi, was such a prominent member in society and everyone knew who he was; even though the Caucasian people typically referred to him as “Joe the Hindu.” Though, this seems terribly racist by 21st century standards, this was not seen as derogatory at this time. It is said that if Sunder Singh was referred to anything other than “Joe the Hindu,” people would not know to whom they were referring. Sunder Singh was a name that people he sold his agricultural products to did not know and to his face they called him “Joe.” With Sunder Singh being such a pleasant person in the community, he was able to develop a multitude of positive cross-cultural relationships within the Fraser Valley. There were very few people that refused to buy goods from Singh because he was always honest and respectable with his products; he was known to never swindle anyone making his business flourish from Chilliwack to Vancouver. He would mainly take trips to Vancouver to sell his cows, potatoes, barley and other goods because that is typically where he would profit the most.
P11786 – Thandi family studio portrait. Left to right: Sucha Thandi, Ossi Thandi, Harnam Kaur Thandi holding Gurdale Thandi, Gopal Singh Thandi, Sundar Singh Thandi, Jeeto Harbajan Kaur Thandi, Gurbachan Singh Thandi.