Gerrard Square
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{{Infobox settlement name = Little India image_skyline = Gerrard_Street,_Toronto.JPG image_size = 275px image_caption = The Gerrard India Bazaar on Gerrard Street pushpin_map = Canada Toronto pushpin_label_position = none pushpin_map_caption = Location within Toronto pushpin_mapsize = 275 coordinates = 43°40′18″N79°19′28″W / 43.67153°N 79.32441°WCoordinates: 43°40′18″N79°19′28″W / 43.67153°N 79.32441°W settlement_type = Neighbourhood subdivision_type = Country subdivision_name = Canada subdivision_type1 = Province subdivision_name1 = Ontario subdivision_type2 = City subdivision_name2 = {{flagicon image Toronto
established itself as one of the city's top cultural landmarks. It celebrates the annual Festival of South Asia in late August.[1]
The Gerrard India Bazaar Business Improvement Area (BIA)[2] sponsors events that appeal to the different South Asian groups that shop in the area: in 2004, Diwali, the Hindu and Sikh festival of lights, and Eid ul-Fitr, the Islamic feast day that marks the end of Ramadan, occurred around the same time in November. The BIA held a joint Diwali-Eid festival.[3]
The neighbourhood is serviced by the 506 Carlton streetcar.
History[edit]
Toronto's Little India started in 1972 when businessman Gian Naaz rented (and later purchased) the Eastwood Theatre on Gerrard Street, which he named the Naaz Theatre, and began to screen Bollywood and Pakistani films, reputedly the first cinema in North America to exclusively screen South Asian films.[4] This attracted large numbers of Indo-Canadian visitors from across the Greater Toronto Area, leading to a number of new businesses opening to cater the South Asian community. The area expanded rapidly and to nearly 100 stores and restaurants spreading over a large stretch of the street between Greenwood Avenue to Coxwell Avenue. Despite there being few South Asians residents in that part of the city, Naz opened his theatre in the economically depressed, largely Anglo-Saxon area because it was the cheapest venue he could find.[4]
The success of the theatre resulted in South Asian restaurants and retailers opening in previously empty storefronts as the area became a gathering point for South Asians in the 1970s and the Gerrard Indian Bazaar developed and thrived with daily visitors.[5][6] The first of these restaurants was MotiMahal, which was opened by Gurjit Chadha and his wife in 1975, with the encouragement of friends.[7] By the 1980s, “Little India” was firmly established. The area contained approximately 100 South Asian shops and restaurants and received an estimated 100,000 tourists in 1984, including visitors from as far as Detroit.[8]
The growth of Little Indian was met with resistance from some in the largely Anglo-Saxon adjacent neighbourhood with incidents of vandalism and racist violence in the 1970s.[4] With incidents escalating and shop owners feeling the police ignoring the crimes, in 1977 the South Asian community started an anti-racist taskforce to report racist attacks.[7] The Gerrard India Bazaar BIA was formed in 1982 to promote the area's businesses and coordinate events.[7]
The Naaz Theatre eventually closed in 1985 when introduction of VHS tape and Bollywood videos became more widespread. The theatre was revival in the 1990s but eventually closed and the lower levels were converted into a small mall, The India Centre.[7] In 2015 it was converted into a mix use building known as the Multani Village, with rental apartments and street level stores.[7]
Legacy[edit]
While South Asian businesses continue to thrive along Gerrard Street, it lost its central position of South Asian commerce since the late 2000s as an increasing number of South Asian businesses opened in other parts of Greater Toronto to support the growing South Asian immigrant population in the city. Within Toronto, multiple neighbourhoods in Scarborough and Etobicoke contain high concentrations of South Asian businesses. Other South Asian neighbourhoods have also developed in the surrounding cities of Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Markham and Pickering, with rapidly growing communities in Milton and Ajax.
References[edit]
- ^Lalaie Ameeriar; Stanford University. Dept. of Anthropology (2008). Downwardly global: multicultural bodies and gendered labor migrations from Karachi to Toronto. Stanford University. p. 1.
- ^Gerrard India Bazaar Business Improvement Area
- ^Brouse, Cynthia. 'Indian SummerArchived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine', Toronto Life, September 2005.
- ^ abchttp://torontoist.com/2012/01/historicist-nights-out-at-the-naaz-theatre/
- ^Bauder, Harald. 'Toronto's Little India: A Brief Neighbourhood History'.
- ^Suorineni, Angelica. 'Gerrard India Bazaar : an atypical ethnic economy in a residential neighbourhood'.
- ^ abcdeAndrew Hudson (2015-06-16). 'Dinner and a movie the start of the Gerrard India Bazaar'. Beach Metro Community News. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
- ^Bauder, Harald. 'Toronto's Little India: A Brief Neighbourhood History'.