Series 1: Hundal Family Photographs ➔ [Photo of Ikball Singh Hundal in Reserve Officer Training Corps uniform in front of an aircraft]

Item
Identifier:
2023_17_01_009
Repository Identifier
Ikball Singh Hundal training as pilot while in ROTC circa 1920
Date
1920;Date(s) of creation
Extent
1 photograph : b&w
Format
still image
Description
Photo of Ikball Singh Hundal in Reserve Officer Training Corps uniform in front of a de Havilland, the aircraft used by the US military at the end of WW1 while training to be a pilot. Ikball was accepted to the University of Washington and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1925. During his time at the University of Washington, he signed up for the Reserve Officers Training Corp (ROTC) and achieved the highest rank of Lieutenant. After graduating from the university, Ikball encountered a very strict race bar that effectively barred him from becoming a professional engineer, a pilot or any other professional. He was told the only work for him, as a South Asian, was on the "green chain," one of the lowest paid and highest risk jobs in the industry pushing wood through the saws. Instead, Ikball chose to return to India, under the sponsorship of the Ghadar Party in 1930 to take up the activist cause to end the British rule of India. He returned to Canada in 1955. He died tragically on December 26, 1965 as the victim of random violence in Vancouver.
Rights Statement
In copyright
Subject Headings - SACDA
South Asian Canadian air pilots
Subject Headings - Library of Congress
Portraits [http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85105182];Air pilots [http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85002673]