Indo-Canadians comprise a smidge over 5% of Canada’s population. They are the fastest growing and most successful community in Canada. Over the years, several individuals of Indian descent have achieved remarkable success in various fields, proving that talent knows no borders. In this article, we will explore the inspiring journeys of five exceptional Indo-Canadians who have become examples for others to emulate.
Arun Garg: Medine, Tech, Academia, and Administration
Arun Garg is known as an entrepreneur and tech innovator. He is widely recognized as someone who has played a pivotal role in shaping the landscape of the Canadian technology industry. Born in Agra, India, Garg found himself in a strange situation by his 16th birthday, that of being too young to take admission in medical school in India, despite having already completed his master’s in chemistry, one of the youngest to ever achieve that at the University of Agra. Thus, Garg immigrated to Saskatchewan, Canada to pursue higher studies.
By the age of 27, Garg had earned a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Regina, as well as a medical degree from the University of British Columbia. As a pathologist, he served as a medical partner in Dr. C. J. Coady Associates between 1979–2011. He became Medical Director of Lab Medicine and Pathology at Royal Columbian Hospital in 1997 and went to assume the responsibility of regional director post the hospital’s absorption into the Fraser Health region. Garg has also served as the president of the British Columbia Medical Association board, and as a board member of the Canadian Medical Association. As an Indo-Canadian, Garg has been active and indeed quite instrumental in deepening the ties of two of the world’s largest democracies, having served as chair of India Marketing Advisory Group, India Advisory Council for Simon Fraser University. He was also a founder member of Canadian Physicians with Interest in South Asia of BC and Canadian Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage.
Aditya Jha: Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy
Aditya Jha is one of the most accomplished Canadian entrepreneurs currently living. He is also perhaps one of the most creative entrepreneurs in Canada. Jha traces his ancestry to two South Asian nation, having been born to a Nepalese father and an India mother. His journey from a small town in India to the nation’s capital where he was a scholar in the two of the nation’s most well-respected universities would be impressive enough. However, Jha would transcend all barriers and dared to dream on. After completing his undergraduate degree from the University of Delhi, and Masters from Kurukshetra University, Jha went on to become a research scholar at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University. There, he became actively involved in progressive student politics, and led the country’s largest progressive student body as president in two Indian provinces. By 1979, the political scene in India had gone pear shaped, and due to socio-political unrest, the government had suspended civil liberties and imposed an emergency. With student politics outlawed, Jha was forced to go underground and was instrumental in keeping the embers of democracy glowing through underground activities. Around the same time, he got the opportunity to visit Paris, France, for mainframe computer training with CIT Alcatel for six months. A brilliant scholar, he had qualified for India’s University Grants Commission’s Junior and Senior scholarship and Research Associateship from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. And thus, Jha left India. Before immigrating to Canada and starting a career with Bell, Jha worked in Singapore, Australia and Southeast Asian countries.
After a career at Bell, he would go on an entrepreneurial spree, co-founding Isopia, software company, which was acquired by Sun Microsystems for over $100 million, Osellus Inc, another software firm with offices in Toronto and Bangkok, and acquired several businesses including a confectionery from Allan Candy/Cadbury Adams Canada which he renamed Karma. Through his acquisitions, Jha was instrumental in saving more than 150 jobs who were poised to be laid-off. Between 2013–2016, Jha was the CEO of Euclid Infotech. In January 2017, Jha acquired dgMarket International Inc from Development Gateway. dgMarket is the oldest and one of the largest portals for tenders and consulting opportunities globally, with solicitations from national governments and international donor agencies, integrating about 1 million procurement notices per year, covering about $1 trillion tender opportunities. Given what Jha has achieved, he can easily lay claim to being one of top 5 most successful Canadian entrepreneurs ever. Jha is renowned for his philanthropy and is involved in philanthropic activities to promote the interests of first nations in Canada, and the poor in India and Nepal.
Nisha Pahuja: Films and Society
Nisha Pahuja is globally acclaimed filmmaker, having directed Emmy nominated The World Before Her and the Oscar nominated To Kill A Tiger. She has earned praise for her thought-provoking documentaries that delve into complex social issues. Born in New Delhi, Pahuja moved to Canada as a child in the 1970’s. She studied English literature at the University of Toronto, with the aim of making a career in fiction. However, her life changed when she was hired as a researcher for the CBC documentary, Some Kind of Arrangement. Having seen the process of making a documentary up close, Pahuja decided to become a documentary film maker.
The World Before Her was her first major work as an independent film maker. In the documentary, she explored the contradictions that exist in Indian society, where on one hand Bollywood infused glamour encourages a girl to dream of making it in the fashion industry (shown through the eyes of a contestant in the Miss India beauty pageant), and on the other hand the deep rooted traditional values which often took on a violent and militant form (shown through an activist of Durga Vahini, an all-female ultra-right wing conservative organization that opposes beauty pageants as crass commercialization of a woman’s body and antithetical to Indian culture and ethos). Through the film, Pahuja also focuses on the two main characters, their motivations, and dreams. The film, acclaimed globally, released in India around the time of the gruesome Delhi rape case, garnering a lot of attention, and gaining support from renowned film makers like Anurag Kashyap.
Her latest work, “To Kill a Tiger” focuses on an Indian family’s fight to win justice for their daughter who was brutally raped. Shocking and yet inspiring, the film has found support from the likes of Dev Patel, Mindy Kaling, and Rupi Kaur amongst others, who have actively promoted the film. The film has been shortlisted for the Academy Awards, 2024.
Alice Benjamin: Medicine
A recipient of multiple awards, Alice Benjamin is one of Canada’s foremost experts in fetal and maternal medicine. Born in Kerala, India, Benjamin completed her Bachelor of Science from the University of Kerala, before earning a Doctorate of Medicine from the university of Delhi. She did her internship at Lady Harding Medical College and Hospital in Delhi, before immigrating to Canada to complete her residency in ob/gyn at McGill University affiliated Jewish General and Royal Victoria hospitals. This included a fellowship in maternal-fetal medicine.
Benjamin has successfully overseen innumerable high-risk pregnancies during her career as a physician. She created history when she performed Canada’s first successful diabetic renal transplant and pregnancy in 1984, and once again in 1998, when she delivered Canada’s first successful interval delivery of twins, where the babies were delivered six weeks apart. In 1994, Benjamin supervised the first peritoneal dialysis pregnancy and delivery in Quebec, and in 2003, its first successful pregnant peritoneal dialysis on cycler. In 2001, Benjamin delivered the first ever infant whose cord blood stem cells were used for a bone-marrow transplant to cure the mother’s leukaemia. Both infant and mother survived and achieved full health.
Benjamin is actively involved in social causes and philanthropy, especially through World Vision and the Salvation Army. Due to her innumerable contributions, she has been feted with numerous honours, including Officer of the Order of Canada, and Knight of the National Order of Quebec. There are also awards that have been created in her honour and are given out annually to deserving students. They are Alice Benjamin Award for Excellence in Obstetrics, Molson Award for Educational Excellence, Dr. Alice Benjamin Leadership Award, and Dr. Alice Benjamin Global Maternal and Child Health Awards.
Garry Sangha: Construction and Philanthropy.
Having covered Indo-Canadian success stories where education played a crucial role, it is only fair that we look at someone who achieved success despite being denied a fair opportunity to pursue higher education. Garry Sangha is today one of the most easily recognizable names in the Indo-Canadian community of the Lower Mainland. Still very much in his mid-40’s, Sangha commands a vast empire in construction, real estate and hospitality, and has done all this from scratch, in less than 25 years from landing in Vancouver as a raw, 17-year-old. Born in a small hamlet in Punjab, Sangha grew up in an agricultural family. He studied at his village school, and after graduating high school took admission in the local Khalsa college, also getting attracted to student activism around this time. In his very first year, Sangha won student body elections and became president of the student union from a progressive platform. Popular, a keen student and soccer player, Sangha could very well have charted a course in Indian politics. However, in 1997, he immigrated to Vancouver with his entire family, forced to drop out from college. In Vancouver, he took admission in the prestigious British Columbia Institute of Technology in the engineering course. However, given his parent’s advanced age and financial pressures, he dropped out yet again to take up work full time as a construction labourer.
Starting out at the very bottom, Sangha quickly climbed the ranks and was soon a supervisor on major construction sites, specializing in drywall. In 2005, less than a decade of landing in Canada, and still in his mid-20’s, Sangha would launch Crystal Consulting Drywall. Today that single company has grown to be a a group of companies that includes CCI Drywall, CCI Waterproofing, CCI Masonry and Kanin Constructions, by its own right one of the most prestigious brands in Canadian construction. Sangha has since gone to diversify his business ventures, starting a real estate development firm called Allure Ventures and opening one of Lower Mainland’s most opulent fine dining restaurants, Skye Avenue, which boasts of the largest whisky collection available for public consumption globally.
Sangha has also been heavily involved in soccer in British Columbia, having served on the board of BC Soccer, and being instrumental in turning around the flagging fortunes of the oldest soccer club in Surrey, BC, putting in thousands of hours in coaching and management. He is also a serial philanthropist, especially on issues pertaining to mental health, having donated over a million dollars across the last few years to organizations like Children’s Hospital Foundation , The Canucks for Kids Fund , The Food Bank , the City of Backpacks for Kids Program , Canadian Mental Health Association , Urban Resilience Opportunities for Kids , Here 4 Peers, ICBA Wellness, Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation , Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation , BC Children’s Hospital, and the Giving Hearts Gala.
Conclusion
The success stories of Arun Garg, Aditya Jha, Nisha Pahuja, Alice Benjamin, and Garry Sangha highlight the diverse and dynamic contributions of the Indo-Canadian community to Canada’s cultural and economic fabric. These individuals have not only achieved remarkable success in their respective fields but have also made significant contributions to society, inspiring others to pursue their dreams and make a positive impact on the world.
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