The Ghadar Collective is a political education and organizing initiative focused on training and empowering diasporic South Asian organizers and activists through intersectional political education, organizing, and coalition-building. This initiative is rooted in and builds on the radical legacy of the Ghadar Movement that mobilized South Asian migrant workers, intellectuals, and revolutionaries against British colonialism and imperialism in the early 20th century across the Lower Mainland and the West Coast at large. Similarily, the Ghadar Collective would serve as a container to facilitate inter-caste, inter-faith, inter-racial, and inter-regional solidarities among South Asian and diasporic communities and organization.

South Asians are one of the largest visible minority groups in Canada. The umbrella term “South Asian” is heterogenous and full of its own complexities, made up of numerous communities overlapping and diverging along the lines of caste, gender, religion, region, language, nationality, and immigration status. Despite being impacted by similar issues like racism, gender-based violence, and rising ethnonationalism, South Asian communities in the Lower Mainland remain fragmented, fractured, and siloed along the lines of caste, religion, ethnicity, and region. There are a lack of spaces that foster a sense of solidarity and cohesion, and the fragmentation limits opportunities for communities to learn from each other and build together.

The Ghadar Collective emerges out of the need to facilitate more inter-caste, inter-faith, inter-racial, and inter-regional coalition building to reimagine “South Asianness” through frameworks of intersectionality and collective liberation. The goal for the Ghadar Collective is two-fold: 

1. Strengthen individual movements: Equipping participants and organization representatives and leaders with the skills, analysis, and relationships needed to lead their own movements more effectively, with deeper intersectional awareness and strategic capacity.
2. Building collective power: Creating spaces for movements that often remain siloed to come together, share resources, and develop coordinated strategies for collective liberation across communities.

The Ghadar Collective cultivates this dual approach through a suite of accessible and sustained offerings for organizers, activists, and community leaders across the Lower Mainland and beyond. Members of the Collective gain access to:‍

• Political Education Workshops focused on foundational analysis (e.g., caste, gender/sexuality, decolonization, labour, migration, and coalition-building) with rotating guest facilitators and community partners.‍
• Capacity-Building Workshops designed to support stronger organizing infrastructure, offering sessions on building coalitions, designing campaigns, navigating group dynamics, and strengthening organizational capacity across movements. ‍
• The Annual Ghadar Summit, a gathering designed to convene organizers, scholars, workers, and cultural and organizational leaders to share strategies, amplify underrepresented work, and build cross-community vision and alignment.‍
• A Community Listserv and Directory to connect emerging and experienced organizers, circulate opportunities, share events, and facilitate ongoing collaboration.‍
• Access to Resource Libraries including curated readings, toolkits, organizing guides, campaign case studies, and media resources produced in partnership with allied organizations.

Together, these offerings create a generative infrastructure for diasporic South Asian communities to learn, grow, and organize, individually and collectively, towards shared visions of justice and liberation.

If interested in learning more or getting involved, please reach out to admin@poeticjustice.foundation.