They're just too different
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The anti "Hindoo" sentiment was related to racism that Chinese and Japanese people were facing, because they both were viewed as non-Canadians with different ways and standards of life, that is out of the Canadian norms. They were also both systemically overpowered in their labor wages, as they worked low paying jobs. They were people who were more accepting of it than white Canadians, which in turn led to more Asians having those jobs. Similarly in Leonard's writing we learn that Punjabis were primarily working in the agriculture field where white people were not really involved in, in terms of doing the labor work. However, we also learn this is because Punjabis were familiar to this work as they did this sort of work with their families back in India and because of language barriers as the job required not much speaking the English language.
As they were seen as Asiatic, who are people of distinct in cultures, they were characterized and racialized in similar ways. This I imagine to be even easier to do by non-Asians especially if someone is ignorant on the differences between Buddhist practices and Hindu practices.
They were all new people swiftly getting involved in the economy of Canada, and appeared to be very handworkers. Their dedication in their work was enough for them to be managing in a foreign land and to non-Asians, this perseverance instilled to what seems like fear that they are taking over their economy and ultimately their money and jobs. They too appeared to be people disrupting their "white space" of living as they were constantly referred as "unfitted for a white man's country" (p.84), despite the land not being originally their but of Indigenous peoples of Canada.
To many white settlers in Canada, people who did not look like them or behave in their ways were grouped into a separate category of peoples. A common te rm was the term Hindus which included "Hindus proper, Sikhs and Mohammedans" (p.87).
Though there was some sympathy by white people at the time due to humanitarian concerns or for political reasons, that sympathy had its limits. The sympathy also seemed to appear as fake because one of their reasons was that they would not be able to adapt to cold winters, as if cold winters are easy for anyone and as if they are indigenous to the cold land that they are so familiar with (so they claim). Politically they were still seen as too "different and "incompatible (p.90), so to provide them the same rights as the white Canadians was not an obligation that the government should involve itself according to them to avoid culture clashes, threats to their jobs and racial tensions