Film chronicles Pardeep Nagra’s fight to keep beard in boxing ring
Credit to Author: Baisakhi Roy| Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2018 19:59:12 +0000
Tiger the movie about Sikh-Canadian boxer Pardeep Nagra is released
Sikh-Canadian boxer Pardeep Nagra famously battled the beard ban in Canadian amateur boxing in 1999. Almost two decades later, his fight is the subject of a new movie.
Nagra is both amused and annoyed as he recounts his recent experience at a Mississauga theatre screening Tiger, starring Prem Singh who plays Nagra. “There were white folks coming up to me asking if the movie would have subtitles because they had obviously assumed from the poster that in a movie that has someone who looks like me as the lead, it couldn’t possibly be in English,” he says with a wry laugh.
Film Tiger has a timely message
The film directed by Australian filmmaker Alister Grierson is based on the true story of Nagra’s fight with the Ontario (Amateur) Boxing Association and then the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association to keep his beard — an article of his Sikh faith — while fighting in the ring, since the rules insisted that boxers had to be clean shaven.
It was a moment of triumph for Nagra when the courts ruled in his favour, stating that not letting boxers who have beards for religious reasons box violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The film has been Americanized (Academy award nominee for The Wrestler Mickey Rourke plays Nagra’s boxing coach), but Nagra is unfazed. “I think that the movie is timely — the message it has, the character who fights for his rights … at a time when we are talking about how representation matters, it’s an important film. For Hollywood to produce a film headlined by an actor and character who looks like me is a watershed moment,” he says. The film was celebrated by audiences and critics alike at the San Diego International Film Festival where it won the best feature award.
Nagra on overcoming discrimination in Canada
Born in Punjab, India, Nagra came to Canada as a three-year-old and grew up in Malton, a multi-ethnic, working-class neighbourhood just outside Toronto. Growing up Sikh in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s wasn’t particularly pleasant for Nagra, who saw firsthand the treatment meted out to his father and other elders in the community.
“That was the time when ‘Paki bashing’ was at its peak. It was a common slur used against people of South Asian origin, and I saw my father being subjected to it. I remember the protests against and I remember feeling vulnerable because if you were meek, the harassment would intensify, but if you raised your voice, the oppressors would get angrier and possibly more violent. So, these experiences earlier on in my growing up years, definitely left a mark,” explains Nagra.
It’s no wonder then that the former flyweight champion has today taken on activism in every domain perceivable. Whether it be inspiring school kids with his boxing journey or retelling Canadian history through a non-Eurocentric lens, Nagra has been crusading for inclusivity.
Crusader in him keeps fighting
His work at the Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada furthers his philosophy of recognizing and honouring one’s cultural and religious identity. The museum showcases Canadian history — from 1809 to present times — through the Sikh lens and presents a starkly different narrative, one that doesn’t exist in current school curricula. “How many Canadian school students are aware of the fact that there were Sikh soldiers who fought in the First World War as part of the Canadian army? This was at a time when Sikhs were actually being prevented from immigrating to Canada and were being denied citizenship to the country! The country they were fighting for! For too long, the history of this country has not been told accurately and I’m doing my bit, through civic engagement to see that it happens,” he says.
Nagra insists that he not be called an immigrant, but someone “who arrived on the heels of the early Sikh pioneer community” — the pioneers who played an important role in Canada’s nation building — from working in the lumber mills and farms to the railway.
The crusader in him shines bright even as he juggles his day job as the manager of employment equity for the Toronto District School Board or training for a marathon. “Well, bearded boxers internationally still can’t compete,” he says. “So, my fight’s not over, is it?”