Occupation Activist | Name Kartar Dhillon | |
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Born April 30, 1915 ( 1915-04-30 ) Simi Valley, California Died June 15, 2008, Berkeley, California, United States | ||
Kartar Dhillon (Punjabi: ਕਰਤਾਰ ਢਿੱਲੋਂ) was a South Asian American political activist and writer from California. Dhillon grew up in the Ghadar Party, working to end British colonialism in India. As an activist, she supported unions, the Black Panther Party, farm workers, political prisoners, and the Korean reunification movement.
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During World War II, Dhillon worked as a machinist and truck driver from the Marine Corps. She picked crops, worked as a waitress, and was the secretary for the San Francisco, Teamsters and Abestos Worker's unions. She retired in 1983.
Her writing included "The Parrot's Beak," an autobiographical essay about her early life published in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women. In 1994, at age 80, Dhillon founded the Chaat Collective, a South Asian American art and performance collective. She died in 2008.