page_title: Gerrard India Bazaar
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Gerrard India Bazaar / History
caption_attribution_description: Samosas are the triangular folded ones to the front right with stuffing inside, while pakoras are batter mixed with veggies. Samosas and pakoras are fair, farmer market, festive occasion, party food in India. Little India, on Gerrard St., Toronto
context_page_description: Gerrard India Bazaar, also known as Little India, is a commercial South Asian ethnic enclave in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is entirely situated along a portion of Gerrard Street, between Greenwood Avenue and Coxwell Avenue, forming one of the largest South Asian marketplaces in North America.
  Known as the city's prime Little India and Little Pakistan, it consists of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan restaurants, cafés, grocery stores, and clothing stores catering to Toronto's Desi community.
context_section_description: Toronto's Little India started in 1972 when businessman Gian Naaz rented (and later purchased) the Eastwood Theatre on Gerrard Street, which he named the Naaz Theatre, and began to screen Bollywood and Pakistani films, reputedly the first cinema in North America to exclusively screen South Asian films. This attracted large numbers of Indo-Canadian visitors from across the Greater Toronto Area, leading to a number of new businesses opening to cater the South Asian community. The area expanded rapidly and to nearly 100 stores and restaurants spreading over a large stretch of the street between Greenwood Avenue to Coxwell Avenue. Despite there being few South Asians residents in that part of the city, Naz opened his theatre in the economically depressed, largely Anglo-Saxon area because it was the cheapest venue he could find.
  The success of the theatre resulted in South Asian restaurants and retailers opening in previously empty storefronts as the area became a gathering point for South Asians in the 1970s and the Gerrard Indian Bazaar developed and thrived with daily visitors. The first of these restaurants was MotiMahal, which was opened by Gurjit Chadha and his wife in 1975, with the encouragement of friends. By the 1980s, “Little India” was firmly established. The area contained approximately 100 South Asian shops and restaurants and received an estimated 100,000 tourists in 1984, including visitors from as far as Detroit.
  The growth of Little India was met with resistance from some in the largely Anglo-Saxon adjacent neighbourhood with incidents of vandalism and racist violence in the 1970s. With incidents escalating and shop owners feeling the police ignoring the crimes, in 1977 the South Asian community started an anti-racist taskforce to report racist attacks. The Gerrard India Bazaar BIA was formed in 1982 to promote the area's businesses and coordinate events.
  The Naaz Theatre eventually closed in 1985 when introduction of VHS tape and Bollywood videos became more widespread. The theatre was revival in the 1990s but eventually closed and the lower levels were converted into a small mall, The India Centre. In 2015 it was converted into a mix use building known as the Multani Village, with rental apartments and street level stores.
caption: Food being sold in Little India.
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