Bagai’s Bazaar (South Asian history)

In nineteen twenty-one, Vaishno Das Bagai opened a shop called Bagai’s Bazaar on Fillmore Street. Vaishno, an immigrant from Peshawar, operated this import business and general store while living with his wife, Kala, and their three sons in an apartment upstairs. The shop became a central point for their family life and a local connection to the Indian community during a time when most South Asian immigrants in the city were single men.