California Sikh sees himself in protesting Indian farmers

By Jonaki Mehta | NPR | United States |

For Simranjit Singh, spending time in his family’s almond and raisin fields is “the most therapeutic thing I could ever ask for.” He says it’s something he could never give up.

Singh is a 28-year-old farmer in a town 15 miles west of Fresno, Calif., called Kerman.

His extended family gathered on the farm last weekend to celebrate Vaisakhi, a farming holiday celebrated annually on April 13 or 14, and throughout the month.

Vaisakhi marks the spring harvest and the new year for Indians far and wide, but for Sikh Punjabis, it holds deeper meaning. It’s when the 10th spiritual leader of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, established the Khalsa, formalizing the Sikh religion.

One of the founding principles of the religion is the idea that a true Sikh will always stand up to injustice. The Vaisakhi holiday brings the connection to both farming and what many Sikhs see as a fight for their livelihood into focus for the diaspora, including Singh.

“[When] I see the farmers and the protesting [in India], I see myself. I see my mom. I see my dad. I see my sister,” he says. “If my dad or mom didn’t come to America, we would be there on the streets of Delhi.”

Since last fall, hundreds and thousands of farmers in India have been protesting three agricultural laws that were passed last September by the Indian government. The laws would effectively deregulate wholesale trading.

There has been a long history of tension and mistrust between Indian farmers and the government, which was only furthered when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government passed those laws without consulting farmers directly.

“Farmers feel that they will be preyed on,” says Hardeep Dhillon, who studies Indian emigration patterns at Harvard.

Punjabi farmers are an essential voting bloc in the Central Valley of California, too. Last week, an assembly member in California’s House of Representatives introduced a bill recognizing India’s recent legislation as anti-farmer policies. State Route 99, which snakes through the Central Valley, is dotted with the occasional billboard of business owners advertising their support for Indian farmers.

Singh hopes to travel to India in the fall to participate in the protests himself, but for now, he says the Sikh diaspora must use their power to amplify the cause farmers in India are fighting for.

Outside of farming full time, Singh works with a Sikh youth organization, Jakara Movement. They have organized large car and tractor rallies all over the state to draw attention to the issue. The Bay Area Kisaan Movement, another organization dedicated to the farmer protests in India, held a protest last weekend to coincide with Vaisakhi.

Singh thinks ongoing international pressure is essential, especially in the midst of the Modi administration seeking to suspend social media accounts that express support for farmers, or criticism of the government’s handling of the issue.

“If there weren’t any international pressure being put on the Modi and the Indian government right now, this protest would have been probably over a long time ago,” he says, adding that the diaspora’s role at the moment is to give a second wind to the protests.

Read the full story, ‘For Calif. Sikh Farmers, India Protests Cast ‘Dark Cloud’ Over Vaisakhi Festival’, (NPR, 15 April 2021), here.

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