What's at stake?
The march's goals are to seek federal recognition of the 1984 Sikh Genocide, advocate for transnational repression protections through bills like H.R. 5907, and build coalitions between diverse communities in the Central Valley to share histories and struggles.
The Fearless for Justice March, a 350-mile march led by the Jakara Movement, arrived in Fresno County in its journey to advocate for recognition of the 1984 Sikh Genocide.
Sikh organizers chose the same Highway 99 route — Delano to Sacramento — used in 1966 by marching farm workers led by Cesar Chavez.
More than 100 Sikh community members greeted the marchers in Fresno before entering the Sikh Institute. A group of youth marchers held a poster marking the 40 years since the genocide, with a single yellow Sikh flag held aloft as they walked.
One of the main goals of the Fearless for Justice march is for federal recognition of the 1984 Sikh Genocide by the U.S. Congress following the passage of AJR2 in 2023. The California bill, introduced by Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains, D-Delano, officially recognized the 1984 anti-Sikh violence as genocide, in the state.
In October 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for her decision to launch “Operation Blue Star,” in June 1984. The military operation sought to remove Sikh militants from the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s holiest site in Amritsar, Punjab, and resulted in significant damage to the temple and more than 3,000 Sikh deaths.
According to a report by the Ministry of Home Affairs, a ministry of the government of India, in the days following Gandhi’s assassination, widespread anti-Sikh violence erupted in India’s capital, New Delhi, and quickly spread to other cities. Mobs, reportedly incited by political leaders from the ruling Congress Party began attacking Sikhs in a wave of coordinated assaults. Thousands of Sikhs were murdered, homes and businesses were destroyed, and women were sexually assaulted. The police and government were accused of being complicit in the violence.
Joginder Singh Matharu, president of the Sikh Institute, emphasized the importance of youth understanding their history and heritage, expressing hope that the march and evening events would help achieve that goal.
“My personal fear is that if we don’t pass on our traditions and history to the youth, they will be manipulated,” said Matharu. “If you don’t know your history, people can manipulate you in one way or another.”
Matharu said that another goal of the march is to raise awareness about transnational repression, a form of political repression carried out by a state beyond its borders, often targeting political dissidents or critical members of diaspora communities. This includes killings within the Sikh community.
“We have to recognize the human in us, and that we are made of the same stardust, you and I,” said Matharu. “It’s just that I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. That’s the feeling we should have—we are one Earth, one people. All these boundaries, artificial divisions, and things like that, killing each other is not the solution.”
Another goal relating to transnational repression is “the passage of a Transnational Repression Protections Bill at the federal and state levels, including Stop Transnational Repression Act (H.R. 5907), introduced by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff.”
Transnational repression and Fresno
Gurdeep Shergill, a Sikh community member who has been marching nearly every day since the start in Bakersfield and helped organize the event, highlights the ongoing transnational repression against the Sikh community, particularly following the assassination in Canada, which has had “reverberating effects throughout the United States, especially in the Central Valley.”
In June 2023, the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, founder of Sikhs for Justice, in Vancouver, Canada, led Sikhs to believe it is a trend of transnational repression that can be traced to the government of India. Nijjar was a leader of a movement to create an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan.
The June 18 assassination and growing tension between Sikhs and the Modi government are of particular concern in the Central Valley, which is home to some of the oldest gurdwaras (Sikh temples) in the United States, with the first built over 100 years ago. California also has the highest concentration of Sikhs in the country, and Punjabi is the third most spoken language in the region, following English and Spanish.
Following the assassination of Nijjar, local law enforcement and the FBI warned several Sikh Americans of threats against them and many California Sikhs reported threats. Then, in November 2023, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed an indictment against an Indian national accused of working with an Indian government representative to orchestrate the assassination of a Sikh American. The indictment linked the case to the killing of Nijjar and revealed that at least three additional assassination plots were planned.
On Aug. 11, a drive-by shooting targeting a Sikh activist in California prompted The Sikh Coalition to send a letter to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, raising concerns that “this attack may have been an act of transnational repression by the government of India (GOI).”
Shergill said that Sikhs are looking toward local law enforcement “to become trained around transnational repression, as well as develop programs where they will be able to fight against manipulation and disinformation.”
“The FBI has been aware of it for some time, so I think it’s for them to be proactive in learning and not being manipulated by for foreign governments,” said Shergill.
Questions of possible transnational repression against prominent Sikh leaders in Fresno raised were raised earlier this month in a series of articles by The Sacramento Bee. According to The Bee, in 2023, then police chief Paco Balderama and Mayor Jerry Dyer met with Hindu leaders who claimed that two local Sikh men had ties to terrorism and urged both leaders to have them followed.
One of those two men was Naindeep Singh, the current executive director and one of the founders of the Jakara Movement.
Singh, who is a part of the march, said efforts to cast him and other Sikhs in a negative light aren’t isolated incidents.
“These attempts have been part of a larger conspiracy not limited to Fresno,” Singh said in an interview Friday with Fresnoland. “It seems to be part of a coordinated statewide strategy including the Bay Area and other parts of California.”
Nothing came of the meeting between the city leaders and the Hindu local leaders, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The Fearless for Justice March
Singh said marching has been a humbling experience that has made connections to other movements and communities.
Singh recalled that while walking “through largely monolingual Spanish-speaking farm communities” locals would approach and ask “Huelga? Huelga? Huelga?” thinking the march-goers were on strike. When Singh would try to explain what the march was for, the locals would ask them to wait a moment and return with cold bottles of Jarritos soda.
“They wanted to make sure that we felt supported, seen, and built a camaraderie,” Singh said, adding “these are the ways we are building community and have made this such a special event.”
When the marchers arrive in Sacramento, Singh said they expect to be joined by families of the 43 students who disappeared after being kidnapped from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Mexico in 2014.
The march also wants to build a “coalition of communities to hear and learn about each other’s histories and struggles, especially Central Valley Mexican-American, indigenous, African-American, and Southeast Asian American communities.”
In preparation for the march, Shergill said for the past three to four months, Sikh organizers spoke with United Farm Workers (UFW) logistical organizers to learn about the ways to care for marchers who might experience both physical and mental challenges.
Marchers gathered each evening at local gurdwaras for prayer, reflection, and community engagement. There were also musical programs, art workshops, legal clinics, and health clinics available for community members.
Marchers expected to reach Madera later Saturday, with stops, later, in Merced County before eventually reaching Sacramento by Nov. 1.
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