On Thursday, March 21, the UC Berkeley Sikh Students’ Association held a protest at Sather Gate on campus. The objective was to show solidarity with the farmers protesting against theIndian government in north India, and to protest against the Indian government’s treatment of Sikh political prisoners like Amritpal Singh and Jagtar Singh Johal.
More than a dozen student protestors shouted slogans like “No farmers, no food”; “India Kills Minorities”; “Free Sikh Activists,” and chanted “Jo Bole So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akal” (Blessed is the one who says God is the Timeless Truth). A large cloth banner in the center read “India is killing its farmers”. The protestors also distributed pamphlets and spoke to passersby about their cause. Some protestors also held up a flag of the Khalistan movement and raised slogans of “Khalistan Zindabad.”
Farmer’s protests in India
The UC Berkeley protest has its roots in the larger protests happening in north India, where thousands of farmers – mostly Sikhs – have been protesting against the Narendra Modi-led Indian government, demanding a minimum support price for their crops to provide security against volatile crop prices, and crop loss caused by weather events.
This is the second time that farmers have protested against the Modi government. The first protests in 2020-2021 lasted a year, and the government agreed to roll back three controversial farm laws to meet farmer demands. Less than three years later, however, the farmers rose in protest again claiming that the government had not fully met the terms of their agreement, by failing to institute a minimum support price or withdrawing legal cases against protesters.
Since the farmer protests began again in February, authorities have tried to thwart their march into Delhi, sometimes using tear gas and rubber pellets. According to reports, a 22-year old protester Shubhkaran Singh died after a firearm injury to the head.
Farmer suicides
A study by the Punjab Agricultural University found that between 2000 and 2018, 9,291 farmers died by suicide in Punjab, mostly because of debt.
For Harnoor Singh, a protester and a junior at U.C. Berkeley, the persistence of protesting farmers despite the violence is a testament to the grim situation they face.
“I come from a very rural place near Amritsar, it’s a small village called Bagga, and I have seen a lot of people committing suicide,” he said. “The arthiyas (agricultural commission agents) say not to sell the crop at a certain price, then the crop starts decaying, and the farmer loses all his money. He already has so many loans that he is not able to pay back, and the only option left is committing suicide or running away.”
Cultural Genocide of Sikhs
Jeewan Kaur, another student protestor, said that the farmer suicides are not just a symptom of an ailing agricultural sector. “Farmer suicides will go up, and with that, a cultural genocide happens,” she said. “When you basically reduce an entire population to poverty, you’re reducing the culture as well.”
Kaur pointed to a historical record of economic and cultural oppression of the Sikh community in Punjab. Starting with the 1947 Partition to Operation Blue Star, and the riots following Indira Gandhi’s death to the more recent mistreatment of separatist prisoners, “India has tried to put Sikh and Punjabi people in this fear state, with just so much violence, just to silence them,” Kaur added.
She finds a sense of solidarity between the Sikh farmers’ movement and the peace movement for Palestine. A few Palestinian supporters joined the Sikh students at Sather Gate.
“There’s obviously solidarity from our community, because we know exactly what they’re fighting for,“ she said. “We’re [both] fighting to keep our culture, our religion, and our land intact.”
Harnoor hopes that protests like these will raise awareness and strike a chord in the U.S. about the plight of Sikh communities in India. “We have the Israel-Palestine conflict, (and the) Russia-Ukraine conflict. This is a conflict as well,” he said. “People need to be aware so that some of the lawmakers from the U.S. could go ahead and guide the Indian Government to make certain laws that are acceptable, both to the government and to the larger farmer communities.”
Student Group Under Attack
The Sikh Students’ Association promotes Sikh culture and welcomes anyone who wants to learn more about Sikhism and its culture, regardless of their religion, race, caste, or gender. They regularly host a variety of events such as kirtan nights where they sing religious hymns; self-defense workshops with traditional Sikh weapons like the gatka; Gurbani Vichaar, or spiritual discussions about Sikhism; and protests such as this one.
Harjot Kaur, the association’s president, emphasizes that all their activities are directed towards education and awareness. Unfortunately, the organization is regularly attacked on social media, she added; some members have been doxxed and trolled.
Other events the association has organized such as a similar protest in 2021, and a 2023 art exhibition about the 1984 genocide also elicited online vitriol.
“Recently, we’ve also found out our account has been banned within India; a lot of people can’t access it,” said Kaur. “This is not just our account, it’s happening with SSA’s (Sikh Student Association) all over California and all over the world.”
Kaur believes that these reactions are unwarranted because the Sikh Students’ Association is an awareness and education-oriented group that welcomes a diverse range of opinions, all of which deserve a space.
For example, she explained that some members support the Khalistan movement and others don’t, but the group allows for, and celebrates this diversity in opinion. “For them, they see the solution being Khalistan. So it’s pretty open for a lot of students; if they want to advocate for that they can.”
She hopes that those who disagree with the group’s beliefs try to engage with them through dialog instead of hate messaging online. A farmer’s daughter herself, Kaur urged everyone to make a genuine effort to learn about and understand the plight of protesting farmers.
“These are our own parents. These are our grandparents. We all come from the same land back home, and I think at the moment, we’re trying to do the best we can to raise awareness here.” she said. “The word Sikh comes from the word seekhna, which in Punjabi means to learn. That’s exactly what we stand for.”
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