Should Sikhs have their own country? That’s the goal as thousands cast ballots
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) – It’s almost election day – Punjab election day, that is. This weekend hundreds of Bakersfield Sikhs will go to San Francisco to cast their ballots.
It’s for a non-binding, global referendum on whether 120 million citizens of India and neighboring Pakistan should be allowed to go their separate way and create the independent nation of Khalistan.
This is an advisory vote, but it is not a token vote. An estimated 250,000 members of the Sikh religion – that’s the dominant faith of the Punjabi people – live in California, and Bakersfield is home to the state’s third-largest concentration of them.
The referendum is taking place across America, Europe and throughout the world. The Indian government, however, is not inclined to grant independence, should the vote call for it.
Kidnapping retrial confirmed for ‘pillowcase rapist’
“They don’t want us to be separate, right?” said Prabhjot Chauhan, a Bakersfield Sikh. “Because they want Sikhs to be with them (as part of India) but we don’t want it. It’s not just about that, there are many, many reasons.”
Among the reasons: Decades of religious and political persecution that in 1984 alone led to the murder of between 6,000 and 17,000 Sikhs – virtually all of them young men. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist government has more recently demonstrated a willingness to act violently on its opposition, based on Canadian and U.S. intelligence. A prominent Sikh activist based in British Columbia was shot and killed last June, while another activist, based in New York, was targeted.
Consequently, more than a dozen Bakersfield Sikhs declined to talk about the referendum on camera. Ubhwynder Singh, a local Punjabi was among the exceptions.
“We need a separate country – the Khalistan,” he said. “That’s why the people are ready to go over there. So we have a lot of people here going by the bus in San Francisco.”
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17.
