Speaker Kevin McCarthy must lead Congress to recognize the atrocity of the Sikh Genocide | Opinion

In 1984 the prime minister of India, Indira Gandhi, allowed government officers to storm one of Sikhism’s holiest temples in a search for separatists who were agitating for a new country.

In response, her bodyguards assassinated her. That led to a multiple-day attack across India by the authorities and citizens against Sikhs. When it was over, the government said 3,300 Sikhs had died. Estimates by independent observers put the toll between 8,000 and 17,000. Other estimates put the number at about 30,000 people who lost their lives in the ethnic killing.

No matter the number, Sikhs worldwide have considered the 1984 rampage as a genocide. And now the California Legislature agrees.

Last week, the Assembly voted 70-0 to approve a joint resolution declaring the 1984 slayings to be a genocide, and called on Congress to recognize it as such as well. The Assembly’s action followed the state Senate, which on July 6 approved the resolution with all 40 members voting yes.

Assembly Joint Resolution 2 was introduced by Dr. Jasmeet Bains of Delano, the first Indian-orgin Sikh elected to the Assembly.

The Central Valley has become a refuge over the last century of people groups fleeing genocide and persecution in their home countries.

Following the 1915 genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Turks, Armenians came to America, and many got a foothold in the Valley because they could start farming, which was what they had done in their homeland. Today Armenian Americans are well established in Fresno and can be found in every level of professional life.

To escape persecution and conflict during the Vietnam War era, Hmong refugees fled southeast Asia and came to the Valley. Fresno has one of the nation’s largest Hmong communities and is home to the annual Hmong New Year’s celebration, which draws thousands from around the country. Hmong people also settled in other Valley cities, such as Merced.

Sikhs in Fresno

The most recent U.S. census put the Sikh population in Fresno County at 70,000, said Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, an advocacy group. “Our community is one of the fastest growing” because immigration is still occurring, he said.

“People (Sikhs) are also getting priced out of the Bay Area and New York, and so they come to Fresno,” he said.

Singh said he was getting text messages and phone calls from Sikhs across the globe excited to learn about the Assembly’s approval of the resolution.

“Sikhs are appreciative toward the California Legislature,” Singh said.

He noted that the Fresno City Council passed a resolution in 2016 that recognized the genocide, one of the first cities in the nation to do so.

Congress must act

The resolution notes that state Senate in New Jersey and the General Assembly in Pennsylvania already recognized the Sikh genocide. California’s Legislature is the first to do so formally.

Now attention turns to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield and Reps. Jim Costa of Fresno and David Valadao of Hanford. Congress and President Biden recognized the Armenian Genocide. It is time to do the same for Sikhs, themselves a significant community in the Central Valley.

Correction: An earlier version of this editorial misspelled Jakara Movement.