Manveet Thind

“The Politicization of College Sikh Youth on California Campuses by Sikh Organizations”

UCI History Journal

Thind 2

Introduction

The expansion and success of Sikh organizations in the United States not only inspired my research on Sikh organizations in California but also led me to join their membership base.

The focus of my paper centers around the particular interpretation of Sikh history these organizations utilize to politicize Sikh youth on college campuses. As an undergraduate, I was interested in understanding the various political identities and subject formations I encountered.

The two most prominent organizations in California that I focus on are the United Sikh

Movement and the Jakara Movement. The Jakara movement describes itself as a grassroots organization that is focused on creating a “Gurmat-inspired generation through creative leadership development, community organizing, and social activism” (Jakara Movement, n.d.).

The founders of Jakara realized that there was a lack of youth voice within the Sikh community.

In 2000, they created the Jakara Movement as a way to engage Sikh youth to strengthen their identity and consciousness. The Jakara Movement works with local government, school boards, and also has chapters on college campuses in California called Jakara Movement Chapters

(JMC) (Jakara Movement, n.d.). Similarly, the United Sikh Movement (USM) is another Sikh organization that operates in California and has college chapters. United Sikh Movement is a newer organization that serves as an umbrella organization for Sikh Student Association chapters college campuses. Sikh Student Associations were created in the 1960s, but some students felt as though they lacked purpose and decided to create the United Sikh Movement in order to provide a headquarter for SSAs and form a stronger structural foundation that provides both resources and the creation of a Sikh network of young professionals (United Sikh Movement, n.d.).

While the Jakara Movement is more explicitly political than USM in terms of local or American politics through their engagement with local school boards and participation in state politics, Thind 3

USM engages in Sikh political discourse and is more religiously focused as evidenced by their emphasis on learning Sikh prayers, understanding Sikh philosophies, and practicing .

While both organizations may overlap in terms of serving similar age groups in the and emphasizing to their members, they mostly serve different needs within the community. For the purpose of the study I will be focusing on these organization's college chapters and whether or not they politicize their members. Organizations have been considered political coalitions that set goals and make decisions and their activities can be described as political. Politics can be defined as “...an exploitation of resources, physical and human, for achievement of more control over others, and thus a safer, more comfortable, or more satisfying terms of individual existence” (Mayes, Allen 1997). My theory is that these two Sikh organizations do have their respective politics that they use to politicize Sikh youth in order to expand their organizations which results in the creation of a hegemony that can be defined as

“…an ideology that legitimates domination and exploitation” (Dunn, 1994). These organizations not only craft a set of norms that serves their politics, but it also replicates certain systems of power they claim to fight against.

When I refer to the Jakara Movement or the United Sikh Movement and reference Sikh politics, I mean to highlight their purposeful stance and behavior on topics such as Sikh historical moments such as 1984, state violence (both American and Indian), Khalistan (an independent

Sikh state), promotion of specific religious sect rhetoric within Sikhism, topics of militarization rooted in Sikhism. These politics espouse rhetoric and ideologies that are then used by these organizations in purposeful ways. These organizations believe they are working for the marginalized Sikh community and therefore their agenda is ‘good’ and for the benefit of the diaspora. Unfortunately, these organizations are burdened with upholding the mantle of Thind 4 education due to an absence of Sikh knowledge in higher education institutions in the United

States. This burden and preservation of religion, language, and history contributes to their romanticization of the homeland and their culture (Boyarin, Boyarin, 1993).

Methodology

With the knowledge of the structural framework of these organizations as well as their background, I proceeded to plan the methods through which I would be conducting my research.

This plan included attending the Sikh Student Association (SSA) meetings as well as Jakara

Movement chapter (JMC) meetings to perform participant observations. In addition to observation, semi-structured interviews were planned to be conducted with Sikh college students that were in attendance at these organizations’ meetings. Due to Covid-19, I have decided to complete a synthesis of the primary and secondary sources I have read, as many SSAs and JMCs are either not holding any meetings during this time or only some chapters are willing to conduct meetings through virtual means. Due to these limitations there is various pieces of information that could not be included and my reliance on only primary and secondary sources serves to paint a partial picture. I chose to focus on college organizations because that was my initial demographic that I was interested in due to my personal experience of being a college student who participated in both these organizations.

Sikh organizations in California

Most of these Sikh diasporic organizations are liberal nonprofits, but they have begun to adopt a business model to secure profits and remain afloat in the competitive nonprofit sector

(Frumkin, Kim, 2001). I believe that this drive for competition leads to expansion of these Thind 5 organizations and the desire to behave as hegemonic entities by using their politics to politicize

Sikh youth and continue expanding. In the quest to exist and thrive in the diaspora, however, these organizations often reproduce the same systems of power they are fighting to dismantle.

My research discusses the ways in which these organizations use events that occurred in Sikh history for the purpose of building their narrative and politicize youth.

These organizations intentionally leaving out certain parts of history, culture, religion, or language that do not fit into their specific political narrative can be seen in a basic example of bhangra (Punjabi folk dance) music and the retention of masculine themes in bhangra as they remix it with hip hop and other genres in American music (Gopinath, 1995). The choice of continuing that theme of patriarchy and masculinity in bhangra music versus other aspects is an example of how diasporas choose to continue certain ideas or practices. I believe that since these organizations are outward facing (serving the Sikh community internally but existing in

American society), that it also plays into their specific construction of Sikh history, politics and their creation of norms. They are conflicted in a way to represent the immigrant success story and operate within the confines of a model minority label (Prashad, 2007). This romanization of self however allows organizations to resist change and in essence reproduce the same systems of power. Maria Koinova mentions that diaspora political agents that see themselves as strong powers are more likely to engage in institutional politics and other state channels to fulfill their goals of justice or homeland politics (Koinova, 2018). Despite the weak, minority category the

Sikh diaspora could fall under, Sikh organizations, in particular the Jakara Movement reject the minority label and champion themselves as a strong movement rather than a minority (Jakara

Movement, “State of the Movement”, 2017). This altered perception coupled with the historical facts of willingly or unwillingly aligning with systems of power in from the time of Thind 6 colonialism leads to the repeated pattern of contemporary Sikh organizations aligning themselves with structures of power in the United States.

The Jakara Movement

Some of the Jakara Movement’s programs include but are not limited to youth leadership retreats, high school conferences, college conferences, graduate spaces for research relating to

Sikhism, high school honor societies, and college chapters. They also have ‘’ throughout

California. According to their website they define according to its historical context which refers to the Sikh-controlled territorial groupings in Punjab. The Misls of the present-day organization include Sacramento, Bay Area, Central Valley, LA, Orange County, and San Diego (jakara.org, “Find A Misl”). They also have college chapters that are referred to as Jakara Movement Chapters (JMCs). The organization articulates the creation of a pipeline where high school students participate in Jakara organization and go on to partake in their Jakara movement chapter in college and then become community leaders (Jakara.org, “Programs”).

JMCs focuses on building a Sikh political voice and building both Sikh as well as other marginalized communities’ power on campus through “civic engagement, strategic grassroots mobilization” as well as Sikh principles such as selfless service, community, meditation, and reflection. The JMC chapters for the year 2019-2020 include UC Berkeley, UC Davis,

Sacramento State, Stanislaus State, Fresno State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, San Francisco

State, CSU Fullerton, and UC Los Angeles. For JMC membership development, their website states that building a base is important and can be done through the creation of a master list of every Sikh on campus which can be found through their respective campus directory. JMCs Thind 7 across California focus on one theme per year in order to fully understand the depth of a topic

(jakara.org, n.d.).

The United Sikh Movement

The United Sikh Movement is the umbrella organization of Sikh Student Associations

(SSA) in California. One of the oldest Sikh Student Associations in California was created in

1989 by Jaideep Singh at UC Berkeley (Singh, Fenech, 2014). The SSA’s expanded to include a majority of the UC campuses, Stanford, Fresno State, Cal Poly Pomona, and the Claremont colleges. United Sikh Movement is a relatively new Sikh organization as it was founded in 2015

(United Singh Movement, LinkedIn, n.d.). The organization works mainly with college students as SSAs are based on college campuses. Some of their projects include but are not limited to annual inter-SSA conferences, Sikhi camps, (Sikh Scripture) study, leadership retreats, and (feeding the homeless with left-over food from ). The organization emphasizes Sikh religion and provides Sikh youth the resources and information to apply

Sikhism in their lives. Their mission is built on four main principles: (meditation), Seva

(self-less service), Sangat (community), and academics. Their main event is the annual conference which serves to create networks amongst students and the event is mostly run SSA volunteers and hosted on an SSA campus. The annual conference has many speakers that engage with Sikh youth on particular topics (United Sikh Movement.org, n.d.).

Sikhism in Modern India and the Events of 1984

In order to understand the creation of these contemporary Sikh organizations in the diaspora, it is important to understand the history they utilize to politicize youth. The Sikh Thind 8 religion, Sikhism, is the dominant religion in the state of Punjab which is located in the northwestern region of India. Sikhs are a minority in India, and they are largely an agrarian people. The founder of the prior to colonization was . He successfully unified many territories under his reign but after his death, his kingdom was annexed in 1849 by the British (Banga, 1982). Punjab was one of the last territories to fall and their resistance impressed the British Empire which led to Sikhs being classified as a martial race and recruited in the British Army (Kaur, 2011). Despite this adjustment to colonial rule, feelings of discontent continued to grow against colonial rule that were coupled with unsustainable farming methods implemented by the British. This caused droughts and famine which pushed people to migrate elsewhere, mostly to North America (Kurien, 2018). Sikhs that did immigrate to North America continued to partake in homeland politics as they joined political activist movements like the Ghadar party which were aimed at garnering South Asian support for independence in India from British rule (Gonzales, 1986).

When the British finally did depart from Punjab they helped car the subcontinent of India which resulted in the 1947 Partition. During the Partition close to 2 million Sikhs, Muslims, and

Hindus were killed due to the violence that ensued during the carving of a new country, .

Around 12-15 million people were forcibly displaced. Sikhs believed that they participated heavily in the fight to remove the British even from the diaspora via the Ghadar party (Kurien,

2018) The newly formed Indian government promised Sikhs that they would receive special status in India and enjoy freedoms in the North (Ahmed, 2010). Sikhs believed those promises continued to participate in the Indian armed forces and other government institutions (Kurien

2018). Despite this large involvement in mainstream society Sikhs continued to voice their discontent about their treatment in India. Thind 9

Among the major problems that began to build up was the complaint that Sikhs were not given proper identification as a separate religion and instead were classified as a subsect under the Hindu religion (Indian Const. art. XXV, cl. 2b). The dialogue surround a Sikh identity also led to discussions concerning the political representation and political power of Sikhs in India.

The formation of Punjab and a Punjab speaking state was a success post-independence of India, however many promises were unfulfilled by the Indian government post Partition. This led to the creation of the resolution in 1973. The essence of the document was an articulation of the need to completely restructure power in the central government and allow states more autonomy. In addition to the political changes occurring in Punjab, a return to the religious purity of the Sikh religion became increasingly popular in Punjab as drugs, vulgar music, and other modernizations were seen as corrupting. In 1975 a Sikh preacher by the name of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale rose to prominence and became the head of the Damdami

Taksal (a Sikh educational organization). Bhindranwale’s preaching eventually evolved to incorporate the political plight of Sikhs as he publicly supporting the Anandpur Sahib resolution and the demands listed in it against the central government of India (Telford, 1992).

The tensions mounting between Sikhs and the Indian government came to a head in 1984 and the government responded with a military campaign called Operation Bluestar, which aimed to attack the holiest Sikh (place of worship), the Harmandir Sahib, in order to flush out

Bhindranwale and his supposed band of ‘militants’ through the use of six armed divisions, armored carriers, tanks, and mountain guns. The Sikh narrative viewed this event as

Bhindranwale fighting for the protection and sanctity of the Harmandir Sahib against a brutal army invasion. Some estimates count 300 army soldiers and 500 civilians dead while others count 700 soldiers’ dead and 5000 civilians dead. In recounting the time of the curfew and the Thind 10 attack on the complex, the dominant Indian narrative leaves out the fact that the army also took control of 37 other gurdwaras (Sikh temples) across Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh which resulted in further casualties (Tatla, 2015).

In the aftermath of the operation, many Sikhs were angered by the desecration the

Harmandir Sahib and many Sikh soldiers resigned from their post in the Indian army. Months later, on October 31st, 1984 Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards for not only desecrating the holiest Sikh gurdwara, but also for taking the lives of many innocent pilgrims that were trapped inside the Harmandir Sahib the day of the attack. After the death of

Prime Minister Gandhi, anti-Sikh pogroms broke out in Delhi. An estimated 3,000 Sikhs died in

Delhi as a result of mobs and retaliation for the assassination (Tatla, 2006). Desperate to calm the rising violence in Punjab, the Indian government launched a series of counterinsurgency operations and passed several acts which gave police sweeping powers to arrest, charge, and detain anyone at will. The media failed to report the Sikh perspective which could have contributed to a decrease in violence against Sikhs. This suggests that Sikhs, like other minorities, have a basis for mistrusting the Indian government as they are often victims of state violence that is then excluded from the larger narrative which is evidenced by the 2002 Gujrat riots and the 2019 Kashmir violence. (Tajammul-ul-Islam, 2019; Ahmed, 2010).

Migration

British colonial rule influenced Sikh migration both with the Partition and economic issues during initial colonial rule (Kurien, 2018). In addition, those events, 1984 served as a migration moment for Sikhs that sought political asylum to escape the violence. Migration to the

United States occurred in waves. California was a particular hotspot of migration for Sikhs as it Thind 11 had a booming corporate agriculture industry and by the 20th century California had become dependent on a large workforce. The California Asian population began in 1890 with close to

202 immigrants and fluctuated reaching as high as 1,948 immigrants but by 1950 dwindled down to 815 due to the 1917 Barred Zone immigration act. The Alien Land Law Act in 1913 also effected Sikhs as it prevented migrants that were not citizens from leasing or owning land. In the

1923 case of Thind, he challenged the citizenship bar on Asians which was denied by the Supreme court. This legal ruling hurt immigrant chances of citizenship or ever owning land in California. Therefore, many immigrants married Mexican women to secure land rights legally (Leonard, 2010). The Luce-Celler Act in 1946 finally allowed Indians and Filipinos to be eligible for citizenship. Eventually the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 which allowed for the influx of more skilled Asian Immigrant laborers that could help grow the U.S. economy and compete with the Soviet Union. In the 1980s and 1990s more Asians received the opportunity to immigrate because of the technology boom (Mishra, 2016). Sikh migration during that time was however driven by the events of 1984 as mentioned earlier. The different waves of migration led to different extents of political involvement of the Punjabi community (Kurien

2018). Through the understanding of history, we see an evolution of Sikhs as they shift from being involved in politics, the army, and other positions in the Indian government to distancing themselves from their nationalist identity first as British subjects and then as Indian subjects.

9/11 and Sikh Organizations

The various waves of migration of Sikhs to North America held promise to many Sikhs as a chance for economic success but also to escape persecution. Sikhs quickly became a model minority as they achieved economic success in the United States. Post 9/11, the media imagery Thind 12 of Osama bin Laden and his shifted public sentiment towards Sikhs especially Sikh men who also wear (Falcone, 2006). Although Sikhs have had a long and complicated history of violence with Muslims due to the and the brutal events of the Partition of 1947 which saw violence between Sikhs and Muslim communities in India, the Post 9/11 moment served as an equalizer for Sikhs and Muslims in the United States (, Pellettiere, 2010).

Due to the hate crimes Sikhs faced due to misidentification as Muslim, many Sikhs felt it was necessary to distance themselves from Muslims with the slogan ‘Sikhs are not Muslims’. Young

Sikh adults who grew up in the United States protested the use of the slogan as they believed that the message was stating that the hate crimes against Muslims were warranted. A compromise was reached as Sikh groups agreed to educate the public on who Sikhs were instead of who they were not. Some overcompensated by overexpressing patriotic views and donning the American flag (Falcone, 2006). Others cut their hair in order to hide their identity, provoking feelings of shame in the older Sikh generations who saw the visible Sikh identity as not only a marker of faith but also an active preservation of Sikh identity in the diaspora. The older generations wanted their children to remain attached to Punjab as they were, and they did this by having their children recreate and practice the Sikh faith as well as learn Sikh history and be visibly Sikh by retaining the articles of faith (Verma, 2006). Organizations such as Sikh Coalition or Sikh

American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) arose as a reaction to the Post-9/11 climate of fear and focused on civil rights in order to ensure that there was a space for Sikhs in mainstream society despite once again being labeled as enemies of the state (Judge, Brar 2017).

The organizations that developed during 9/11 still exist and many more have been created to serve as spaces of education, activism, and youth development. For many of these organizations Thind 13 the events of 1984 act as a focal point of Sikh history and are used as evidence to categorize the

Sikh diaspora as a ‘victimhood diaspora’.

Findings

Through my understanding of a historical backdrop as well as the structural organization of these clubs, and the synthesis of my primary and secondary sources I came to a conclusion regarding my findings. Adamson and Demetriou define diaspora as “a social collectivity that exists across state borders and that has succeeded over time to (1) sustain a collective national, cultural or religious identity through a sense of internal cohesion and sustained ties with a real or imagined homeland and (2) display an ability to address the collective interests of members of the social collectivity through a developed internal organizational framework and transnational links” (Adamson, Demetriou, 2007). When referring to the Sikh diaspora we can quickly define

Sikhs as a victim diaspora that has been impacted by the tragic events of state violence by the

Indian government (Singh, 1999). Both the Jakara Movement and the United Sikh Movement create a system of shared beliefs for their respective organizations that operates as a form of social and formal control. Formal control refers to rules, procedures, and organization hierarchies while social control refers to norms regulated by peers (O’Reilly, Chatman, 1996). Both of these organizations don the cloak of helping the diaspora by seeking justice for the Sikh abuses in the homeland of Punjab but also by preserving and continuing education in the California diaspora.

The Jakara Movement also stands in solidarity with other marginalized groups such as the Black

Lives Matter Movement while the United Sikh Movement’s free food delivery to the houseless in communities like Santa Ana, Riverside, and Skid Row show their service to different communities in need (Jakara Movement, “Dear Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie: Black Lives Matter to Thind 14

Us, Too”, 2016) (United Sikh Movement.org, “Langar Seva”, n.d.). The members of these organizations internalize the values being presented to them such as serving the community and selfless service which results in the individual seeing that value as authentically produced within themselves rather than it being artificially imposed on them by the organization (O’Reilly,

Chatman, 1996). These organizations consciously impose this system in an effort to politicize members and future recruits. Their hegemonic behavior allows for their politics to be the mainstream, unchallenged perspective present in the Sikh diaspora. What is especially important to note is the parts of history, culture, religion, and language that these organizations choose to include in their politics versus what they choose to leave out or correct.

The Jakara Movement chooses to use Sikh terms such as “Gurmat, Misl, Sangat” on their website as ornaments that appropriate their own religion and culture (Jakara.org, n.d). An example of this performativity is a Jakara community organizer’s tweet on social media. In an attempt to denounce a religious Sikh artwork that went viral on Twitter, the community organizer constructed a tweet commenting on the piece. Although she has since deleted the tweet, the response to her comment, highlights her intentionally insensitive misconstruction of a

Gurbani line in an ironic attempt to mock the religious insensitivity of the artwork. The comment questions credibility of the Jakara Movement as a Sikh organization if they allow community organizers that are part of their organization to make light of Gurbani (@sarbschleepzzz et al.,

[Twitter]). This performativity can be compared to bhangra (Punjabi folk dance) in the diaspora.

Certain aspects of bhangra music and dance have been preserved through the remix of bhangra and American hip-hop which makes it more appealing to different groups outside of the Punjabi community. This reimagining but simultaneous preservation of certain aspects of Bhangra could be seen as a pressure to perform a stable ethnic identity in a binary of black and white that exists Thind 15 in America (Gopinath, 1995). Bhangra then becomes performative and similarly some aspects of

Jakara Movement and the mentality of their leaders feels performative as they try to coexist in both the Sikh diaspora and American society.

This phenomenon of choosing what suits a particular narrative can stem from a romanticization of the diaspora’s homeland culture. United Sikh Movement partakes in this specific selection of what is included in their politics by their heavy emphasis on the organization’s stance with the teaching and inclusion of (a compilation of writings not physically part of the ) in their Gurbani study course. In the Sikh community there is lively debate concerning this portion of the Guru Granth Sahib as some believe that it is not written by the tenth Guru, Ji, and instead believe it is a continual attempt by non-Sikh actors to purposefully provide incorrect information in Sikh scripture to misconstrue and ultimately erase original Sikh writings (Rinehart, 2011). It is interesting to note that certain sects in Sikhi are promoted by the speakers at the conferences. An example of one of their speakers was the invitation of the Blue Lion to their inter-SSA conference and the tour the Jatha took to several SSA chapters in California (United Sikh

Movement, Post-Conference Thanks writeup, 2017; United Sikh Movement, Beard Flowing

Announcement of Dr. Kamalroop, 2017). The Blue Lion Jatha identify as Akali Singhs which is a sect in Sikhism that has existed throughout Sikh history (Thebluelions.org, n.d.). The

Nihang sect is considered warrior defenders of the faith (Jones, 1973). During their third annual inter -SSA conference, the Blue Lion Jatha had a heavy involvement in the workshops, one of which was a TED style talk about understanding mental health in relation to Sikhism and then another workshop on how to meditate properly and the benefits of meditation (3rd annual inter-

SSA conference photos, Dr. Kamalroop’s Ted Talk [Dropbox]). Not only did their participation Thind 16 support and continue rhetoric that aligns with Nihang ideology, but they are also ardent supporters of the Dasam Granth which serves to reaffirm USM’s particular system of beliefs that it shares with its members (facebook.com, “United Sikh Movement-3rd Annual Inter-SSA conference”, 2017). As USM continues to grow they could branch into American politics and begin to work with American institutions of power. It is not a stretch therefore to assume that they too are at risk for some of the same mistakes as the Jakara Movement. USM’s reliance on

SSA’s for hosting and running many of their programs is interesting to note too as there is not much SSA’s recognize USM for on their social platforms except simply coming up with inter-

SSA event ideas.

The immigrant generation's desire to preserve ethnic identity is passed onto the second generation, yet the second generation also finds itself fitting into class and racial hierarchies in the United States (Maira, 1999). These organizations align themselves with systems of power by preserving and romanticizing what Salman Rushdie states are “shards of memory” and eventually reproducing those same systems (Cook, 1994). While these organizations pick and choose what they deem important to be preserved in the diaspora, they also piece together those narratives which have been broken and lost through the violence that has undoubtedly altered aspects of Sikh history. Fears surrounding assimilation exist within other diasporas such as the

Jewish diaspora. An example of their preservation is the practice of new converts in Judaism being assigned a genealogical identity that connects them to Abraham who was the first Jewish convert (Boyarin, Boyarin, 1999). The diaspora’s obsession with their imagined homeland makes them prone to idealizing their culture as pure, or authentic and therefore meant to be unchanged

(Maira, 1999). This preservation leads to reproducing the same modes of power they claim to fight against. Sikhs in the diaspora willingly claim the model minority status handed to them by Thind 17 systems of power and fit into racial and class hierarchies in the diaspora. The post-9/11 moment was clear evidence of the mutable minority status and the history surrounding that times period inevitably shapes contemporary Sikh organizations and their repeated behavior of aligning with systems of power.

Only through the challenging fixed ideas of right and wrong behavior can institutional hypocrisy be dismantled (Grillo, 2007). The Jakara Movement and United Sikh Movement' attempt to make their ideologies the hegemonic agenda in the Sikh diaspora which leads to high rates of politicization among Sikh youth and a swelling of their ranks which only reinforces their behavior. As mentioned earlier, diasporas that perceive themselves as strong powers are more likely to engage in institutional frameworks and state channels to achieve their goals (Koinova,

2018). Sikhs during the time of the British and Indian government have been aligned with hegemonic institutions whether by choice or force. There is however a sharp contrast between

Sikhs and the government in 1984 when the Sikh calls for separatism did not fit into the Indian government's hegemonic framework (Singh, 1999). In present day however the same Sikh organizations that hold onto the atrocities of 1984, are the ones that are aligning themselves with systems of power in the diaspora. We see this alignment with Jakara’s participation in the Adopt-

A-Highway program in cities like Bakersfield, Fresno, etc. and their complicit participation in the prison industrial complex (facebook.com, “Jakara Movement”, 2011). Adopt-A-Highway program was initiated by the Eisenhower administration and meant to serve as a military tool first and then to serve citizens second, who are also the main subsidizers of its costs (Blas, 2010).

The term ‘prison industrial complex’, first coined by Mike Davis, was used to describe a multi- billion-dollar industry that took off in California (Scott, 2015). The prison and military industrial complex share structural similarities. Both systems make massive profits, but at the cost of social Thind 18 destruction. These systems are mutually beneficial to corporations, politicians, and state entities that utilize and profit off of incarceration and inmate labor but destroy racially marginalized communities. The prison industrial complex uses inmates for cheap labor and transforms public funds into profit (Davis, Shaylor, 2001). It has been well researched that communities of color are incarcerated at disproportionately higher rates. In particular, 43% of the 2.3 million

Americans imprisoned are African American. Prisons not only remove people from society but oftentimes disenfranchise them from the political sphere, making these people essentially non- citizens who cannot challenge the economic, political, or social structures. Not only do state entities enlist inmate labor because it is cheap, inmate labor is also used to remove labor competition. When unemployment is low, this allows for the state to relax imprisonment and let laborers compete for wages in the market. When unemployment increases however, then the state imprisons more people to absorb the additional labor and repress any social agitation that is linked to economic tensions. Congress not only passes more federal laws that include more activities as federal crimes, but also metes out harsher penalties and increases law enforcement.

Inmates are not included in unemployment and therefore it can be argued that the prison industrial system uses incarceration as a means to control the unemployment rate. These prisons implicitly or explicitly benefit White society as prisoners, especially African American men, are removed from the labor market through incarceration but also disenfranchised after they are released and both unable to find jobs as well as change the political system in place (Smith,

Hattery, 2008). The use of inmate labor then for these Adopt-A-Highway is deeply problematic but not the first time this program has been complicit in the repression and degradation of communities of color and impoverished communities. The creation of these highways during the

Eisenhower’s administration disadvantaged many impoverished people in the United States as Thind 19 the cost to use eminent domain was lower in those areas due to low property costs (Blas, 2010).

The Adopt-A-Highway program can be seen as an acceptable form of community service, but its ties to prison labor must also be acknowledged. The state of California has extensive programs that utilize prison labor for a variety of issues such as the wildfires in Sonoma Valley, California, where inmates worked as firefighters for $1.00 an hour (“California Uses Prision Labor for Dirty

Jobs ‘Nobody Else Wants to Do’”, 2018). Several of companies like the McDonalds, Microsoft, and Victoria Secret have moved a portion of their work to prisons because inmate labor is cheap and exploitable. The very construction of prisons in rural, depressed communities benefits mainly White communities. The building of B52 bombers has been a tool of the military industrial complex which keeps politicians regardless of party affiliation to continue supporting an expansive military. Prisons offer jobs to guards and construction workers and prison contracts are used by policymakers to secure votes (Smith, Hattery, 2008).The Jakara Movement’s involvement with this program then makes them complicit in the military industrial complex because they subsidize the cleaning costs for the program which is usually done by the U.S. justice system/prison industrial complex (United States Senate, n.d.). Jakara is becoming a labor competitor under the guise of the Sikh tenant of seva (self-less service) by using free child labor when they recruit their high school members to clean these highways. Sikhism and the strong belief in seva are being utilized to recruit high school Sikhs to run this program.

The Jakara Movements involvement with the pro-labor bill titled AB5 is also interesting to note. The AB5 bill was initially created to regulate services such as Uber and Lyft but was then expanded to include independent contracting work which ultimately impacted the trucking industry (Lockridge, 2020). The trucking industry is important to the Sikh community as many

Sikhs are truck drivers. Although there is no source available either online or on social media of Thind 20

Jakara’s alleged support in passing the pro-labor bill in 2019, it is still interesting to note the organizations only mention of AB5 occurred after the California courts ruled in favor of the trucking industry. The court decision took place late January and Jakara’s social media post mentioning AB5 is dated February (Lockridge, 2020; facebook.com, “Jakara Movement”, 2020).

Many truckers protested the bill and several Sikhs called for an exemption for truck drivers in the

AB5 bill. While the claims of some in the Sikh community that Jakara allegedly helped pass the

AB5 bill prior to the court decisions cannot be confirmed, the scare social media posts regarding

AB5 prior to and after the court ruling is important to note. Given the organization’s heavy social media presence, there is a scarcity of posts relating to the labor bill, something that should fit perfectly within their framework of fighting for marginalized groups and the Sikh community.

These examples constitute only a minority of the problematic behaviors of the Jakara movement as this research is limited by its reliance on primary and secondary sources. Sikhs have had a complicated history with the failures of leadership and this suspicious involvement of the organization with rulings that hurt the Sikh community is disheartening to say the least.

Even the Jakara Movement’s insistence of marking ‘Sikh’ on the 2020 census for the

Sikh community is problematic as there has been several instances of institutions misusing census data to target marginalized populations. While it should be noted that the census is incredibly important especially for marginalized communities for appropriate federal assistance and programs such as Meals on Wheels, housing assistance, social services, etc, there are dangers to participating in the census (“The Uses of Census Data: An Analytical Review”, 2000).

This was apparent during WWII when the United States used census data to target and detain

Japanese communities in internment camps (Aratani, 2018). A more recent instance of this intentional targeting and surveillance occurred in 2004 when the Electronic Privacy Information Thind 21

Center (EPIC) received documentation that revealed the Census Bureau gave the Department of

Homeland Security census data on people who identify as ‘Arab’ in the 2000 Census. The data included populations of 10,000 or more with 1,000 or more being people that identified as Arab

(“Freedom of Information Documents on the Census”, n.d.). The Jakara Movement’s participation in the Census while important fails to highlight the dangers it poses to the Sikh community. The deep ties between the Census, surveillance and oppression must also be made aware to the Sikh community at large so that they have a much more comprehensive understanding of the census and what it means to participate in it. The Jakara Movement uses the history of Sikh marginalization and political underrepresentation in Punjab throughout history as a way to garner support for the census but it should be noted that the organization’s complicated relationship with systems of power is simply another instance of the Jakara movement utilizing

Sikh history to shape their politics and align with systems of power. Besides this involvement with census, the organization places women in leadership positions as a tool rather than in a position of empowerment.

Accountability being the cornerstone of dismantling any structure of power, Jakara

Movement claims to champion women’s rights but refuses to apply accountability to everyone.

Their version of empowering women is to simply put them in power but not to hold them accountable as evidenced by their JMC chapter president, who responded to a tweet by a UC

Irvine JMC chapter member that expressed feeling unsafe and uncomfortable by the leadership at

UCI JMC. Her response stated, “You’re telling me that the females who lead JMC@UCI make y’all feel unsafe? I stan that power then” (@sumritgrewal et al. [Twitter]). This JMC president’s response blindly attacked the male member’s critique by weaponizing feminism, but completely ignoring the possibility that women can also make members feel unsafe or uncomfortable and Thind 22 should be held equally accountable. This pseudo feminism used by Jakara Movement leaders simply perpetuates the usage of women as political tools rather than empowering leaders (Grillo,

2007). These women are therefore placed by the organization, allowed to occupy these spaces but are not meant to lead properly or be corrected on their poor leadership qualities but simply exalted for their gender. These women continue to participate in their own oppression by allowing themselves to be waived of accountability and used as political tools

The United Sikh Movement does not have many instances of working with systems of power partly due to the age of their organization but also because they are focused more on inter-

Sikh politics such as developing the religious and spiritual knowledge of their members. They too however have faltered in holding themselves accountable. As I mentioned earlier, The Blue

Lion Jatha participated in many SSA and USM events. They were speakers of the third annual

Inter-SSA conference (United Sikh Movement, “Post-Conference Thanks Writeup”, 2017;

United Sikh Movement, “Flowing Beard Announcement of Dr. Kamalroop”, 2017). After the conference, the leader of the Jatha, Dr. Kamalroop Singh, was seen in a video holding alcohol and being intimate with two women (Dailymotion.com, @truthseeker18, 2018). The contents of the video were clearly against the tenants of the Sikh faith and many people were outraged at the situation and the organization for inviting them as speakers. On USM’s social media there seems to be no official response given to the situation or any photos of the Blue Lion Jatha at their 3rd conference on their social platforms. The lack of acknowledgement for this situation coupled with obvious photos of the name of the Jatha as speakers for the conference on their social media pages is interesting to note. If in fact the organization did attempt to distance themselves from the situation through silence, it speaks volumes about their behavior as it is imperative for the

Sikh community to protect itself from hypocritical individuals but also to hold themselves Thind 23 accountable for their mistakes. Protecting or ignoring situations does not help anyone but only serves to let people believe that they can be protected by the organization. It is USM’s responsibility to not be complicit in these situations and allow for the reproduction of these systems of power by foregoing accountability and speaking out about these situations.

As mentioned earlier these organizations serve to construct a system of shared norms by using Sikh history which they romanticize and preserve. That cherry-picked preservation is then utilized to politicize Sikh youth and incorporate them into the organization, so that the values of the organization become the member’s values too. The identities of Sikh youth are not only forged by these organizations but intertwined with them too. Similar to the history of the Indian government that lashed out at Sikhs for challenging their hegemonic regime in 1984, we see this occur again with Modi’s nationalist government and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or other right-wing Hindu groups that lash out at critics to reinforce their hegemonic agenda

(Narayan, 2014). These organizations have a history of poorly responding to critique. They might be aware of their imperfections but their strategy of dealing with criticism is often negative. Especially public criticism which is negatively received by the organization as Jakara’s cult like reaction is a disservice to the community but also to the organization itself. Besides lashing out against critics, the organization also distances themselves from the actions of their member that behave negatively, or they simply deflect by bombarding critics to give them actual constructive criticism which is ironic as the entire dialogue is an attempt by the Sikh community to offer constructive criticism. Their other method is to simply offer a 1-800 hotline to collect critique which many are afraid to use since it is not anonymous. While it is important to note that not everyone in an organization or cult shares the same views, some leaders may repeat certain values and acceptable behaviors, but they are not always followed by members. If these members Thind 24 believe in the organization's values and norms, they will identify with them and defend the organization because they feel as though they must defend themselves (cults and social control).

Even if members doubt the norm, they will act in accordance with what their peers want, which in a group confrontation results in members feeling protected and in the right. This is seen on

Twitter as Jakara is critiqued and the aforementioned methods are employed in their reaction to criticism (@khalistaniii, et al. [Twitter]; @KingRager, et al. [Twitter]).

Recently, the Jakara Movement and the United Sikh Movement released a joint statement condemning any violence or slander to the organizations in response to the cited Twitter threads in this research paper. The repeated outcry on social media platforms against the Jakara

Movement seemed to have prompted this unity post, but as for the ‘violence’ I unfortunately cannot address the Jakara Movement and their allegedly repeated patterns of violence in my research due to my limitations of primary and secondary sources. It is also important to note that the unity message includes the year the United Sikh Movement was formed (2015), yet this is the first time that the Jakara Movement has publicly acknowledged the organization's presence.

Whether it be for peace or to shield themselves from the critique, it seems unusual for a hegemonic entity such as Jakara to willingly share their spotlight with another Sikh organization whose programs often overlap with them and seem to have higher rates of success. The specific line in their joint message, “Differences that arise will be discussed privately and amicable resolutions will be reached. Those that seek to harm the unity of the organizations will fail and be warned. Those that...seek clout on social media and slander organizations...may be subject to dismissal or appropriate action by respective organizations'' is interesting to note given the history of Jakara’s response to criticism (@JakaraMovement, [Twitter]). Perhaps this is truly an attempt to hear critique or perhaps an alternative to suppressing dissent on public platforms for Thind 25 the benefit of the organizations. This notion that the organization becomes part of the individual identity and operates as a hegemonic entity is most likely not the initial intent of the creators of the organization. The actions of their members on social media and the repeated poor response to valid critique is similar to Trump's cult of right-wing nationalists who feel empowered, emboldened, and protected by his rhetoric to inflict abuse on others. The Jakara Movement feels as though they are a liberal organization that is trying to help marginalized communities but that does not mean that they cannot be similar to Gandhi’s Indian government, the Modi government, and the Trump administration in the way they behave. The repeated pattern of poorly reacting to critique are clear indicators that the Jakara movement reinforces their politics as the mainstream and are used to thwarting valid critiques of their organization. They believe they are in the ‘right’ because they equate their label of a liberal non-profit as equating to ‘goodness’.

The history of Sikhs and the repeated violence they have endured reveal a narrative of resilience and strength. Their struggles and achievements in India continued in the diaspora as they adapted to new environments and different struggles. The events of 9/11 saw the emergence of modern-day Sikh organizations. Their efforts to preserve history and resist assimilation resulted in a reproduction of power structures that not only allow these organizations to create their version of norms but also to use that system to politicize Sikh youth and expand as organizations. Their large member base coupled with social control over these members allows them to behave in hegemonic ways similar to the Indian government they despise. These organizations’ alignment with institutions of power and systems of power show a critical issue with diasporic organizations. The diasporic performativity, alignment with institutions of power as well as the protection of individuals who abuse power have shown the numerous shortcomings of these Sikh organizations. Sikhs have reproduced those same oppressive and unjust systems in Thind 26 the microcosm of their organization in the diaspora. While much of this paper has critiqued the

Jakara Movement and the United Sikh movement I do not wish to undermine the noble intent of the people in these organizations. I hope that this paper serves as a useful critique that both members, prospective members, parents, elders in the Sikh community, and to the organizations themselves so they can understand and take into these comments into consideration. As a fellow member that participated in these organizations and was complicit in many of their activities, I too see the potential for constructive change. I don’t wish for these organizations to disappear but rather to improve upon themselves and be better agents of change and justice.

Thind 27

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