Sukhcharan Singh grows walnuts in the city of Yuba, California, about 40 miles north of Sacramento. Like many Sikh farmers in this small Central Valley town, Singh’s thoughts are occupied by the ongoing protests in India.
“I lose sleep because of it. When it was there, it was a poor country, yes, but it was a good country, ”said Singh, 68, flipping through the notes he has taken on the latest news from India. “Last night I finally slept at 11.30.”
Since late November, hundreds of thousands of farmers, mostly from the agricultural states of Punjab and Haryana, have protested on the outskirts of Delhi and made the nation’s capital inaccessible for miles. They demand that Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi repeal three laws hastily approved by parliament – “pushed people’s throats,” as Singh says, in September that farmers fear removing regulation, leaving their incomes and livelihoods vulnerable to private investors.
“It’s very unfortunate,” Singh said, looking down at the tip of his long white beard. “On the one hand I feel happy to be here, on the other I feel guilty for not being there.”
The ties between here and here are obvious. Outside India, the city of Yuba is home to one of the largest groups of farmers in Punjab, the cradle of Sikhism. About half of the U.S.’s 500,000 Sikhs live in California, with the largest concentration in the city of Yuba. Nicknamed “Mini Punjab”, the city chose the first Sikh mayor of the United States in 2009 and the first Sikh mayor of the country in 2017. In the first week of November, the city hosts an annual festival in honor of the anniversary of the first Sikh prophet, more than 100,000 people.
It is not surprising, then, that the largest rally outside India to support farmers ’protests took place not long from here. On December 5, people from the city of Yuba and other Central Valley cities such as Fremont, Fresno, Stockton and Manteca beat drums, shouted through megaphones and waved flags that said “No farms, no food “. Thousands of large crews, cars and trucks left Oakland and squeaked traffic for hours on the Bay Bridge, before reaching the Indian consulate in San Francisco. Other major rallies took place that week in Washington DC, New York, Chicago, Texas, and Michigan; throughout December and January, solidarity demonstrations and caravans of various sizes took place in at least 16 U.S. states.
Naindeep Singh, 34, executive director of the Jakara movement, a youth-focused non-profit organization advocating for the Sikh community, led the protest. “I feel inspired. I see old people, members of my family, sleeping in the cold and they have been there for months. I feel a deep desire to support the efforts in any way I can, ”he said.
Community members have also raised funds to support billboards calling attention to India’s protests across the central valley, where Punjabi is the third most spoken language, after English and ‘Spanish. And there are other plans to advertise on the sides of 500 large platforms.
“I went to the rally in San Francisco in December to show my support for my brothers,” said Kulwant Johl, 70, a Sikh farmer in the city of Yuba who leased his farmland in the Punjab. “The farmers [in India] they say they don’t need money, so right now it’s just moral support and talking to local politicians here and seeing if they can help them. “
He constantly experiences news coverage of satellite and social media protests in India, like many of his neighbors: he has consumed conversations in the community. “That’s all we’re talking about now,” Johl said.
Migration and discrimination
It is estimated that 95% of peaches and 70% of plum plums in Yuba City are grown by Sikh farmers in Punjabi.. Johl grows peaches, plums plums, pomegranates and almonds. His 800 acres is a great expansion of the 20-acre plot of his grandfather Nand Singh Johl, who is believed to have been one of the first Punjabi men to settle in the city of Yuba.
Nand arrived in Yuba City in 1906. He, like many other Punjabi men who followed a pattern of immigration across the Pacific, had worked the railroads and other temporary jobs from Vancouver to California. Hailing from a region known for agriculture, many settled naturally in rural areas with fertile land, including the central valley.
But these men faced various forms of discrimination. They were not allowed to become citizens or bring wives from India; nor could they own land or sign long-term leases due to the California Alien Land Act of 1913.
One way to circumvent this law was to put properties on behalf of children of American descent like husband and wife Ralie and Stella Singh. Both Ralie and Stella were born to Punjabi parents and Mexican mothers; in the early twentieth century there were about 100 marriages in the city of Yuba. Mexican women, many of whom were displaced by the Mexican Revolution, could find agricultural work next door and eventually for Indian men in the central valley. The couples shared enough physical traits for county registry employees to shake them, thus avoiding anti-interbreeding laws that were not raised in California until 1948.
On the phone, 90-year-old Stella remembers eating curry and chicken curry prepared by Mexican women at a meeting in the city of Yuba to celebrate India’s independence in 1947. “These days,” as Ralie, of 92 years old, begins many phrases, “there was only ‘Here are Indian women.’
After the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 was passed, Indian men were able to bring wives from India to the US, which led to the decline of these interracial marriages. The Singh, who withdrew from the 1,000-acre production, are two of the few left here. “We’re unique now,” Stella said, “and we’ll be obsolete soon.”
Mixed-race children like them allowed the Indian community to put up a stake in the city of Yuba. Start with five acres, bring relatives to work, get more land, bring more relatives, according to Ralie, that was the way. “In those days, Indian men came here with nothing more than to multiply and they are very proud.”
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“People are watching”
On January 26, protests in India changed shape as some farmers deviated from the protest routes, jumping barricades and driving tractors to Delhi. Police responded in the following days by cutting off the Internet, building stronger barricades and erecting barbed wire fences, which affected the water supply and food to the protesters. Meanwhile, talks between peasant union leaders and the government have stalled and farmers say they will not leave until the laws are repealed.
“Modi has been seen as untouchable. But a lot of people are watching it. You can’t have an authoritarian regime that has victory after victory and goes out of control, “said Naindeep Singh of the Jakara movement. unusual against the prime minister. ”Will farmers be the ones to break Modi’s authoritarian streak?” Singh asked.
Then his rapid cadence slowed. “I have a family that was affected by the violence of the 80s and 90s. I know the violence that the Indian state can cause, I know how brutal it can be,” he said. “This must end peacefully.”
Mallika Kaur is an author, lawyer, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, working on human rights issues in South Asia. She said the genocidal violence of the 1980s and 1990s against Sikhs in India – “basically open season for Sikhs, and politicians were at the forefront of attacks” – even on the streets of Delhi, where farmers protest today, it has translated into decades of government distrust.
“Delivering the keys to agriculture to businesses is a deep and painful nerve for the community,” he said. “For a very poor country, once these things, such as the basic roti and dal companies, are able to set prices, there is a massive devastation and a despair that is feared. That is part of the reason for which the common person, farmer or not, supports farmers and someone who stands before the government to deliver another sector to great business control. ” It is estimated that 250 million Indian workers from various sectors are also on strike in support of farmers.
Kaur said at least 143 farmers died protesting, with about seven suicides, in a place and profession devastated by suicides, which have multiplied by twelve in the Punjab in five years. Pneumonia is a big risk; so are heart attacks and other conditions with old age and cold and rain. Workers of the medical shops installed in the protest report on the initial blood pressure of 150, said Kaur.
“What we know for sure is that there are very desperate moments ahead,” Kaur said. “People outside of India should say these protests are important because we don’t want to end the same kind of disconnection from our food producers.”
The U.S. embassy in Delhi is urging the Indian government to resume talks with farmers. A tweeted singer Rihanna, followed by Greta Thunberg, who expressed solidarity with Indian farmers, upset counter-protesters in India, who burned photos of the two women on Thursday.
Sukhcharan Singh said he was “very, very hopeful” for the support of celebrities. “I can’t tell you the respect I have for people like them, who think about human rights,” he said. But his outlook is bigger than some important recommendations. “In India, it is no longer just a protest by farmers. It has infiltrated the lives of ordinary people. When that happens, those in power must bend. But I don’t know at what cost and I don’t know when. “