“A Canadian Citizen” Only in Death: Reflections on Bhai Hardeep Singh One-Year Barsi

Teer Kaur | @KaurTeer

On June 18, 2024, Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s one-year barsi, Sikh activists gathered in downtown Vancouver, in front of the Indian Consulate, to hold a Citizens’ Court of Canada and put Modi on trial for the murder of Bhai Hardeep Singh. By the entrance, a banner titled "Citizens' Court of Canada: Sikh People vs. PM Modi" featured an image of Prime Minister Modi, dressed in a jumpsuit and holding a sign that read, "I Killed Nijjar," locked behind bars, surrounded by pictures of Amit Shah, Ajit Doval, Samant Goel, and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. 

On that day, the shouts of “Who Killed Nijjar?” and “Khalistan Zindabad” echoed into the streets of Downtown Vancouver towards the shores where the Komagata Maru first arrived in 1914, carrying a total of 376 passengers, 337 of whom were Sikh. Just a short walk from the Indian Consulate stands the Komagata Maru Memorial, funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Along with a picture of some of the passengers, the memorial states: 

“On May 23, 1914, the steamship Komagata Maru arrived in Coal Harbour after a seven week crossing from Hong Kong via Japan. The ship was carrying 376 Indians from India and the Far East who claimed the right of entry as citizens of the British Empire. Most of the passengers were not permitted to land based on the “Continuous Passage Order” and other prejudicial regulations that prevented Indian immigration. While supporters campaigned for the passengers’ right to disembark, the ship remained anchored approximately one kilometre offshore from where you are now standing… On July 23^rd, the Komagata Maru and its passengers were escorted out of the harbour by a Canadian navy vessel and sent back to India. The Komagata Maru incident was a catalyst for change to Canadian citizenship and immigration laws. This monument reflects Canada’s commitment to a nation where differences are respected and traditions are honoured.” 

There is a distinct parallel between the Komagata Maru incident in 1914 and the echoes of “Khalistan Zindabad” with pictures of Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh at a Citizens’ Court just a short walk away in front of the Indian Consulate. Underlying both was the assumption that Sikhs would be protected; in 1914, the presumption was they were protected as “British subjects.” Today, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, some Sikhs have internalized the model-minority myth and diluted Sikh values to dissolve into those of imperialist nation-states. 

In a moment when Khalistan has been making international headlines, with a focus not seen since the 1980s, Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh’s shahadat and legacy can only be contextualized as the martyrdom of someone who actively resisted the Indian State and devoted his life to Khalistan. Yet, there remain debates, questions, and attempts to classify Bhai Hardeep Singh as either an extremist or a Canadian citizen. Therefore, as we mark Bhai Hardeep Singh’s one-year barsi, it is important to reconcile with the language and framework used to honor his soch. By putting the Komagata Maru incident in conversation with the present conjuncture of the active targeting of Sikh leadership, we can move beyond our duniyva, Western-influenced, understandings of time and space to make sense of present-day gulaam conditions. 

Komagata Maru - 1914

On April 4, 1914, the Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship chartered by Gurdit Singh, departed from Hong Kong en route to Vancouver. Several months later, after stopping in Shanghai, China and Yokohama, Japan, the passengers arrived on the banks of Vancouver. As the Komagata Maru attempted to dock on May 23, 1914, the passengers were refused entry “as they had failed to comply with the requirements of Canadian law.” In a  two-month standoff, the conditions on the ship worsened as the food and water supply ran dry; passengers were effectively confined to the ship while a legal battle ensued. The Komagata Maru was forced to leave the Vancouver harbor on July 23, 1914.

The Komagata Maru arrived at Budge-Budge harbor in present-day Kolkota, India in September 1914, when the passengers met with hostility from British authorities. When the passengers were ordered to leave, they carried Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee and Nishaan Sahib out of the ship, only to be met with bullets from colonial police that killed 22 and wounded 25; the surviving passengers were arrested and imprisoned. This incident had a significant impact on the Ghadar Party and larger independence movement at that time, including on Bhai Sahib Randhir Singh Jee, and demonstrated the need to resist colonial oppression. 

On May 18, 2016, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for Canada’s role and complicity in the death of 22 passengers and the Komagata Maru incident. Today, cushioned in rhetoric of remorse and repair, the Komagata Maru incident is featured by various Canadian government sectors, both local and national, to teach the general public about exclusionary citizenship and immigration laws. Yet, racism and anti-immigrant sentiment is on the rise in Canada and other Western countries, largely affecting both international students with little to no protections and Sikh activists who speak against India and advocate for Sikh sovereignty. 

At a recent protest in Brampton, international students from Punjab chanted “No More Komagata Maru!” as they protest concerns about the exploitation of migrant labor and post-graduate work permits intended to limit and restrict immigration. Simultaneously, as xenophobia rises in the West, the Indian state and Godi media takes all opportunities to cast Bhai Hardeep Singh and other Sikh activists into binaries of extremists/ terrorists as an attempt to further isolate Sikhs. Pushed into a bind, some Sikh organizations and spokespeople are trapped into these binaries of language and make appeals of innocence that depoliticize the Sikh sangarsh as one solely of human rights advocacy. In these cases, these selected organizations and spokespersons tend to emphasize the individual sentiment, rather than the collective, panthic sentiments of ongoing resistance. 

Similar to how the Komagata Maru reinvigorated the ongoing movement against colonial rule, Bhai Hardeep Singh’s shahadat catapulted public perception and narrative around Khalistan. 

Against Innocence 

On September 18, 2023, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed what many Sikhs knew for the last few months: Indian intelligence orchestrated Bhai Hardeep Singh’s assassination on June 18, 2023. His killing came after the suspicious death of another UK-based Sikh activist, Shaheed Bhai Avtar Singh Khanda. Bhai Khanda was admitted into the hospital on June 11, 2023, and died a few days later due to alleged terminal blood cancer. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement about the potential link between Indian government agents in the assassination of Bhai Hardeep Singh provides Sikhs with a moment of clarity and confirmation on the global stage. However, it must be noted that his statement had more to do with the integrity of Canada’s sovereignty and its rule of law than with the rights and self-determination of Sikhs. In fact, toward the end of his statement on September 18, 2023, Trudeau stated, 

“In the strongest possible terms, I continue to urge the government of India to cooperate with Canada to get to the bottom of this matter. I also expected to reiterate that its position on extrajudicial operation in another country is clearly and unequivocally in line with international law.”

The statement condemns the killing of Bhai Hardeep Singh as a violation of international law and Canada’s sovereignty; however, Bhai Sahib’s activism and the reasons behind the assassination are largely concealed and left to interpretation. In the realm of electoral politics, Bhai Hardeep Singh’s shahadat is often reduced to the death of a “Canadian citizen on Canadian soil.” It is as if the citizenship he obtained in 2007 demarcates the value of his life because it was granted by Canadian law and rule. By limiting the scope of his assassination as a matter of international law and free speech in Western, democratic countries, we reduce Bhai Hardeep Singh’s kurbani and shahadat to a physical death that protects the fragile bounds of Canadian citizenship. The emphasis on his innocence, distance from militancy and the sangarsh, are all attempts to persuade the general, Western audience to see his advocacy for Khalistan within the proper parameters of a “good citizen” – one who follows the rule of law and stays within the permitted lane of human rights discourse. By reinstating Shaheed Bhai Hardeep Singh as a “Canadian citizen killed on Canadian soil,” we erase his existence and shahadat as sovereign, extending beyond the metaphysical, a status bestowed by Sache Patshah alone. 

Additionally, the emphasis on Bhai Sahib as a “Canadian citizen killed on Canadian soil” erases his solidarity with the Indigenous nations and people and his shared commitment to Khalistan and Indigenous sovereignty. In 2021, Bhai Sahib organized an Akhand Paat after learning about the 215 indigenous children whose remains were found in a mass grave at the former site of the residential school in Kamloops. 

Honoring Bhai Hardeep Singh’s Soch

Suspicious deaths and disappearances are not new to Sikhs. Generations of Sikhs are violently familiar with suspicious deaths and disappearances and unanswered questions. In the 1980s and 1990s, Sikhs were disappeared, never returned home, and were reduced to ashes. These atrocities birthed shaheeds like Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra, who also then disappeared for tracing, quantifying, and reporting what was otherwise meant to be untraceable. 

Today, that familiar violence of the 1980’s and 1990’s of suspicious and orchestrated deaths has trespassed the boundaries and militarized borders of Western nation-states where that generation sought refuge. We find ourselves in a similar moment under a different geopolitical context with familiar open-ended questions and sentiments raised by Shaheed Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra in his last speech:

“There is a fable that when the sun was setting for the first time, as it was completing its journey, light was decreasing. Light was decreasing and the signs of Darkness were appearing. It is said, lamentation was rife amongst the people that the sun will set. Darkness will spread. No one will be able to see anything. And, what will happen to us? Everyone in the world was worried, but the sun set. 

In order to show its strength, darkness set its foot on the earth, but it said – far away, in some hut, one little Lamp lifted their head. It proclaimed, “I challenge the darkness. If nothing else, then I will not let it settle. Around myself, I will establish the Light. And it is said, watching that one lamp, in other huts, other lamps arose. And the world was amazed that these lamps stopped darkness from expanding and people could see. 

Today, I believe when darkness is trying to overwhelm, Truth with full strength, self-respecting Punjab like a lamp, is challenging this darkness. And I pray to the Guru who identifies the Truth to keep this light lit.”

-Shaheed Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra

In the words of Shaheed Jaswant Singh Khalra, Bhai Hardeep Singh was a jot who awakened the panth, particularly in the diaspora, to engage with the contradictions of what it means to live as a displaced Sikh in the West, assert our patshahi dava, and expose the limited protection by Western nation-states. Bhai Sahib’s shahadat reinvigorated a generation of Sikhs in the West that the fight for Khalistanis alive (ਜਿੰਦਾ ਹੈ) and reckon with what it means to live as a panth dhardi Sikh.

On Bhai Sahib’s barsi, the Canadian Parliament held a moment of silence to remember Bhai Hardeep Singh. All Parliament members rose to honor his memory. Bhai Hardeep Singh is only recognized as a Canadian citizen in death, but what protections was he granted when he was alive? Like many Sikh activists, Bhai Hardeep Singh was criminalized for his activism by the same nation that claims to honor his ‘memory’ today. Bhai Sahib was placed on a ‘no-fly list’ and had his bank accounts frozen and credit blocked due to his support for the Khalistan struggle. Therefore, in thinking about the Komagata Maru incident and how it is remembered in Canadian public consciousness today, we must dissect how Bhai Hardeep Singh’s jeevan and shahadat is being understood today and how it can be co-opted tomorrow. 

As Sikhs continue to wrestle with the idea of justice, and a new generation of Sikhs rise into these activist spaces, we must understand the foreign intelligence, surveillance and carceral apparatus aimed at us. What information was relayed from the Indian government, namely by India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), to Canadian intelligence and law enforcement to criminalize Bhai Hardeep Singh and attempt to destroy his family’s livelihood? How are surveillance, intelligence, and information exchanged, relayed, and verified between India’s Research and Analysis Wing and Canadian law enforcement and governance? 

As Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western countries recruit Sikh police officers, federal agents, and other officers to their branches, what information, names, and data are collected? It remains unclear how intelligence collection operates between India and other nation-states where Sikh activists are active and organized. In a globalized society, this exchange of information must be understood within the carceral apparatus of criminalizing dissent and activism.

A few recent examples illustrate this further. In 2015, 54-year-old Balvir Singh was arrested for “obtain[ing] information about figures in the Sikh opposition scene and the Kashmiri movement and their relatives in Germany, and passed this on to his handlers who were working at the Indian consulate general in Frankfurt.” Many Sikh activists in Australia have reported receiving threats, and at least four intelligence officers were asked to leave Australia, some of whom were posing as diplomats in India’s high commission. 

How do Sikhs make sense of the active hamla against Sikh resistance and struggle today? While Godi media labels the Sikh struggle as dead, the Indian state is actively targeting Khalistani activists around the globe. Herein lies an inherent contradiction that Sikhs must reckon with and be empowered by. After the Kisaan Morcha, one of the most significant people’s mobilizations in recent history, the public perception and sympathy for Sikhs’ strength and ability to abolish oppressive structures and systems has shifted. The Kisaan Morcha provided a glimpse of Sikh Raj – an inherent threat to Hindutva and the fascist Modi regime. 

On the evening of Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s one-year barsi, the kavishar said, 

“Whoever speaks on saach (truth), whoever speaks about haak (rights), whoever talks about how to live in this world with your head held high, various governments will respond to them how they responded to our big brother, Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Many bilare (speakers) have all highlighted how a soorma [like Bhai Sahib] are rarely born, once in thousands of years. One question arises: Ek Kavi once said, “Do not cry over my physical body, save my soch (consciousness). Now is the time to save his consciousness.”

What does it mean to save Bhai Hardeep’s Singh soch? Bhai Jaswant Singh Khalra said, “Today, I believe when darkness is trying to overwhelm, Truth with full strength, self-respecting Punjab like a lamp, is challenging this darkness. And I pray to the Guru who identifies the Truth to keep this light lit.” To preserve Bhai Hardeep Singh’s soch, the Sangat’s to keep the jot lit, with Maharaj’s kirpa, wrestle with these contradictions, and the illusion of protection from western-nation states.

ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਮੇਰੋ ਰੂਪ ਹੈ ਖ਼ਾਸ ॥ ਖ਼ਾਲਸੇ ਮਹਿ ਹੌ ਕਰੌ ਨਿਵਾਸ ॥ ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਮੇਰੋ ਮਖ ਹੈ ਅੰਗਾ ॥ ਖ਼ਾਲਸੇ ਕੇ ਹੌਂ ਸਦ ਸਦ ਸੰਗਾ॥