New Gurdwara Opens as Indianapolis Sikhs Pursue Khalistan Referendum
Indianapolis’s Sikh and Punjabi community moved to the center of civic and political life in Indiana this summer. A major new gurdwara opened in April as a landmark for the state’s oldest Sikh congregation, while August brought a high-profile referendum campaign tied to the Khalistan movement, complete with highway convoys and citywide billboards. Meanwhile, a WISH-TV investigation highlighted rising concern over increased ICE enforcement activity affecting Punjabi families across the city.
🗳️ Khalistan Referendum Drives Visible Campaign Across Indianapolis
Indianapolis made news within the Sikh diaspora this August as the city became a site for an unofficial Khalistan referendum—a vote organized by Sikh advocacy groups calling for an independent Sikh homeland separate from India. IndyStar reported that Sikhs living in the Indianapolis area were invited to participate in a referendum framed around the right of Sikhs to live without persecution in a sovereign state. The campaign made itself impossible to miss: on August 1, a convoy of vehicles waving yellow Sikh flags—a color associated with the Khalistan movement—traveled Indianapolis highways in a coordinated public demonstration. Alongside the car rally, organizers placed advertisements and billboards across the city directing residents toward the referendum. Indianapolis was specifically selected as a host city for the vote, a recognition of the substantial Punjabi Sikh population that has made Indiana home. While the referendum carries no legal force in the United States or India, its organizers regard it as a formal mechanism for documenting the views of Sikh Americans on the question of sovereignty and religious freedom. The visible nature of the August campaign—billboards, convoys, and public gatherings—sparked widespread curiosity and conversation among Indianapolis residents about the history and aspirations of the Khalistan movement. [1]
Gurdwara 74 Sikh Satsang Opens as Landmark for Indiana’s Sikh Community
In April, the oldest and largest Sikh congregation in Indiana marked a landmark moment with the opening of its newest house of worship in Indianapolis. Gurdwara 74 Sikh Satsang opened on Sunday, April 26, 2026, in a ceremony documented by IndyStar through a photograph gallery capturing the scope and significance of the occasion. The event drew community members dressed in traditional Punjabi attire to witness the formal blessing and inauguration of the new facility. At the ceremony’s center was a time-honored Sikh ritual: a Sikh elder ceremonially waving the Chaur Sahib—a sacred whisk used to fan the Guru Granth Sahib, the eternal living scripture of the Sikh faith—over the holy texts as they were installed in their new home. The IndyStar picture gallery captured moments including Jaswinder Singh in traditional dress attending the historic opening. The new gurdwara expands the congregation’s capacity to serve a growing Sikh population in Indiana, reflecting decades of community development and investment. The Sikh Satsang congregation, as Indiana’s oldest and largest Sikh body, has long served as the spiritual, cultural, and organizational hub for Punjabi families who have put down roots in the Midwest. The addition of a second gurdwara signals not just growth in numbers but a deepening of institutional infrastructure—reinforcing the community’s long-term commitment to Indianapolis and to preserving Sikh religious tradition far from Punjab. [4]
🗳️ Sikh and Punjabi Families Report Rising ICE Enforcement in Indianapolis
WISH-TV’s I-Team investigative unit turned its spotlight on a growing concern within Indianapolis’s Sikh and Punjabi communities: a reported increase in arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The WISH-TV report, drawn from accounts shared by Sikh and Punjabi families in the city, reflects broader anxieties affecting immigrant communities across the United States as federal immigration enforcement has intensified. For Indianapolis’s Punjabi Sikh population—a community that has spent decades building gurdwaras, businesses, and civic institutions across the city—rising ICE activity introduces a climate of uncertainty that runs counter to the community’s otherwise steady growth and deepening civic presence. The I-Team investigation is part of WISH-TV’s multicultural news coverage, a dedicated programming strand that regularly documents the experiences of immigrant and diaspora groups in central Indiana. The intersection of immigration enforcement concerns with the visible civic activism of the Khalistan referendum campaign gives the summer of 2026 a particularly complex character for Indianapolis’s Sikh community—one marked by both expanding confidence and real vulnerability in equal measure. [5]