Union City: First Punjabi graduation caps a season of Sikh milestones

Union City, California — home to one of the largest Punjabi Sikh populations in the United States — marked a string of historic moments this month. James Logan High School became the first public high school in the region to hold a Punjabi graduation ceremony, celebrating the language that binds a community that also filled the Alameda County Fairgrounds for Diwali and pressed city hall for resolutions recognizing Sikh history and justice. From fireworks over Pleasanton to legislative votes in City Hall, Union City’s South Asian community is asserting its presence at every level of Bay Area civic and cultural life.

First Punjabi graduation at James Logan High School

In a landmark moment for the East Bay’s South Asian diaspora, James Logan High School in Union City held the region’s first-ever Punjabi graduation ceremony, honoring students who spoke, studied, or identified with Punjabi language and heritage. The ceremony was the culmination of years of effort by parents, community organizers, and educators who argued that the school’s large Punjabi-speaking population deserved recognition on the same stage as Spanish and Mandarin speakers. Graduates who participated spoke of pride in hearing their ancestral tongue called from the podium, many saying their parents and grandparents wept during the procession. Punjabi is widely spoken in Union City, Fremont, and across the Tri-City corridor, where gurdwaras, cultural associations, and Punjabi-language radio programs have built a rich infrastructure. Community leaders called the ceremony a formal acknowledgment that immigrant identities belong in public education, not just at home. The school district signaled that the ceremony could become an annual tradition, a prospect that drew immediate enthusiasm from parents who see language preservation as inseparable from cultural survival in an assimilation-heavy environment. [1]

Diwali draws 25,000 to Alameda County Fairgrounds

More than 25,000 people converged on the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton for one of the Bay Area’s largest Diwali celebrations, organized by the Association of Indo Americans with support from over 150 volunteers. The event featured music, food, fashion, and a fireworks display that lit up the October sky in celebration of the Festival of Lights. Union City resident Neha Agarwal, who attended with her children, said the event reconnects her family to memories of Diwali in India while giving her kids a living cultural education. California Attorney General Rob Bonta addressed the crowd, drawing applause when he invoked Diwali’s message of good over evil in the context of current challenges facing immigrant communities. Fremont Mayor Raj Salwan, who grew up in the East Bay of Indian descent, noted that the festival’s scale reflects the diaspora’s growth and its legitimacy as a civic force. Separately, KQED documented dozens of Diwali events across the Bay Area region, underscoring that the celebration has expanded far beyond individual households into a public holiday moment. Beginning in 2026, Diwali became an official California state holiday, a milestone widely celebrated by the South Asian community. [2]

Region’s newest gurdwara to rise in Union City

Plans were approved for a new gurdwara in Union City, adding to the city’s already substantial Sikh religious infrastructure and reflecting the continued growth of the Punjabi community in the Tri-City area. The Mercury News reported that the new house of worship will be the newest in the wider region, built to serve a congregation that has grown faster than existing gurdwaras can accommodate. Union City’s Sikh community is one of the most organized in California, with multiple gurdwaras, a robust langar tradition, and deep ties to civic institutions. Community members said the new gurdwara will also include space for Punjabi language classes, youth programs, and community health services, reflecting the modern multipurpose role that gurdwaras increasingly play for diaspora communities. Local officials supported the project, citing the community’s long record of civic engagement and disaster relief participation. The development underscores how Union City’s South Asian population has moved well beyond first-generation immigrant footholds into the kind of rooted institutional presence that shapes neighborhoods for generations. [5]

Union City passes resolution recognizing 1984 Sikh genocide

The Union City City Council joined Lathrop and Selma in passing a formal resolution recognizing the 1984 anti-Sikh massacres in India as an act of genocide, a step that carries deep emotional weight for the Bay Area’s large Punjabi Sikh population. The resolution, reported by Sikh24, came amid broader advocacy by Sikh organizations urging American municipalities to acknowledge what they describe as state-sponsored violence that killed thousands of Sikhs following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. For Union City’s gurdwara communities, the vote was both a political milestone and a source of communal healing, with many families in the area being survivors or descendants of survivors of the 1984 violence. This advocacy work exists alongside more immediate safety concerns: NBC News documented a hate crime charge against a man who directed a racist rant at an Indian man at a local Taco Bell, while the BBC reported the earlier case of a police chief’s son charged in a brutal attack on a 71-year-old Sikh grandfather in nearby Manteca. Together, these cases drove community leaders to demand both historical recognition and present-day accountability from law enforcement and elected officials. [7]

Sources: [1] Tri City Voice · [2] ABC7 Bay Area · [5] The Mercury News · [7] Sikh24.com