Gurpreet Kaur Sodhi

“You know it’s funny, I was talking to somebody at work about it and I told her my Dad was a Khalistani. And she is Punjabi Hindu.
And I told her “Why do I feel like I have to defend this to you?”
And she said “Well you don’t, because I understand.”
And unfortunately, I think Khalistani is synonymous with terrorist. And with the past. And I think… a lot of people got involved for their own personal gain. And… a lot of people did that by …collecting money for themselves. And I think that is the unfortunate part about that. Honestly, there was no personal gain involved…it was for everyone. And I think the Indian Government had a public relations strategy which the Sikh community had a hard time fighting against, and that is what makes me sad. Because, as I tell people, I am a proud Khalistani.”
Gurmeet Sodhi, who grew up in Burmanville, Ontario, recounts how her parents’ activities throughout the 80s and especially after 1984 informed her identity. Her father passed away recently, but she shared her memories with the 1984 Living History Project, to preserve her parents’ story. She remembers telling him growing up, “To everyone else, you are Kuldip Singh Sodhi, Khalistani, to me, you are Dad.”