Waving bright yellow-and-blue flags, thousands of Sikhs arrived in San Francisco in cars, buses and trains Sunday to vote for a new country of their own.

The vote asks whether the predominantly Sikh state of Punjab in India should break away and form an independent nation called Khalistan.

The Khalistan referendum, as the ballot measure is known, is non-binding, meaning even if the majority of voters favor independence, it won’t guarantee a new nation. But to many of California’s 250,000 Sikhs—most of whom live in the Central Valley or the Bay Area—the vote is about nothing less than freedom and democracy.

It’s a global election, held on various dates in different cities where Sikhs reside. The Jan. 28 ballot in San Francisco follows votes in London, Geneva, Rome, Toronto and Vancouver.

Proposed by Sikhs for Justice, a U.S.-based group, the referendum was borne out of what Sikhs say is an ongoing history of persecution in India and advocacy for increased religious freedom for the estimated 25 million followers of this 500-year-old religion that fuses elements of Hinduism and Islam as well as other faiths. 

Independence is fiercely opposed by India’s current Hindu nationalist government, which has sought to label the movement as misguided, if not dangerous. California elected officials of Sikh descent and Sikh activists say they have been surveilled and threatened.