The South Asian Solidarity Movement was founded in 2021 to move our communities beyond apathy and into action — confronting injustice, challenging oppression, and practicing cross-racial solidarity. Through quarterly gatherings and community engagements, we create spaces for learning, reflection, and collective growth. We bring together people from diverse racial, ethnic, and social backgrounds to engage hard truths and conversations often left unspoken in communities of the global majority. Grounded in an honest reckoning with our histories of colonization and harm, we also recognize the privileges we hold as a diaspora — and the responsibility that comes with them to dismantle the systems that divide us and work toward collective liberation. We welcome anyone who feels called to this work, while unapologetically centering the voices, experiences, and leadership of the Global Majority.

OUR WHY

The South Asian Solidarity Movement was born from a simple truth: our communities deserve spaces to move beyond silence and into solidarity. While the South Asian diaspora continues to grow and evolve, many of us have not had places to collectively learn, unlearn, and reckon with the histories, biases, and internalized narratives that shape how we show up in the world. We believe transformation begins in community — through honest conversation, shared reflection, and a commitment to justice.

SASM creates those spaces. We bring South Asians together to deepen connection across language, religion, caste, and culture, while building the awareness and accountability needed to challenge oppression within and beyond our communities. In a deeply segregated city like Chicago, we also intentionally foster relationships across racial and social difference, cultivating cross-racial solidarity and collective action.

Our why is rooted in this belief: when we gather with courage, care, and clarity, we can become more responsible to one another and more committed to building a just, inclusive, and liberated future together.