100 Years Later, Embracing Our Legacy of Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind
One hundred years ago, in 1923, the Supreme Court took away American citizenship from an extraordinary man named Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind. A Sikh American, UC Berkeley graduate, Indian independence activist, and American war veteran, Dr. Thind would have his citizenship revoked for the second time by the country he called home. This was all because American naturalization law only allowed “free white persons” and those of African ancestry to become citizens. Indians—and Asians, in general—occupied a gray area. Were they white, Black, or neither?Just one year earlier, in 1922, the Supreme Court had ruled in Ozawa v. United States that white meant “Caucasian”—meaning that Japanese Americans, however white the color of their skin, did not qualify. Dr. Thind and his lawyer, Sakharam Ganesh Pandit, thus pursued an innovative strategy. Per the prevailing race science of the time, Dr. Thind was of “high-caste Hindu stock”—thus Aryan, Caucasian, and white.However this strategy failed. “It may be true,” wrote Justice Sutherland for the Court in United States v. Thind, “that the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu have a common ancestor in the dim reaches of antiquity, but the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them today.” The Court conveniently weaseled out of its previous definition to deny Dr. Thind whiteness and, thus, citizenship.Although I grew up in the United States, I did not learn about Dr. Thind’s case until I took a South Asian American history class as an undergraduate student. Only then did I learn of the long and rich history of South Asian Americans, from Aaron Burr’s mistress Mary Emmons to 1920s-era Bengali Harlem to the 1956 election of Congressman Dalip Singh Saund. Later, in law school, we again touched upon United States v. Thind in my Asian American Legal Studies course, particularly how it demonstrated the social construction of race, the indeterminacy of whiteness, and how we could not take anything, especially racial categories, for granted today.But it was just a few months ago—when I decided to research Dr. Thind in light of his case’s 100th anniversary—that I got in touch with his son David, who maintains a website and a foundation dedicated to his father’s work. Through biographical materials he shared with me—including a book and a movie—I learned that Dr. Thind’s legacy reaches far beyond that single court case and continues to provide relevant lessons for us today.First, Dr. Thind was an Indian freedom fighter in the Ghadar movement. Founded in Astoria, Oregon, the Ghadar movement published and distributed literature around the world to awaken revolutionary sentiment among Indians. The movement culminated in a 1915 plan for an armed mutiny in India, which, though unsuccessful, ultimately led to the infamous Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Due to his activities, Dr. Thind was labeled a subversive by the British government and placed under MI5 surveillance, and federal officials noted his Ghadar involvement when challenging his citizenship. After the Supreme Court took away Dr. Thind’s citizenship, the federal government underwent a campaign to denaturalize hundreds of other Indian-American citizens, causing many to lose their land and even prompting one man to commit suicide. Dr. Thind’s and other Indian-Americans’ struggles for citizenship were thus intricately connected with the Indian independence movement. As we celebrate this year’s Republic Day, let us honor the sacrifices and struggles of such figures as Dr. Thind in the Indian independence movement and anti-colonial solidarity.Moreover, Dr. Thind’s citizenship attempts were only a small part of the greater spiritual quest he embarked on while living in America. He decided to first come to the United States in 1913 after being inspired by the works of thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. He spent over 40 years traveling the country and providing free spiritual lectures to those in need. Coming from the equality-centered tradition of Sikhism, Dr. Thind taught the Sant Mat tradition, a path consisting of Sat Nām (the Name of God), sat guru (teacher), and sat sang (community). He distrusted organized religion and taught individuals how to express their fullest potential: by living a “philosophy of life, in which philosophical selfishness is set aside, creeds and dogmas are relegated to the past, and the sunlight of truth is permitted to shine in all its splendor.”1Dr. Thind did ultimately receive his citizenship in 1936, after Congress passed a law giving citizenship to former veterans. However, Dr. Thind’s legacy shows how the fates of India and America are deeply and forever intertwined. The Ghadarites, a major force of the Indian revolutionary movement, were based in the United States. It goes the other way, too. The only reason Indian-Americans are able to naturalize today is due to a 1946 law that was only passed after significant advocacy by the Indian-American community and an American desire to gain favor with the soon-to-be-independent nation of India. Additionally, the Indian subcontinent has long had a spiritual influence on America: Emerson reading the Bhagavad Gita, Vivekananda’s 1893 visit, Dr. Thind’s lectures, the extensive 1920s-era lectures and community building by Mufti Muhammad Sadiq, and contemporary gurus and yoga teachers.This fact bears strongly on social debates today. For example, the Supreme Court’s consideration of Dr. Thind’s “high-caste Hindu stock” shows how caste, far from being relegated to India, is deeply embedded as an American concept in America’s own legal precedent. Caste and race are fused together, as Dr. Thind used his caste in order to claim whiteness. Understanding this fact will help us have more honest and nuanced debates about caste discrimination in the U.S., its relationship to debates on racism, and help us combat its implications. After all, though Dr. Thind had to argue his case on the basis of caste, his spiritual teachings envisioned “[a] people new-born, with no routine or superstition, with no purdah or caste, no pariahs, no injustices.”2Dr. Thind’s story gives purpose to being part of the Indian diaspora and inspiration for how I, and others like me, are uniquely situated to contribute back to the world and our communities, in the political, spiritual, and social realms. Indian-Americans are not a new arrival to this country, but deeply imbricated in it and its history. And we cannot turn a blind eye to the major issues facing America, India, or the rest of the world. We have leaders such as Dr. Thind to show for it.This Republic Day, we should not only honor the legacy of Dr. Thind, but redouble our commitment to helping members of the diaspora to discover stories such as his and become inspired to achieve their very best. We should advocate for more educational initiatives so that grade school students can learn about stories such as Dr. Thind. We should fund programs and courses that spiritually, culturally, and educationally support South Asian students at universities and help them learn about and gain strength from their heritage. Following Dr. Thind’s example, we should support and participate in work that supports social justice through a cultural and faith-based perspective, as well as interfaith work that brings communities together and overcomes our divisions. We should patronize film, arts, archives, and other media about the history of the South Asian diaspora in America and elsewhere in the world. Why not a Smithsonian National Museum of South Asian American History and Culture?These efforts are all the more important now because we find ourselves in a critical moment. Both India and America, and in fact the entire world, are facing fundamental questions around religious divisions, colonialism, history, memory, and democracy. We must take the next step forward and help establish and strengthen both community and memory. We need to know our past to better reckon with the complex and nuanced issues that characterize our present.References1Doctorji, page 222Doctorji, page 102Images: A colored photograph of Dr. Thind; Photograph of Bhagat Singh Thind in his U.S. Army Uniform; Photograph of Dr. Thind and his wife Vivian Thind. Images used with permission from David Bhagat Thind.
Ashwin Ramaswami is a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University Law Center. He is from Johns Creek, GA and holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He works at the intersection of technology, law, and policy, and his interests include digital humanities, philanthropy, religion and spirituality, and the South Asian American experience.
