Bhagat Singh Thind
"You must never be limited by external authority, whether it be vested in a church, man, or book. It is your right to question, challenge, and investigate." - Bhagat Singh Thind
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Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind is an Indian Sikh writer, lecturer, theologian, US veteran, and activist. Thind was born in 1892 in present-day Punjab, India, and after receiving his bachelor's degree in India, he moved to the US, where got a PhD in theology and English literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Thind enlisted in the US Army during World War I and became one of the first people of Indian descent to serve in the US military. Once the war ended in 1918, he was honorably discharged with a rank of acting sergeant.
Thind attempted to get naturalized and become a US citizen. There were previous cases of other war veterans who received their citizenship, so he was able to get his as well. Under statute at the time only Caucasians may be naturalized, but Thind considered himself Aryan, which allowed him to get citizenship in 1918. However, an official from the Bureau of Naturalization soon appealed this claim, and his citizenship was revoked on the premise that he was “not a white man.” Six months later, Thind applied for citizenship again in the state of Oregon. The same official pushed back again, claiming that on top of him not being “a white man”, Thind’s involvement in India’s independence from British rule and the Ghadar party made him a threat in the US. The ruling ultimately was upheld, and Thind maintained his citizenship. The judge ruled that his involvement in the Ghadar party does not pose significant risk to the US, and his contributions to the US military warrant naturalization.
In 1923, the Bureau of Naturalization official then appealed to a higher court, eventually going up to the Supreme Court in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. The court unanimously voted to deny Thind’s naturalization, on the grounds that only “free white persons'' and “aliens of African nativity” are eligible for citizenship. Critiques of the case cite that the case had some of the strongest racist rhetoric, at one point saying that “the blond Scandinavian and the brown Hindu...the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences between them”. Thind was Sikh, not Hindu. Because of these stark differences, Thind’s citizenship was revoked.
It was not until Congress passed the Nye-Lea Act in 1935 did any US veteran be eligible for citizenship, regardless of race. Thind petitioned to get naturalized for the third time, this time in New York. He was fully granted US citizenship, roughly two decades after his first petition.
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