An Indian got citizenship for the first time in America, who was that person, how difficult it was

Bhicaji Balsara: There was a period of apartheid in America during the 20th century. In that environment, Bhikaji Balsara became the first Indian to obtain American citizenship. However, Bombay’s cotton merchant Balsara had to fight a long battle for this. He fought this battle without fear and without bowing down and achieved success. In America, in the early 1900s, only free white people were given US citizenship. People used to get US citizenship under the Naturalization Act of 1790. To take US citizenship, people had to prove that they were free and white.

Bhikaji Balsara fought the first battle under this law in the circuit court of New York in the year 1906. Balsara argued that the Aryans were white, including Caucasians and Indo-Europeans. Later, this argument of Balsara was also used in the court by those Indians who wanted naturalized citizenship of America. On Balsara’s plea, the court said that if he is given US citizenship on this basis, it will open the way for naturalization for Arabs, Hindus and Afghans as well. The court rejected his application. However, the court said that Balsara can appeal in the higher court for US citizenship.

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How Balsara got US citizenship
As a Parsi, Balsara was considered a pure member of the Persian sect. That’s why he was also considered a free white man. Balsara was granted US citizenship in 1910 by Judge Emile Henry Lacombe of the Southern District of New York with the expectation that the USA attorney would challenge his decision. Also appeal for official interpretation of the law. The US Attorney followed Lacombe’s wishes and took the case to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910. The Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that Parsis are classified as white. Later, on the basis of this decision, another federal court granted US citizenship to AK Mazumdar.

The US Supreme Court ruled in 1923 that Indians were ineligible for US citizenship because they were not free white people.

… then Punjabi immigrants started entering illegally
This decision came in favor of Balsara, US Attorney General Charles J. Contrary to Bonaparte’s 1907 declaration. In this he had said that under any law the natives of British India cannot be considered white. After the Immigration Act of 1917, the immigration of Indians to America decreased. However, Punjabi immigrants continued to enter the US through the Mexico border. California’s Imperial Valley had a large population of Punjabis, who helped these immigrants. The Sikh immigrants mixed easily with the Punjabi population. The Ghadar Party, a California-based group campaigning for Indian independence, helped people enter the US illegally through the Mexican border.

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Why did the Supreme Court tell Indians to be ineligible
Gadar Party used the money received for helping people to enter America illegally, to run the activities of the party. An estimated 2,000 Indian immigrants entered the US illegally between 1920 and 1935. By the year 1920, the population of Americans of Indian origin was around 6,400. The US Supreme Court ruled in the case of United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind in 1923 that Indians were ineligible for citizenship because they were not free white men. The court also argued that the great mass of our people would not be ready to mix with the Indians.

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What did the Supreme Court tell the meaning of white person
The Supreme Court held that the technical meaning of the term white person, based on the popular understanding of race, is people of northern or western European descent rather than Caucasians. After this decision, pending applications for citizenship of more than 50 Indians were cancelled. After this an Indian Sakharam Ganesh Pandit fought against naturalization. He was a lawyer by profession and married a white American. He regained his citizenship in 1927. However, no further naturalizations were allowed after the decision, which resulted in about 3,000 Indians leaving the US between 1920 and 1940.

After the Second World War, America opened the door for Indian immigration.

Indians reaching America continuously climbing the ladder
By getting higher education, Indian youth started climbing up the social ladder. Dhan Gopal Mukherjee came to UC Berkeley in 1910. At that time he was only 20 years old. He was the author of many children’s books. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1928 for ‘Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon’. Yellapragada Subba Rao came to America in 1922 and became a biochemist at Harvard University. He discovered the function of adenosine triphosphate as an energy source in cells and developed methotrexate for the treatment of cancer. Gobind Bihari Lal reached California University in 1912. He became science editor of the San Francisco Examiner. He became the first Indian American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism.

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The changing situation of Indians in America
After the Second World War, America again opened the door for Indian immigration. Under the Luce-Sailor Act of 1946, 100 Indians were allowed to immigrate to America every year. This effectively overturned the Supreme Court’s 1923 decision in the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind case. The Naturalization Act of 1952 repealed the Restricted Areas Act of 1917. It is also known as the McCarran-Walter Act. However, even in this, only 2,000 Indians were banned from giving US citizenship every year. Things changed and in 1955, 14 out of 21 hotel enterprises in San Francisco were run by Gujarati Hindus. At the same time, by the 1980s, Indians had about 15,000 motels, which was about 28 percent of all hotels and motels in America.

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Dramatic change in immigration again
Long-term immigration from India averaged 40,000 people annually from 1965 to the mid-1990s. Indian immigration has increased significantly since 1995, reaching a peak of approximately 90,000 immigrants in the year 2000. In the beginning of the 21st century, a significant change was observed in the trend of migration from India to America. Tremendous development took place in the IT sector in Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad. After this, a large number of people went to America from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Indians get more than 80 percent of all H-1B visas issued by the US.

Indian-American Kamala Harris created history by becoming the first female Vice President of America.

Indians dominate average household income
Indian Americans have become the richest ethnicity in the US with a median household income of $1,26,891, which is almost double the US average of $65,316. After the year 2000, a large number of Indian students started going to America for higher education. Estimates suggest that more than 500,000 Indian-Americans attend higher-education institutions in any given year. Indian-origin American Kamala Harris created history on 20 January 2021 by becoming the first female Vice President of America. She was elected Vice President in the 2020 presidential election as her running mate with Joe Biden. Besides him, 20 other Indian Americans were nominated to key positions in the administration.

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Tags: America, Citizenship, Citizenship Act, India US