Bhagat Singh Thind: Difference between revisions

Thind remained in the United States, earned his [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] in [[theology]] and [[English literature]] at [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]], and delivered lectures on [[metaphysics]]. His lectures were based on [[Sikh religious philosophy]], but included references to the scriptures of other [[world religions]] and the works of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Walt Whitman]], and [[Henry David Thoreau]]. Thind also campaigned for [[Indian independence movement|Indian independence]] from [[British Raj|colonial rule]].<ref>{{cnCite web |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/bhagat-singh-thind.htm |title=Bhagat Singh Thind |date=March2021-11-01 2023|access-date=2024-01-20 |website=[[National Park Service]] |last=Wagner |first=Ella |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102081542/https://www.nps.gov/people/bhagat-singh-thind.htm |archive-date=2021-11-02 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1936, Thind applied successfully for U.S. citizenship through the [[State of New York]] which had made World War I veterans eligible for naturalization regardless of race.

Thind originally arrived in Seattle upon his move to the United States in 1913.<ref>Lee, Erika. "Immigration, Exclusion, and Resistance, 1800s-1940s. In Finding A Path Forward: Asian American Pacific Islander National Historic Landmarks Theme Study, ed. Franklin Odo. United States National Park Service.</ref>{{full|date=March 2023}} He arrived on the Minnesota which was a boat that originated from the Philippines' capital Manila, and his brother Jagat Singh Thind perished on the journey. He partook on this journey in a migration of around 7,000 other mostly Punjabi Sikh Indian men, of which many fled their homeland to escape persecution by the British who still colonized India.<ref>Shah, Nayan. Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality and the Law in the North American West. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2012.</ref>{{pn|date=March 2023}} After his arrival, he moved to Oregon where he worked in lumber mills alongside a diverse community of European, Asian, and other ethnicities.<ref>Ogden, Johanna. “Ghadar, Historical Silences, and Notions of Belonging: Early 1900s Punjabis of the Columbia River.” Oregon Historical Quarterly 113, no. 2 (Summer 2012): 164-197.https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/east_indians_of_oregon_and_the_ghadar_party/#.YJ19AqhKiUk</ref> Due to this history, Thind joined the [[Ghadar Movement]], of which many of its earliest members, including Thind, were under watch by both British spiesand inU.S. theintelligence United Statesofficials.<ref name="papers.ssrn.com">{{cite journal |last1=Coulson, |first1=Doug. “British|title=British Imperialism, the Indian Independence Movement, and the Racial Eligibility Provisions of the Naturalization Act: United States v. Thind Revisited |url=https://papers.”ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2610266 |journal=Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives |date=2015 |volume=7 |pages=1–42 |ssrn=2610266}}</ref>{{pnrp|date=March 202316-18}} Thind did not take part in the movement's attempt to rebel against British rule in India, but remained a member of the movement and its messages throughout his life. <ref name="Snow 2004">{{cite book |last=Snow |first=Jennifer |title=Race, Jeniffer.Nation, “Theand Religion in the Americas |chapter=The civilizationCivilization of whiteWhite menMen: theThe raceRace of the Hindu in the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind|url=https://doi.” Race, nation,org/10.1093/0195149181.001.0001 and religion in the Americas, Oxford|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1093/0195149181.003.0011 |publication-place=New York: |publisher=Oxford UnivUniversity Pr,Press | date=2004,-09-02 p 259|isbn=978-2800-19-514918-0 |doi=10.1093/0195149181.003.0011 |page=259–280}}</ref>

Thind applied for United States citizenship again from the neighboring [[State of Oregon]], on May 6, 1919. The same Bureau of Naturalization official who revoked Thind's citizenship tried to convince the judge to refuse citizenship to Thind, accusing Thind of involvement in the [[Ghadar Movement|Ghadar Party]], which campaigned for [[Indian independence movement|Indian independence]] from [[British Raj|colonial rule]].<ref name="Coulson 2017">[http://www.sunypress.edu/p-6435-race-nation-and-refuge.aspx{{cite Dougbook |last=Coulson, |first=Doug |title=Race, Nation, and Refuge: The Rhetoric of |url=https://sunypress.edu/Books/R/Race-Nation-and-Refuge|publisher=[[SUNY inPress]] Asian| Americanpublication-place=Albany Citizenship|date=2017-10-01 Cases| (Albany:isbn=978-1-4384-6661-3 SUNY| Press, 2017)].page=}}</ref>{{pn|date=March 2023}} The judge took all arguments and Thind's military record into consideration and declined to agree with the Bureau of Naturalization. Thus, Thind received United States citizenship for the second time on November 18, 1920.{{cn|date=March 2023}}

Thind petitioned for naturalization a third time through the state of New York in 1935 after the Congress passed the Nye-Lea Act, which made World War I veterans eligible for naturalization regardless of race. Based on his status as a veteran of the United States military during World War I, he was finally granted United States citizenship nearly two decades after he first petitioned for naturalization.<ref name="papers.ssrn.com">{{cite journal|last1=Coulson|first1=Doug|title=British Imperialism, the Indian Independence Movement, and the Racial Eligibility Provisions of the Naturalization Act: United States v. Thind Revisited|journal=Georgetown Journal of Law & Modern Critical Race Perspectives|date=2015|volume=7|pages=1–42|ssrn=2610266}}</ref>

Thind was writing a book when he died on September 15, 1967. He was outlived by his wife, Vivian, whom he had married in March 1940, his daughter, Rosalind Stubenberg and son, David Bhagat Thind. Two of his books were self-published posthumously by his son: ''Troubled Mind in a Torturing World and their Conquest'' and ''Winners and Whiners in this Whirling World''.

In 2020, the story of his Supreme Court case was part of PBS's documentary ''Asian Americans.''<ref>{{cite web|author=Kristen Lopez |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2020/05/pbs-asian-americans-documentary-1202230675/amp/ |title='Asian Americans': PBS Documentary Compels Viewers to Honor and Remember – IndieWire |publisher=Indiewire.com |date=2020-05-12 |accessdate=2020-05-19}}</ref>

The case was alsoAlso covered in Scene on Radio's episode 10 of itsseries "Seeing White" series.episode 10
{{cite web|url=https://www.sceneonradio.org/episode-40-citizen-thind-seeing-white-part-10/|title=Citizen Thind|date=June 14, 2017 }}

* [https://web.archive.org/web/2015092318424720070602143532/http://www.bhagatsinghthind.com/lifeofdrthindindex.htmlhtm Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind]