 |
|
NEWS/MEDIA
| |
|
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP By
With President Truman’s signature on the Celler-Luce Bill on 3 July 1946 ended four decades of what President Roosevelt called ‘statutory discrimination against the Indians.’ The history of this discrimination goes back to the beginning of the twentieth century. The first trickle of Indian immigrants to the Pacific Coast States was a result of discrimination in Canada. The provincial government of British Columbia, with tacit encouragement of the British Government in London and the Dominion Government in Ottawa, not only refused to let the East Indians land on Canadian soil also drove out the already landed immigrants. They moved south of the border as laborers in the lumbar yards and agricultural farms in Washington, Oregon and California. During 1901 1910 the total Indian immigration into the United States was 4, 713 compared to 20,605 Chinese and 129,797 Japanese during the same period. Although numerically negligible, the Indians suffered heart wrenching humiliation in the hands of conservative politicians and anti Oriental labor unions. To extend the persecution to the East Indians, the name of Japanese and Koreans Exclusion League was changed to the Asiatic Exclusion League. While the ill treatment of Chinese and Japanese immigrants was vehemently protested by the Chinese and Japanese Governments, British Government condoned the deprivation of Indians who were themselves British subjects. Unfortunately, the Federal Government in Washington went along with the anti-Indian wave sweeping through the West. Attorney General Charles Bonaparte bolstered the Asiatic Exclusion League’s objective by declaring that the East Indians were ineligible for citizenship because the Congress, by an act in 1790, restricted naturalization only to ‘white’ races and persons of African descent. The power of granting citizenship was, as is now, in the hands of district or county courts not the federal courts. In several cases the district court judges did not agree with the Attorney General’s interpretation and granted citizenship when the applicants successfully argued that East Indians belong the Aryan race and hence are whites. The government appealed all such decisions. The exclusion of Indians, however, was officially accomplished by the passage of an immigration bill in 1917 over the veto by President Woodrow Wilson. Further, in 1923 the government cancelled the citizenship of about seventy seven Indians and immediately issued orders of deportation. This action led to a spate of court challenges. The Indians lost every one of them. The Congress went one step further by pushing through the Cable Act which took away citizenship of American women married to individuals ineligible for naturalization. Through every step of the unfortunate sequence of events the Indians fought hard. Brave men like Taraknath Das, Sakharam G. Pandit, Sailendranath Ghose and Sudhindranath Bose, themselves persecuted by the government for their ethnic origin and patriotism to India, lobbied, traveled extensively giving talks, wrote numerous articles, even took their cause to the Supreme Court. The conservative politicians in the Congress and American Labor Unions remained unbendable in their opposition. The plight of the few thousands of Indians in the United States was summarized by historian Joan M. Jensen -. “excluded from immigration, persecuted for their political activities, threatened with deportation, excluded from citizenship, denaturalized, excluded from land ownership, and regulated even in their choice of a mate in the States, these Indians now formed a small band of people set apart from Americans by what truly seemed to be a great white wall.” It took relentless struggle for another twenty years to breach the wall. Under the dynamic leadership of J. J. Singh, Anup Singh, R.L. Singh, Haridas Muzumdar, D. P. Pandia and Tarakanath Das the pressure to gain the congressional support intensified. Attitude began to change slowly in 1943 after the repeal of Chinese Exclusion laws and the realization that India was destined to be a free and powerful nation in the near future. The Indians in America canvassed the newspapers and magazines to write favorably for the repeal of the Exclusion Act of 1917. J. J. Singh convinced Republican Clara Booth Luce and Democrat Emanuel Celler to introduce bills in Congress giving Indians same rights as the Chinese. Celler’s argument was that it would remedy the ‘racial arrogance of American immigration policy.’ Celler and Luce bills received editorial backing from the major newspapers of the country. Endorsement came from famous Americans like Pearl Buck, Louis Fischer, Albert Einstein and Robert Mullikan and many others. American missionaries living in India wrote fervently in favor of opening the door to the Indians. Under overwhelming public support engineered by the Indian leaders and the changing political situation in Asia the White House lent its support for the first time. President Roosevelt wrote letters to Congressmen and Senators but the bills were stalled in committees by few intransigent members and the American Federation of Labor. It was for President Truman to bring around the most rigid Congressman on the committee and finally the bill was enacted into law on July 3, 1946. Since then, the immigration laws have been modified and changed several times. Now, it is not only easier for the Indians to immigrate into the United States and once in they live and contribute to the entire American society with pride and dignity. The Act of July 3, 1946, entitled the late Indian American, Dalip Singh Saund to be elect as a member of the U.S. Congress in 1956. He served three terms as U. S. Congressman. He demonstrated how one can win bitterly contested election by “involvement al recognition within the community” where he lived. Saund “won more than 60% of the vote by a constituency obviously pleased by his accomplishments on their behalf.” The Indian American community now shares the ‘American Dream’ by producing two Nobel Laureate many distinguished doctors, teachers, scientists, lawyers, nurses, businessmen, engineers and other professionals par excellence. It is reported that Asian Indian community has one of the highest per capita income among the Asian immigrants. The Indian American community is second to none in discharging their civic responsibilities, demonstrating their loyalty and devotion to the United States, their adopted country.
|
