At a time when Indian were not eligible for a US citizenship, Bhicaji Balsara, a textile merchant from Bombay (now Mumbai), fought and won a lengthy legal battle against racist citizenship laws, and became the first Indian-origin person to become a US citizen.
Immediately after assuming office as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, Donald Trump signed an executive order that will drastically alter US citizenship laws when it comes into effect. As per Trump’s order, children born to foreign passport holders will no longer attain US citizenship by birth, a move that could affect over 54 lakh Indians living in the country.
According to latest census, Indians are the largest diaspora in the United States, accounting for around 1.47 percent of the country’s population, out of which two-thirds of Indians are immigrants, while 34 percent are citizens by birth. If Trump’s order, which has been stayed for now by a US court, comes into effect, children born to Indian citizens living in the US on temporary work visas or tourist visas will no longer be US citizens by birth.
In contemporary times, Indians are one of the wealthiest and most influential diaspora in the United States, holding key positions in American politics, administration, and leading American businesses as CEOs and top executives. But there was a time when Indians could not acquire a US citizenship due to racially-biased citizenship laws.
First Indian to acquire Indian citizenship
At a time when Indian were not eligible for a US citizenship, Bhicaji Balsara, a textile merchant from Bombay (now Mumbai), fought and won a lengthy legal battle against racist citizenship laws, and became the first Indian-origin person to become a US citizen.
Till the early 1900s, only people who were “free and white” were eligible for US citizenship under the Naturalization Act of 1790, however, Bhicaji Balsara, an Indian-Parsi textile merchant, challenge the biased law in the New York Circuit Court in 1906. Balsara argued that he was of Aryan descent, and Aryans were a white race, similar to Caucasians and Indo-Europeans.
The New York court turned down Bhicaji’s appeal, noting that granting US citizenship to him on the Aryan argument would open the gate for the naturalization of other communities, including Arabs, Hindus and Afghans.
However, Bhicaji Balsara was unfazed by the court’s decision, and filed a similar appeal in the High Court, where he maintained his argument of being a “free white person” because of his Aryan ancestry. Ultimately, Bhicaji Balsara was granted US citizenship in 1910 by Judge Emil Henry Lacombe of the South District of New York.
Following Judge Lacombe’s ruling, US District Attorney approached the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910 for an official interpretation of the law. The court ruled that Parsis were a white, hence eligible for US citizenship and based on this decision, AK Majumdar was later granted citizenship by a US federal court.
Notably, the court ruling that granted citizenship to Bhicaji Balsara, was in contrast to a 1907 declaration by then US- Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte, who had stated that British Indian citizens cannot be considered white under any US law.
Indian immigration to US
Although the immigration of Indians to America dipped after the Immigration Act of 1917, Punjabi immigrants continue pour into the US illegally via the Mexican border, and formed a large diaspora in California.
However, the US reopened the doors for Indian immigration after World War II, with the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 allowing 100 Indians to migrate to the US each year. This was further expanded with Naturalization Act of 1952 which repealed the Barred Areas Act of 1917, allowing 2,000 Indians to migrate to the US annually.
From 1965 to the mid-1990s, long-term immigration from India averaged 40,000 people annually. Indian immigration increased significantly since 1995, reaching a peak of about 90,000 immigrants in 2000
