By far the most noteworthy case to come out of the South Asian legal struggle for citizenship was Bhagat Singh Thind v. United States. This case articulated clearly the way in which whiteness, caste, and immigration were interlaced systems in the United States (Shankar, 2023).
Bhagat Singh Thind was born in 1892 in Punjab, India, then a part of the British Raj. In 1913, he immigrated to the United States, settling in Seattle to pursue graduate studies. Thind was one of approximately 7,000 Indian men, many of them Punjabi Sikhs, who came to the Pacific Northwest around that time seeking economic and educational opportunities while fleeing unrest and British colonial repression in India. Thind worked summers at lumber mills in Oregon while also studying religion and literature at the University of California, Berkeley, He became involved with the Ghadar Party, an Indian independence movement organizing immigrants in North America to overthrow British colonial rule in India. When the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, Thind enlisted in the U.S. Army, becoming the first turbaned Sikh soldier in the American military. During his military service, Thind applied for U.S. citizenship. Under the 14th Amendment, all freed Black persons could become citizens. While there was no language in the amendment that specified that citizenship could only apply to white or Black people, this is how the courts had thus far come to understand the law. Therefore, Thind’s initial petition for citizenship was initially approved but quickly overturned after opposition from the Bureau of Naturalization. In 1920, Thind applied again for citizenship in Oregon. The judge granted it based on arguments that Indians could be considered "Caucasian" and thus "white," as well as in recognition of Thind's military service. However, the Bureau of Naturalization appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The two questions that faced the Supreme Court were as follows: “Is a high-caste Hindu, of full Indian blood, born at Amritsar, Punjab, India, a white person within the meaning of § 2169, Revised Statutes [referring to the revised Naturalization Act]?” and “Does the Act of February 5, 1917 (39 Stat. 875, § 3) disqualify from naturalization as citizens those Hindus now barred by that act who had lawfully entered the United States prior to the passage of said act?" Thind extended the argument from his appeal in Oregon: he considered himself a “free white person” and was thus eligible for citizenship.
One of the most important precedents this argument, and overall this case, was based upon was the Ozawa v. United States case. Argued just months prior, Ozawa established that a “white person” referred to anyone of the Caucasian race as commonly understood. A “common understanding” of who belongs to what race opens up the debate to numerous interpretations of what understandings are correct and incorrect, and this was where Thind’s argument hinged. He described himself, a full-blooded Hindu from Punjab, as a “Caucasian”: "The applicant contends that the words 'white persons' are synonymous with the words 'Caucasian race, and that the Hindus are included therein." Thind relied on the caste hierarchies of the South Asian subcontinent to make his argument about whiteness. The court was not convinced. They rejected any anthropological definitions of a “high-class Hindu” being a member of the “Caucasian” or “Aryan” race. Instead, the Court’s understanding of Thind’s argument was solely based on language alone and the Ozawa “common understanding” of language. The Court seemingly confused itself, with Justice Sutherland noting that the term "Caucasian" was "a conventional word of much flexibility." At the same time, the common understanding of “Caucasian” was to be white, and Thind, to the common man, was not white.
Thus, the case of Bhagat Singh Thind is an important reflection of the shifting relationship between whiteness and citizenship in United States legal history. It is also an important lesson for South Asian folks: relying on caste and proximity to whiteness did not serve Bhagat Singh Thind well.