The Telling Case of Doctor Bhagat Singh Thind: Indian Nationalist, Citizen, and Spiritual Teacher

Abstract

Abstract:On February 19, 1923, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Thind that Indians were not White and therefore not eligible for citizenship, a decision that stood for decades. Bhagat Singh Thind, an émigré from Punjab, India, then working in Linnton, Oregon was the man behind this precedent-setting case who built a life despite its far-reaching implications. Historian Ogden considers the arc of Thind’s life — mill worker, Ghadar activist, court litigant and Hollywood-based spiritual teacher — as a synthetic whole, with an emphasis on the global political realities, repression, and personal beliefs shaping his transformations. Thind’s multi-dimensional life provides a telling glimpse into an enduring American racial lineage.