Dalip Singh Saund

Indian-born politician and judge

• Pronunciation: THLEEP SIN-gah sah-OOND
• Born: September 20, 1899
• Birthplace: Chhajulwadi, Punjab, India
• Died: April 22, 1973
• Place of death: Hollywood, California

Best remembered as the first Asian American Congressman, Saund also played an important role in the campaign to secure US citizenship rights for immigrants of Asian origin in the 1940s. A talented mathematician and successful farmer and businessman, Saund also served as a judge in California.

Areas of achievement: Government and politics, activism

Early Life

Dalip Singh Saund was born in Chhajulwadi, a small village in British India. His Sikh parents, Natha Singh and Jeoni Kaur, were uneducated, but his father became quite wealthy as a government contractor, and Saund’s mother taught him to value his Indian cultural heritage. His parents were determined that their seven children should have the best possible education, and when he was eight years old, Saund was sent to boarding school in the town of Amritsar. Saund’s father died when he was ten years old, leaving his mother to raise the family on her own.

Saund was interested in the United States from an early age and was inspired by the ideals of self-government expressed in the Gettysburg Address. Following his 1919 graduation from the University of Punjab with a degree in mathematics, Saund decided to go to the United States to study food preservation. His family was not supportive of this decision, but he assured them that he would return to India afterward to set up a mango canning plant.

Saund sailed from Bombay (now known as Mumbai) to the United States via England. After arriving at Ellis Island in New York, he traveled by train to San Francisco, California, to enroll at the University of California, Berkeley, and he lived in the clubhouse of the Sikh Temple in Stockton, California, where Indian students were able to live rent-free.

Saund enrolled in the Department of Agriculture at Berkeley but continued taking courses in mathematics. He decided to change programs, and he obtained a master’s degree in mathematics in 1922. Politically active, Saund joined the Hindustan Association of America, whose members supported Indian independence from Great Britain. He was later elected its national president.

Life’s Work

After receiving his PhD in 1924 from Berkeley, Saund decided against returning to India, despite receiving job offers from several universities there. There were few opportunities for an educated Indian in California, however, and the Alien Land Act of 1913 prevented noncitizens from owning or leasing farm land. After meeting other Indians who were farming in the Imperial Valley in Southern California, Saund decided to go there in the summer of 1925.

His first job was as foreman of a cotton-picking crew. Working hard, he managed to save enough money to begin farming his own crops. Saund was also active in the local community, joining the Lions Club, becoming a toastmaster, and speaking to civic organizations and church groups on topics such as Mahatma Gandhi and the fight for Indian independence.

In the summers when it was too hot to work the land, Saund spent time in libraries in Los Angeles. He was commissioned by a Sikh organization to write a book, My Mother India (1930), a response to the book Mother India (1927) by the American writer Katherine Mayo, which presented negative and stereotyped views of his homeland.

In the mid-1920s, Saund was invited to speak at the Unitarian Church in Hollywood, where he met a Czech American, Emil Kosa, who later invited Saund home to meet his parents. Realizing that he had already met Emil’s mother and sister on board the ship bound for the United States in 1920, Saund soon became close friends with the family. In 1928, he married Emil’s sister, Marian, and the couple moved to Westmorland, California, in 1930. They had three children.

Saund admired the United States and its democratic system, but he deplored the discrimination against the Asian population, especially as evidenced in state and national legislation. He was also frustrated to be denied US citizenship.

Saund registered as a Democrat and attended local party meetings despite being unable to vote. He then initiated a campaign to lift the restrictions preventing Asians from becoming naturalized citizens. His organization, the India Association of America, and several other Indian welfare group, lobbied Congress for change. In 1946, the Luce-Cellar Act was passed, which granted naturalization rights to Indians and Filipinos.

Saund became an American citizen in December 1949. The next year he ran for and won the position of justice of the peace of Westmorland, but the result was reversed after it was determined that he had been a citizen for less than the required year. Undeterred, Saund ran again and took office in January 1953. Saund was then elected unopposed to the Imperial County Democratic Central Committee, and in 1954 he was elected its chairman. In November 1955, he was nominated to run for Congress, winning the seat against a strong Republican candidate and becoming the first Asian American and first Sikh to serve in Congress.

Singh served three terms but suffered a severe stroke in 1962 during his campaign for a fourth term. Saund was partially paralyzed and never regained his speech. He died on April 22, 1973 and was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Significance

Saund successfully overcame the discrimination and anti-immigrant legislation of his time to pursue an outstanding political career. He opened the way for later generations of Asian American politicians and fought for the rights of all Asian Americans. As a congressman, he used his political influence to promote the interests of immigrants. In 2005, a US Post Office building in Temecula (Imperial County), California was named after him. In 2006, Saund was ranked among the most prominent foreign-born Americans in The Citizen’s Almanac, published for new citizens by the US government.

Bibliography

Roots in the Sand. Dir. Jayasri Majumdar Hart. PBS, 2000. Film. Documentary consisting of archival information, interviews, and a 1937 amateur documentary on Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu immigrants to the United States, including a segment on Dalip Singh Saund.

Saund, Dalip Singh. Congressman from India. New York: Dutton, 1960. Autobiography recounting Saund’s early life in India and his struggle to gain acceptance in his adopted country.

Tajitsu, Nash. “Centennial of Asian American Pioneer Dalip Singh Saund.” IMDiversity.com. IMDiversity, 2011. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. Reports on the life and accomplishments of Saund and his contributions to the Asian American community.