Sakharam Ganesh Pandit
Sakharam Ganesh Pandit was a prominent figure in the early 20th century who made significant contributions to the cultural and legal landscape in the United States. Born into a wealthy Brahman family in Gujarat, India, he chose to leave his ancestral property to pursue education and a career overseas. After studying in India, he became a lecturer in Paris and London before settling in the United States in 1906. He gained recognition as a traveling lecturer, discussing topics such as Hindu philosophy, yoga, and Sanskrit, which provided a platform for introducing new ideas to rural America through the Circuit Chautauqua.
Pandit's life took a notable turn as he became involved in the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, and he pursued a legal career in Los Angeles after graduating from law school. His most significant legal achievement came in 1927 when he successfully challenged his denaturalization in the Supreme Court, setting a precedent that ultimately protected the citizenship rights of Indian Americans. This victory not only halted the government's denaturalization efforts but also established a lasting impact on the representation of South Asians in American law and culture during a time marked by significant discrimination. Through his work, Pandit played a crucial role in shaping the narrative of South Asian identity and rights in the U.S.
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Subject Terms
Sakharam Ganesh Pandit
Lawyer, philosopher, teacher
- Born: November 1, 1875
- Birthplace: Gujarat, British India
- Died: August 7, 1959
- Place of death: Los Angeles, California
Sakharam Ganesh Pandit, a lecturer and practicing California attorney, fought to retain his US citizenship when the government moved against naturalized South Asian Americans in the mid-1920s. In 1927, he won a final decision in his favor before the US Supreme Court in United States v. Pandit.
Areas of achievement: Law, philosophy
Early Life
Little is known of Sakharam Ganesh Pandit’s early life, other than that he was the eldest son in a wealthy Brahman family in the state of Gujarat in western India. After university studies in India (then a British colony), he left to lecture in Paris and London in 1906, and settled in the United States, becoming a citizen in 1914. As the eldest son, he would have inherited his ancestral property in India, which consisted of about four hundred acres of agricultural land, a house, and personal property, but he gave all this up for a life in the United States. By 1910, he was living in Chicago as a boarder, in the home of Thomas and Lillian Stringer. He continued to live for a number of years with the Stringers, and developed a relationship with Lillian.
Life’s Work
Pandit spent time as a traveling lecturer in the United States, and promotional material published in 1910 described him as a high-caste (Brahman) teacher from India. He traveled throughout the country, giving lectures on Hindu philosophy, yoga, evolution, religion, and Sanskrit, among other topics. Pandit’s speaking engagements were handled by the Redpath Lyceum Bureau, the largest booking agency for the Circuit Chautauqua, an enterprise in the early twentieth century that brought thousands of performers and lecturers together under large tents before millions of small-town residents across the country. The Circuit Chautauqua introduced new ideas to rural America and helped to provoke discussion about important political, social, philosophical, and cultural issues of the time. Religion, temperance, and politics thrived as the most popular subjects, and Pandit took full advantage of the venue, bringing new ideas to grassroots America.
In 1914, Pandit applied for and was granted US citizenship, based on his education and employment background. At this time, most Asians were barred from becoming US citizens, but a certain number of Indians got around this by arguing that South Asians were in fact Caucasian. By the time World War I began, Pandit and Lillian Stringer had moved to California, where they eventually married. Pandit finished law school and became an attorney in Los Angeles, where he was also active in the Indian nationalist movement against British rule.
In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled definitively in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that South Asians were not eligible for US citizenship, and the government began the process of revoking the citizenship of naturalized Americans from the Indian subcontinent. As an attorney, Pandit represented a number of his fellow South Asian Americans in their denaturalization proceedings, including the spiritual teacher A. K. Mozumdar, with whose New Thought movement Pandit had been associated as a Chautauqua lecturer. Although Mozumdar and many other South Asian Americans lost their cases and were denaturalized—meaning they lost their citizenship and therefore their property rights, and their marriages to American citizens became void—Pandit successfully challenged his own denaturalization before the Supreme Court in 1927. In United States v. Pandit, Pandit cited his personal history as an upstanding citizen and also invoked a rule that a decision (such as his naturalization) could not be appealed after three years.
Significance
United States v. Pandit provided precedent for alternative interpretations of the immigration legislation in the late 1920s. Pandit’s victory in the Supreme Court resulted in the government ending its denaturalization proceedings against Indian Americans. In addition, his success as a lawyer and lecturer carved a South Asian foothold in American law and popular culture during a time of great nationalistic fervor and active discrimination against Asian Americans.
Bibliography
Daniels, Roger. “Aspects of the Asian American Experience: Rights Denied and Attained.” American Studies Journal 51 (2008). Web. 15 Mar. 2012. Describes the various legislative and constitutional statutes that denied specific rights to Asian immigrants and their descendants, with reference to Pandit’s case.
Lal, Vinay. The Other Indians: A Political and Cultural History of South Asians in America. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 2008. Print. An illustrated, pocket-sized political and cultural history of South Asians in America.
Shah, Nayan. Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality and the Law in the North American West. Berkeley: U of California P, 2011. Contains a section on the denaturalization campaign against South Asian Americans and Pandit’s experience.