Early Indian Immigration to the US # 1
Indian Immigration to the US # 1
As early as the 17th century the East India Company engaged in the slave trade and sold Indian slaves in the US. Martha McCartney, a historian from Virginia has done extensive research in this area and documented the above conclusions.
The Naturalization Act of 1790 which was enacted into law a few years after American Independence from the British, did not recognize the right of non-white persons to become citizens of the US. The law limited citizenship to only “free white persons of good character.” This excluded Native Americans, indentured servants, slaves, free black people, and Asians. As a result, very few Indians migrated to US out of their feee will until the early 19th century.
The first wave of immigration from India occurred in the early 19th century and the immigrants were mostly Sikhs who settled in California. Initially, the Sikhs went to Vancouver in Canada but facing extensive harassment from the white settlers migrated to Seattle and Oregon.
In Washington state, members of Sikhs and other religious faiths from India settled in Bellingham County. Their appearance and customs made them stand out from the rest of the mostly white population. During this time, the US and Canada had formed the Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL) with the main goal to prevent the immigration of people of Asian origin to the US and Canada. With mounting pressures from the influential AEL, US Congress amended the existing legislation to exclude Asians and finally, President Theodore Roosevelt issued Executive Order 589 on February 20, 1907, to end further immigration from Asia.
With such a clear signal and endorsement from the President, on September 4, 1907, a group of 400 to 500 white men attacked the Indian workers and beat them with the full cooperation of the local authorities. The groups believed that the Indian population in Bellingham is taking away their jobs and specifically targeted the Indian immigrants to vent their anger. The mob pulled Indians from their homes and forcefully locked them into the basement of Bellingham’s city hall with the full complicity of the local police force. Soon after, more than 100 South Asians were driven out to British Columbia. Few of the remaining members of the community were put in jail but were eventually released as there were no credible charges against them. Similar attacks continued in Vancouver and California.
To recognize the harassment and the beating of Indian workers on its 100th anniversary, the Mayor of Bellingham County declared that day as a “Day of Healing and Reconciliation”. Finally, a granite monument was installed in 2018 in memory of the three groups that suffered in that region. The groups were the Chinese in 1885, the Indians in 1907, and the Japanese in 1942. (Source: Wikipedia)
In 1914, the Canadian Government passed an Executive Order to prevent immigrants (skilled or unskilled) from entering Canada citing the “crowded labor market” as the reason. Although the law specifically did not list any nation or race it was specifically used to exclude people from Asia.
The Canadian EO gave enough fodder to the Anti-Immigrant group in the US. The group was especially against Asian immigration to the US. Some of the key figures from this group came from the state of California and include Mr. Denver Church and Mr. Raker. Raker and Church convened the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization to discuss how to deport the Indian immigrants from the USA. Both had clear pro-colonist racist views and were fearful that the Indian immigrants would launch an anti-colonist movement that would eventually help overthrow the British government in India.
The hearing took place on February 1914.
During the hearing on, Tishi Bhutia the secretary of the Hindustan Association of the United States was questioned by Representative Johnson about his anti-colonist views, and Bhutia clarified that the Indian community in the US had no intention of overthrowing the US Government but had the desire to overthrow the British Government in India through passive resistance.
When Rep.Baker asked him if the Indians would resort to violence, if necessary, Bhatia responded:
“You did it in this country”
Pandit Ramachandra Bharadwaj participated in the hearing. (Ramachandra was the President of the Ghadar party and we will dedicate the next Blog to discuss his life). Rama Chandra stated that the desire of Indians to overthrow the British was no different from what the Americans did in 1776.
Rep. Raker further expressed that all Asians should be excluded from immigrating to the US and stated that "... There ought to be a law passed excluding them …. because those Asiatic races cannot be assimilated by our people..."
When questioned by other members if he has any "long deep-seated hatred of the Hindu and a desire to keep him out of the country", he responded:
"Personally, there is no long, deep-seated hatred... but it is a question of racial conditions, there is, the yellow race cannot assimilate and cannot become part of the American or White race. We have one race question in the negro and the white and we ought not, for God's sake, bring in another which is a hundred worse. Now is the time to stop it"
Mr. Sudhindra Bose, lecturer on Oriental Politics and Civilization at Iowa State University argued in favor of immigration. Dr. Bose’s testimony brings to light the prevailing attitude in US about India at that time plus the kind of people from India who immigrated. The questions from the Congressional committee revolved around the following topics:
Skilled Vs Unskilled labors
Most of the Indians who immigrated were unskilled laborers who came from the rice fields of India. Dr. Bose argued that because they were unskilled by the principles of the Economist Adam Smith which states that there could be no competition between the skilled and unskilled, they could not take away jobs from the skilled American worker.
Number of Indians in the US
Dr. Bose also argued that with so much land in US a handful of immigrants from India could not be a problem. The other concern the congress expressed was that the Hindus would not spend money. Dr. Bose responded that while they may not spend money the way a typical American would do, they would spend a lot of money for the typical Hindu festivals.
Cleanliness
The other question that came up was if the Hindus were clean? Dr. Bose’s response was that the Indian custom requires people to take 2 baths a day and even his 70-year-old mother takes shower two times a day.
Motivation to Immigrate
Dr. Bose argued that Indians come to the US motivated by the same reasons as others – in search of opportunities to make a better living.
Are the Hindus of Mongolian Stock?
Another question was, were the Hindus of Mongolian stock? Dr. Bose responded that the Hindus were more likely to be of Caucasian stock.
Rep. Baker and Church were unsuccessful in deporting the Indians, but they were increasingly under scrutiny and their immigration to the US would practically dwindle to nothing.
References:
.The contents of this blog were mostly inspired by the excellent book by Srinath Raghavan, “Fierce Enigma”.
Other sources include:
o “Echoes of Mutiny: Race, Surveillance and Indian Anti colonism in North America” by Seema Sohi
