Twentieth-century America was racist and xenophobic. In such an environment, Bhicaji Framji Balsara was the first Indian to become a naturalised U.S. citizen. For Balsara, a cotton buyer from Bombay, the fight was long. Yet he persevered and succeeded.
In the early 1900s, only “free white persons” were granted citizenship of the United States; the Naturalisation Act of 1790 governed citizenship. To gain citizenship, one had to prove that he/she was a ‘free’ and ‘white’ person.
The first battle against this was fought in the Circuit Court in New York in 1906. According to Balsara, white persons would include all Aryans since Aryans were ’white’ and included Caucasians and Indo-Europeans. This argument was subsequently used by other Indians who wanted to be naturalised citizens.
The Court said allowing Balsara citizenship would lead to the naturalisation of Arabs, Hindus and Afghans. Thus, they rejected the application. However, they asked Balsara to appeal for citizenship to a higher authority. The verdict said:
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