[The Columbia Record, Apr. 7, 1944] "UNFINISHED BUSINESS "The Council of State, upper chamber of the Government of India, has passed and submitted to the Secretary for External Affairs a resolution urging that steps be taken to obtain the right of American citizenship for Indian nationals living in the United States. "Soon after the enactment of the bill to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act last December, several proposals for equal treatment of East Indians were introduced in the House. These proposals were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Committee which has not even asked for the factual reports usually requested in such cases in preparation for open hearings. The bills are still in committee. "What is proposed is simply the enactment of legislation extending to East Indians the same treatment granted to Chinese by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act-the right of entry into this country under the established quota system and the right of application for citizenship on the same basis as other foreign-born residents. The total of East Indians now in the United States is estimated at about 2,500. The number that would be admitted annually under the quota system is not more than 75. "The same reasoning which led to the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act is applicable here. The resolution of the Indian upper house serves as a reminder to our Congress that on the subject of citizenship for oriental peoples, it still has some business to do." [The Kansas City Star, Mar. 11, 1944] "A GESTURE TO INDIA "Congress recently, with national approval, removed the restrictions which prevented Chinese from entering the United States except as temporary visitors, and from being eligible to citizenship. Only a handful of Chinese, 105, were involved. But the act was accepted as a gesture of good will and one calculated to remove a chronic source of irritation. "Now news comes from India that a feeling of resentment is growing because some similar gesture is not made to the people of India who remain under the old taboo. Indian troops have fought against our common enemies in Burma and North Africa. They are fighting beside American troops in Italy. There would seem to be no reason why we should not apply the quota principle to the Indians as well as to the Chinese. Only about 70 Indians would be permitted to enter every year under the quota. To make such a gesture would seem a warranted recognition of the part of the people of India in this war." [The New Republic, May 22, 1944] "WOULD PLACE EAST INDIANS UNDER QUOTA PROVISIONS "When Congress lifted the racial bars against Chinese immigration and naturalization a few months ago, American Christians generally applauded a great act of justice. At the same time, however, they realized that this was only partial justice. Hundreds of millions of Asiatics remained in a special class held on purely racial grounds unfit for entrance into this country or citizenship here. It was even possible to interpret the effort to do racial justice to the Chinese as not more than a sop flung to an offended ally whose aid had suddenly grov n indispensable to victory. As a further step tov ard racial justice, and as a denial of this cynical interpretation of the earlier act of Congress, Representative Celler of New York has now introduced into the House of Representatives a bill (H. R. 4636) which would bring East Indians also under the quota provisions of the American immigration law and would make those thus admitted eligible for citizenship. It is estimated that this would open the doors to about 75 natives of India a year. Hearings on Mr. Celler s bill are to be held soon. At these it is expected that church representatives will throw their full weight in its support. Certainly it is time that Americans ceased criticizing British failure to deal generously with India so long as this country continues to deny Indians the same quota status it affords to most of the other peoples of earth. [The Christian Century, May 17, 1944] "LET THE INDIANS COME IN "The United States has at last rectified its longstanding insult to the Chinese people. They are not now excluded from this country as immigrants; instead, they may come in under the quota, to a possible maximum of 105 per year. Now it is high time that we should do as much for the people of India (whose quota would be 70 per year). All the arguments that applied to the Chinese are just as valid regarding the Indians. They are our allies in the war; their soldiers are fighting gallantly in Italy, India and Burma, and have already fought gallantly in other quarters. A bill has been introduced in Congress to wipe out this unjust discrimination. We hope it is promptly passed. Support at Public MeetinGS-NEW YORK and Washington, D. C. Soon after the bils were introduced by Representative Clare Boothe Luce and Representative Emanuel Celler, the India League of America held public meetings in New York City and Washington, D. C. The speakers at the New York meeting, which was held at Town Hall on Thursday, April 13, 1944, were: Emanuel Celler, Member, House of Representatives, coauthor of the pending legislation; Fannie Hurst, novelist and civic leader; Dr. Frank Kingdon, author, educator, radio commentator; Rev. Elmore M. McKee, D. D., rector, St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, New York; Roger N. Baldwin, director, American Civil Liberties Union. The chairman was Sirdar J. J. Singh. Excerpts from their speeches follow: Representative Emanuel Celler. "If we do not do the honorable and decent, if we do not place East Indians on a parity with the Chinese and our other allies, the Nazis and Japs will continue to rub it in on India and incessantly repeat that Americans are long on words of sympathy but short on deeds of actual help. "Unless we amend out of our statutes the bar sinister against East Indians, Hirohito will call us hypocrites and will screech "Don't be fools, you good people of India. These Christians of America and Britain prate of brotherly love, but they only pretend good will. They give you pious platitudes about dignity of the individual, about equality of all men, about the four freedoms, but it is all poppycock. You can't even emigrate to their land. They blacklist you. Join up with us, and help drive the white humbugs out of all the Orient and keep them out. "Such messages pour into India from all sides. They reach the lowliest peasant in his dunghill hut. They seep and spread through human grapevine communications. "We must at once erase from the statute books the malignant inferiority with which we brand Indians. Our action would be as refreshing to them as a cool breeze in the heat of summer. It would be an effective antidote to poisoned propaganda. It would hearten and encourage the Indians to fight with and for us. "For India, today, remains an indictment of greed and lust for power and political bid for prestige. It cannot remain so for long; indeed, we, the free peoples of the world, dare not let it so remain. India must march with the free nations of the world, lest we slip again into the sham pose of the cynic which breeds defeat, even before it has encountered the enemy." Miss Fannie Hurst. "Such conditions as our exclusion of the East Indian to rights of American citizenship are symptomatic of inner weaknesses which are at variance with the ideals of democracy for which we are fighting and dying at the moment. "Our exclusion of the East Indian is part and parcel of a brand of internal thinking and behavior which we must control as we would symptoms of yellow fever. "Surely the East Indian, who is in the midst of his own struggle for freedom, must look in bewilderment upon our country which represents to him the liberations for which he is yearning. "We innoculate our boys before they go overseas against certain diseases from which they have not yet immunity. We must likewise immunize ourselves here on the home front against prejudicial states of mind toward One World." Rev. Elmore M. McKee. "The peace of the world depends upon our giving every opportunity to the constructive and unitive forces of our world to overcome the destructive and divisive forces. And there is peril in waiting until the post-war days when fatigue and moral lassitude are to be expected. The world is in flux, and that flux must be molded before the forces of regression and frustration come to the fore. "America must prove that peoples of all races and national backgrounds can live together in increasing harmony, with a mutual assumption of responsibilities and with a sense of creative contribution to the order and harmony of the whole world. Racial discrimination does violence to the Christian conviction of one humanity under God and is contrary to the democratic principles upon which this country was founded. "We are meant, in God's providence, to become a nation of nations, as a proving ground for a future world commonwealth. And citizens of every nation, at one time or another, will themselves dream of how their country, under God, may best serve the realization of one world. "My dream for America is this. I would have America first in liquidating every trace of economic, political, or racial imperialism; in seeking freedom and autonomy for colonial peoples; in welcoming people of all lands and races to citizenship; in rooting out every domestic evidence of prejudice and bias; in branding isolationsim, the child of fear and greed and parent of war, as an affront to our national genius; in taking the risks of surrender of such portions of national sovereignty as are essential to the creation of world organization; and in unceasingly planting the cross of mercy beside the flag of justice." Mr. Roger N. Baldwin. "Unlike other meetings of the India League, this is devoted not to independence for Indians of India, but to their independence in the United States. For, like Britain, we hold Indians like other orientals as a subject people unworthy of admission and citizenship. It is not for the sake of Indians that we should grant them a quota and the right to become citizens, but for ourselves. For by continuing to treat them as inferiors, we betray our own democratic professions. We have recognized in part our offense against equality by the repeal of the Chinese exclusion acts. If the argument for so doing was wartime recognition of an ally, it applies with equal force to Indians and Filipinos. Our action would not only arouse the enthusiasm of the Orient, doubtful of the good faith of the western democracies, but it would go far to squaring our practices with our professions. "The concept of a white man's world dominated by a minority in the western nations is slowly yielding to the democratic claims of the oppressed majority of mankind, the darker peoples. The United States can take a long step on the road to peace and an ordered world by granting to the second most populous nation, equality with China and the western world." The following resolution, moved by the chairman, was unanimously adopted: "Whereas this war is professedly being fought to achieve democratic equality among all nations; and "Whereas the nationals of India are objects of discrimination under our present immigration and naturalization laws; and "Whereas the United States has recognized the injustice to the Chinese people by lifting immigration and naturalization barriers against them; and "Whereas India is allied with the United Nations in the conduct of the war: Therefore be it "Resolved, That this audience assembled in Town Hall urges Congress to enact immediately pending legislation which would permit immigration under quota of nationals of India and make them eligible to United States citizenship.' The speakers at the Washington meeting were: Clare Boothe Luce, Member, House of Representatives, coauthor of the bill in the House; Senator William Langer; Emanuel Celler, Member, House of Representatives, coauthor of the bill in the House; Leland Stowe, author, war correspondent; Sirdar J. J. Singh, president of the India League of America, was chairman. The meeting was held at National Press Club Auditorium on May 4, 1944. Excerpts from their speeches follow: Mrs. Clare Boothe Luce. It "Seventy-five Indian immigrants a year in a growing population of 135,000,000 Americans can certainly present no threat to our culture or living standards. is far too low a figure to matter, either as a threat to domestic labor or to our national racial and cultural composition. Let me make it quite plain at this point that I am in favor of keeping it low. I have no wish to see my country flooded by peoples whose cultures and political backgrounds differ greatly from our own, whether they be Asiatics, Europeans, or Africans, for vast or even sizable numbers of peoples of alien turns of mind would be impossible for us to assimilate. But I consider this bill of mine and of Mr. Celler not so much an immigration bill as a diplomatic and political measure against our present and future enemies. It bears precisely the same relation to our war effort and the peace effort that must follow as the recent bill passed by Congress admitting a hundred-odd Chinese to our country. "Unhappily, few people in America are fully aware that the great 6,000-yearold Hindu-Moslem civilizations of India have produced many of the world's greatest poets, philosophers, saints, scientists, authors, and artists, and notably few of its bloodthirsty warriors. "Japanese propagandists daily din into the ears of Indians that, although the Americans and British feel that Indians are good enough to die for them by the millions, they do not feel they are good enough for freedom; they are not even good enough for America to allow a mere paltry 75 of them to enter our country. "I hope, therefore, my purpose in introducing this legislation is clear. It is calculated primarily to help keep India in the columns of our democratic allies and friends, both today and tomorrow." Senator William Langer. "A group of us are determined that India shall have her place in the sun; that the more than 1,000,000 troops who are fighting isde by side with the men and women of the United States and other allies shall not fight and die in vain. "Only a few days ago Indian troops rendered gallant service in getting some of our own boys out of a death trap at the Anzio beachhead. "India was a great country long before England asserted her domination over her, and she will again be great. "The record made by people from India who have come to this country has been oustanding in art, in medicine, in science, in literature, and in agriculture. They have earned the right to be known as leaders in a civilized world. "Hundreds of thousands of acres of poor alkaline land, considered useless by the people of California, through the hard work of the people from India, were made to produce magnificient fields of wild rice, and the lands became tremedously valuable. Practically all of these were lost to the Indians as a result of the decision of the Supreme Court in 1924-a decision which made no provision for the equalities of these poor people; a decision which is a shameful page in the history of the Supreme Court of the United States." Emanuel Celler. "Here we are fighting racial arrogance. It means the liberation of oppressed peoples, as well as the removal of discriminatory measures, not so thoroughly advertised, on the statute books of our country. Is the exclusion of the Eastern Hemisphere Indian from the rights of naturalization in the United States evidence that we have not as yet purged ourselves of the ugly taint of unfounded prejudice? Is it evidence that we have not been vigilant in watching our growth to a true maturity? Is not such an exclusion an echo of the totalitarian ideology that we seek to crush today? "Under our violently discriminatory laws a guttersnipe from Prussia, a disguised Fascist from Spain, can enter, but the late Rabindranath Tagore or Pandit Nehru could enjoy no such right. "The Indian peoples have joined us on the battlefield. Two millions are fighting in the Army, Navy, and merchant marine of Great Britain. They are among the dead, wounded, and missing. They are producing for war, farming for war, building for the war which is ours and theirs. Can we not underscore that brotherhood away from the war-torn fronts? "If we are to follow the logical consequences of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, then, indisputably, the argument forces itself upon our consciousness that the people of India are deserving of no less equal and equitable treatment." Comments by J. J. Singh, president, India League of America, and chairman of the meeting. 71330-45- -8 "Every country, of course, has the right to have such immigration laws and fix such quotas as it may see fit. The people of India have no desire to ask for any special privileges or treatment. They do not seek unrestricted immigration into the United States, but they do ask that the stigma of inferiority may be removedas it has been rightly done very recently in the case of the Chinese. If there is to be a democratic world order, with better understanding among the different nations, particularly of the East and the West, then an easy interchange of students, teachers, merchants, scientists, and philosophers is essential. "India is a nation which has had a great and continuous culture of 6,000 years. India has produced some of the world's most eminent scientists, poets, philosophers, and statesmen. Obviously the admission of 75 nationals of India per annum into the United States will create no economic or social problems. "Under the Immigration Act of 1924, section 3, only tourists, students, visitors, and so forth, from India may enter the United States, and only as nonquota immigrants. There is no quota for India. Also, according to Nationality Act of 1940, section 303, nationals of India are ineligible to citizenship of the United States. It may be noted here that even businessmen may enter the United States only as visitors. This is a great handicap for better trade relations between India and the United States. "I may add that India has huge post-war industrialization plans running into billions of dollars. India will need and will welcome American capital, American genius, American technicians and experts to help her. India will need machines, machine tools, implements of agriculture, and so forth. After the war the United States will have a great surplus of all kinds of machinery. Thus, India will be a profitable market for American exporters. Removal of the stigma will certainly create an atmosphere which will facilitate trade relations." Resolution identical to the one passed at New York meeting was adopted unanimously at this meeting. SUPPORT OF UNITED STATES ORGANIZATIONS The following organizations have informed us that they are in full support of the pending legislation: American Asiatic Association, 1 Hanover Square, New York, N. Y. American Board of Commission for Foreign Missions, 14 Beacon Street, Boston, American Civil Liberties Union, 170 Fifth Avenue, New York City. American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia, Pa. Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, American Federation of Labor, 217 West One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street, New York City. Common Council for American Unity, Inc., New York City. Council for Community Action, 1 East Eighty-fifth Street, New York City. Greater Detroit and Wayne County Congress of Industrial Organizations, Indus trial Union Council, Detroit, Mich. Institute of International Education, 2 West Forty-fifth Street, New York City. Kritgoods Workers Union, American Federation of Labor, Brooklyn, N. Y. Massachusetts State Congress of Industrial Organizations, Industrial Union Council, 73 Tremont Street, Boston, Mass. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City. National Committee on Post-War Immigration Policy, 36 West Forty-fourth Street, New York, N. Y. Post-War World Council, 112 East Nineteenth Street, New York City. The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, 297 Fourth Avenue, New York City. The Federation of Churches of Rochester and Vicinity, Inc., Rochester, N. Y. The National Board of the Young Women's Christian Association of the United States of America, 600 Lexington Avenue, New York City. United Automobile Workers, Congress of Industrial Organizations International Headquarters, Detroit, Mich. United Brethren Parsonage, Frankfort, Ind. Women's Division of Christian Service of the Board of Mission and Church Extension of the Methodist Church, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City. |