19 - Christian and Muslim Transnational Networks

Summary

In March of 1945, two Indian men testified before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the US Congress. J. J. Singh, a tall, clean-shaven Sikh man in his late forties, sporting a closely-cropped haircut and a fine suit, stood in contrast to Mubarek Ali Khan, who was older, bespectacled, plainly dressed, and most conspicuously, wore a cap as a sign of Muslim faith. Just as their appearances differed starkly, so too did the logics of their respective arguments against the racial exclusion of Indian migrants from citizenship. Khan sought naturalization for the roughly 3,000 Indians (primarily farm, factory, railroad, and lumber-mill workers, though he was careful not to mention this) who settled in the United States prior to the Supreme Court decision of 1923, arguing that after two decades of work they deserved rights as Americans. Singh’s more ambitious bill sought to make future Indian immigrants racially eligible as citizens through an annual quota allowing 100 Indians to naturalize.