WASHINGTON: Plans for adopting of a Senate bill permitting naturalisation of approximately 3,000 persons born in India who entered the United States prior to July 1, 1944 were made by the Sub-Committee on Immigration at hearings on the bill. Committee Chairman Senator William Langer of North Dakota presided.

One witness, Mubarak Ali Khan, president of the India Welfare League Incorporated, told the committee he regarded America as the haven of free institutions and the asylum for the disowned and oppressed of the human race.

“In view of this noble heritage of this great democracy,” he said, it would seem inconsistent to find that people from India, who have entered the United States lawfully and resided for periods of 15 to 25 years engaging in the free legitimate pursuits of life and sharing the blessings as well as the difficulties peculiar to this land, are subjected to a legal discrimination that denies them the privilege of naturalisation.

“This microscopic minority of about 3,000 Indians includes farmers, machine workers, writers and at least ten scientists of note — men whose achievements are considered of top rank.” The witness said those who suffer most for ineligibility to American citizenship are Indian farmers… — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2019