"Among his first moves after taking oath for the second time, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship. The move has been stayed by a federal judge for now but is the first chapter in Trump’s pet project to tighten immigration to the US,” noted a report on www.news18.com, adding, "Acquiring American citizenship was never an easy process. In the early 20th century, Bhicaji Balsara became the first Indian to gain American citizenship.”
The news item then proceeded to introduce Balsara as a textile merchant from Bombay who "had to fight a long legal battle to achieve this. In the early 1900s, only free white people were granted American citizenship under the Naturalization Act of 1790. To acquire US citizenship, one had to prove they were white and free. Balsara fought his first battle against the Naturalization Act in the Circuit Court of New York in 1906. He argued that Aryans, including Caucasians and Indo-Europeans, were white. The Court said that granting him citizenship based on this argument would open the door for Arabs, Hindus and Afghans to seek naturalization as well. The Court rejected his application but allowed him to appeal for citizenship to the High Court. As a Parsi, Balsara was considered a member of the Persian sect which was regarded as a free white group. He was granted US citizenship by Judge Emile Henry Lacombe of the South District of New York. The decision was made with the expectation that the lawyer would challenge it and appeal for an official interpretation of the law. The case was brought to the Circuit Court of Appeals in 1910 where… Parsis were classified as white.”
Bhicaji Balsara: long legal battle
When Parsiana sought to confirm the accuracy of this information with US based Porus Cooper, a veteran journalist who writes for Parsiana, his initial response was, "Never heard of this. Will research it later.” Within a short time Cooper sent us an email stating, "My skepticism about Bhicaji Balsara was not justified. Various contemporary news reports do mention him in connection with the citizenship dispute.” He sent an article from The New York Times titled "The Case of Balsara,” dated May 29, 1910.
It read: "What are ‘free white persons?’ Do they belong exclusively to those Northern European nations who peopled the American States when the Fathers passed their statute to bar from citizenship all but ‘free while persons?’ That is the question which the judges of the United States Circuit Court in this city are trying to decide in the case of Bhicaji Framji Balsara, a Parsi immigrant from Bombay, India. Balsara is a pure descendant of the Persian sect who, during their 12 centuries of residence in India, have religiously abstained from intermarriage with any other people. He is an Asiatic, not a European. Is he a ‘free white person?’
"Judge Lacombe, admitting Balsara to citizenship in June 1909, stated that ‘the applicant appears to be a gentleman of high character and exceptional intelligence.’ The United States in its appeal from the order of naturalization does not contend that he suffers any physical, mental, or moral handicap, but that he belongs to one of the Asiatic nations whose emigration to this country was never contemplated by the framers of the statute.
"But the brief for the appellee points out that while Congress in the early days could not have had in mind the naturalization of Asiatic whites, in the same sense it could not have thought of the naturalization of Italians, Poles, Bohemians, Hungarians, Russians and other white people who have since come in from Eastern and Southern Europe. The immigrants in 1790 were English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, French and German. The interpretation of the statute urged by the appellant would also exclude all white nationals from the south and east of Europe who are now, and long have been, freely admitted to citizenship. Contemporary accounts are adduced showing that the Fathers knew perfectly well that the white race included the swarthy or brown peoples of Asia and Africa who possess the characteristic features of Europeans. The olive complexions of the Persians, Armenians and Syrians, whose citizenship has recently been challenged, are in no respect different from the skins of the Greeks, Italians and Spaniards of Southern Europe. Besides, in Asia are millions of native Greeks, Slavs — the Russians and Poles are Slavs — Armenians, and Circassians, who are also in great numbers natives of Europe. Practically it would be impossible to limit the words ‘white persons’ to former inhabitants of Europe in considering their claims to citizenship.
"Until very recently no attempt has been made by our courts so to limit it. No reason of public policy is urged in defense of such a change. The precedent of limitation seems to have been set simply by officials who were not good students of ethnology.”
"For present day Parsis in America, Balsara is a forgotten man,” regretted Cooper. But they may well wish to reacquaint themselves for, according to the news18 report, citing the latest census, "more than 54 lakh (5.4 million) Indians live in the US, making up about 1.47 percent of the population. Two-thirds of them are immigrants, while 34 percent were born in America. If Trump’s move is implemented, children of Indian citizens living in the US on temporary work or tourist visas will no longer automatically gain citizenship... Indians now account for more than 80 percent of all H-1B visas issued by the US” that allows US employers to hire foreign professionals in so-called ‘specialty occupations.’