Dalip Singh Saund

Dalip Singh Saund was a Punjabi Sikh farmer, judge and politician who in 1956 became the first Asian American elected to the United States Congress. Wikipedia says he was born on 20 September 1899 at Chhajulwadi in Punjab, to Sikh parents (the House of Representatives history site says only that he was born in Amritsar), and that he was also the first Sikh and the first Indian American elected to Congress.

Wikipedia says he graduated from the University of the Punjab in 1919, arrived in the United States in September 1920 to study food preservation at the University of California, Berkeley, and took a master's degree in 1922 and a doctorate in 1924. He became a farmer in the Imperial Valley in 1925. The UC Davis archive says he was the secretary of the Stockton gurdwara. In 1930 he wrote My Mother India at the request of the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society, which undertook its publication. Its preface says the book began as a reply to Katherine Mayo's Mother India and became a handbook on India for the American public, and it is dedicated to "my beloved friend Dr. Bhagat Singh Thind".

Key moments

• 1942: Wikipedia says he organised the Indian Association of America, which lobbied for Indian eligibility for naturalisation, and served as its first president.
• 1949: he became a United States citizen, which Wikipedia dates to 16 December. The UC Davis archive says the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 had allowed South Asians to naturalise.
• 1950 to 1952: Wikipedia says he ran for justice of the peace in 1950 but could not take the post because he had not been a citizen long enough, and in 1952 won the Westmoreland justice court.
• 1956: the House history site says that once he met the seven-year citizenship requirement he ran for the 85th Congress and won. Wikipedia says he beat the Republican Jacqueline Cochran by 54,989 votes to 51,690 for the open seat of the retiring John R. Phillips, after a challenge to his citizenship was dismissed.
• 1957: the House history site says he made a two-month goodwill tour of Asia and was invited to address India's Parliament. Wikipedia says he voted for the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960.
• 1962: he had a stroke during the campaign (Wikipedia dates it to 1 May) and lost the seat to the Republican Patrick M. Martin by 68,583 votes to 54,022, according to Wikipedia.
• 22 April 1973: he died in Hollywood, California.

Remembered for: being the first Asian American elected to Congress. The UC Davis archive adds that he was a Punjabi Sikh and the first person outside the Abrahamic faiths elected to Congress.