Unveiling of Portrait of Dalip Singh Saund November 6, 2007

Born on September 20, 1899, to a Sikh family in Chhajulwadi, Punjab, he came to the US in 1920 to attend the University of California at Berkeley. In 1924 he graduated having earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics. He thereafter remained in the US, becoming a successful farmer.

However, life was not easy for an Indian in the 1920s. Anti-immigrant sentiment was running rampant across the country, as reflected in the passage of laws such as the Quota Immigration Act of 1921, the Cable Act of 1922, and the National Origins Act of 1924.

In 1923 the Supreme Court had issued an opinion that Indians while designated as Caucasians were ineligible for citizenship because they were not "white".

Subject to prejudice and discrimination, prohibited for owning land he farmed, his American wife having been stripped of her citizenship for marrying an "alien" man, Saund, however, did not waiver in his pursuit of the American dream.

He became a founding member and the first president of the India Association of America. The primary task of the association was to secure citizenship rights for Indians.

He was also the first Asian in Congress when he won a seat in 1956 by representing California.