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Bhagat Singh Thind (October 3, 1892 – September 15, 1967) was an Indian-American Sikh writer, scientist and a lecturer onspirituality who was involved in an important legal battle over the rights of Indians to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Thind had enlisted in the U.S. Army a few months before the end of World War I. After the war he sought the right to become a naturalized citizen, following a legal ruling that Caucasians had access to such rights. In 1923, a crucial Supreme Court case United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind was decided in favor of the United States, retroactively denying all Indians citizenship for not being a White person "in accordance with the understanding of the common man."[1]
However, Thind remained in the U.S., completed his PhD, and delivered lectures in metaphysics. Basing his lessons on Sikh religious philosophy, he added to his teaching with references to the scriptures of several religions and the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson,Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau. He campaigned actively for the independence of India from the British Empire. Then, in 1936, Thind applied for and received U.S. citizenship through the state of New York.
Thind's contributions
• Fight for US citizenship as a first non white and win against US Govt, see United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind
• First Turban Singh in US Army and win right to wear turban as a Singh in US Army, see Military history of Sikh Americans
• Indian Freedom Fighter and Main Leader of Ghader Movement; General Secretary of Ghadar Party from 1916-1917[8]
• Sikh Spiritual Writer and Scientist
Death
Thind was working on some books when he died on September 15, 1967. He was outlived by his wife, Vivian, who he had married in March 1940 and his daughter Tara and his son David. His son created a website[10] to propagate the philosophy for which his father spent his entire life in the US. He also posthumously published two of his father's books:Troubled Mind in a Torturing World and their Conquest and Winners and Whiners in this Whirling World.
Writings
• Radiant Road to Reality
• Science of Union with God
• The Pearl of Greatest Price
• House of Happiness
• Jesus, The Christ: In the Light of Spiritual Science (Vol. I, II, III)
• The Enlightened Life
• Tested Universal Science of Individual Meditation in Sikh Religion
• Divine Wisdom (Vol. I, II, III)
Posthumously released
• Troubled Mind in a Torturing World and their Conquest
• Winners and Whiners in this Whirling World
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