08 November 2007

Portrait of Indian-American Lawmaker Displayed in U.S. Capitol

Ceremony to unveil portrait honors memory of Dalip Singh Saund

 

A portrait of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian American to serve in the U.S. Congress, was unveiled during a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol November 7. It shows Saund standing near a marble pillar in the Cannon Building of the U.S. House of Representatives. The artist is Jon R. Friedman. (House of Representatives Fine Arts Board)

Portrait of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian American to serve in the U.S. Congress (House of Representatives Fine Arts Board)

By Louise Fenner
Staff Writer

Washington -- The 6-year-old great-granddaughter of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian American elected to the U.S. Congress, pulled back a blue curtain to uncover his portrait during a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol as more than 225 people applauded.  The image they saw was of a handsome, dignified man standing beside a marble pillar in the Cannon Building of the House of Representatives.

The portrait, unveiled November 7, is part of a series dedicated to historically important members of Congress.  Saund, who died in 1973, is recognized not only as the first Indian American to hold a seat in Congress -- he was elected in 1956 and served three terms -- but also as someone who helped pave the way for Indian immigration to the United States.

“If my grandfather were here today, he would say, ‘There is no room in the United States of America for second-class citizenship,’” said Bruce Fisher, Saund’s grandson and one of a dozen family members who came to Washington for the ceremony.  Fisher was repeating an often-quoted remark by Saund that is painted at the bottom of the portrait.

“To be the first to do anything is always a challenge,” said Representative Jim McDermott, a Washington state Democrat and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans.  “We’re here to honor Dalip Singh Saund, but we know he would want us to honor all Asian Americans.  That’s the kind of person he was.”

Saund was born in 1899 in the small farming village of Amritsar, India, and came to the United States in 1920 to attend the University of California at Berkeley. Despite earning a master's degree and a doctorate in mathematics, he was unable to find a teaching job.  He became a farmer, although he could not own or even lease the land he farmed, or become a U.S. citizen, because of the laws of the time.  Saund leased land in a friend’s name and his wife’s name, because she was a U.S. citizen, but in his autobiography he notes that “some landowners didn't like to take a chance on leasing land even to an Asiatic's wife for fear of violating the Alien Land Act.” (That California law prohibited anyone ineligible for citizenship – as all Asian immigrants were at the time -- from leasing or owning agricultural lands.)

Saund was the first president of the India Association of America, a group whose efforts helped lead to legislation, signed by President Truman in 1946, granting naturalization rights – and thus land ownership rights -- to Asian Indians and Filipinos.

Saund was elected to a judgeship in 1950 but was denied the seat because he had not been a citizen for a full year (he gained citizenship in 1949). Refusing to give up, he ran again in 1952 and was elected.

Hard-working and dedicated to public service, Saund won his first congressional election in 1956 – as a Democrat -- in a conservative California district where people generally voted for Republican, native-born white candidates.  He and his family knocked on doors, introducing the candidate to voters and winning their confidence.

 

Eric Saund, at podium, and other family members attend the unveiling of the portrait of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Indian-American member of the U.S. Congress. Eric, Dalip’s grandson, talks with some of the congressmen who attended the ceremony November 7 in the Rayburn Room of the U.S. Capitol. Behind the group is a portrait of George Washington. (State Dept./Janine Sides)

Eric Saund, at podium, and other family members attend the unveiling of a portrait of Dalip Singh Saund. (State Dept./Janine Sides)

“In the face of adversity, he believed in America and the power of one person to make a difference,” said McDermott.

Eric Saund said his grandfather Dalip “took a positive attitude to everything.  He encountered barriers and he acknowledged them, but he didn’t dwell on them. In that way he was the quintessential American.”

Ellie Saund, the youngest of Dalip’s three children, recalled that while she was growing up, her father “never discussed the hardships” he experienced. “He’d just say, ‘You try your hardest and you get what you earn.’”

Artist Jon Friedman said he had not heard of Dalip Saund before being commissioned to paint his portrait, “and so I knew nothing about his extraordinary life.  It deserves to be better-known and remembered.”

Many speakers saw a connection between Saund’s life and the election this year of the first Indian-American governor of a U.S. state, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.  Jindal was born in America, but his parents had immigrated from India.  (See related article.)

Among those in the audience who saw Saund as an important trailblazer was Sathya Hanagud, who traveled from Atlanta to attend the ceremony. “Bobby Jindal becoming governor was pioneered by Congressman Saund,” he said.

Hanagud, a native-born Indian who teaches aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said: “I came down just for this.  Because of the struggle he went through for us.”

“This portrait,” he added, “is a very important thing.”

More information on Dalip Singh Saund is available on a Web site maintained by Eric Saund.

A list of members of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans -- a co-sponsor of the portrait -- is available on the U.S.-India Friendship Web site.

See also U.S. House Recognizes South Asian Festival of Lights and State’s Burns Remarks at Annual White House Diwali Celebrations.