Dalip Singh Saund

Dalip Singh Saund (Punjabi: ਦਲੀਪ ਸਿੰਘ ਸੌਂਧ, romanized: Dalīp Siṅgh Saundh; September 20, 1899 – April 22, 1973) was an Indian-born American farmer, lobbyist, judicial officer, academic, and Democratic Party politician who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1957 to 1963. He was the first Sikh, Punjabi American, Indian American, and first Asian American elected to the United States Congress. As a resident of Westmoreland, California, Saund represented California's 29th congressional district, which at the time consisted of Imperial and Riverside counties. Born in Chhajulwadi, Punjab Province, British India, Saund studied at Prince of Wales College and University of the Punjab, where he was active in the Indian independence movement. In 1920, he immigrated to the United States to continue his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Master of Arts and Ph.D. After marrying and settling in California's Imperial Valley as a farmer, he continued his activism for Indian independence and established the Indian Association of America, lobbying for the eligibility of Indians for naturalization, which was permitted under the Luce–Celler Act of 1946. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1949. As a long-time supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Saund became active in local Democratic Party politics, winning a local election for a justice of the peace in 1952. Despite the area's strong Republican tendency at the time, Saund was elected to an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1956. As a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he was a critic of United States foreign policy in the Middle East and conducted a tour of Asia where he met with David Ben-Gurion, Sukarno, and Jawaharlal Nehru. He won election to three terms before he was hospitalized for a debilitating stroke in 1962 and defeated by Republican Patrick M. Martin. He died after a second stroke in 1973.