Sikhs, Swamis, Students, and Spies: The India Lobby in the United States, 1900-1946

This book is a fascinating and absorbing history of the India lobby in America during the pre-independence era–a little known chapter in the history of modern India. It documents the travails of early Indian migrants to North America and Canada from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of World War II. It captures their prolonged struggle for obtaining civil rights, and in promoting the cause of India’s freedom beyond the borders of the subcontinent. Based on literature and insights drawn from not-easily-accessible sources, the book is interspersed with narratives and also provides biographical sketches of the key actors, both Indian and American. It examines their role in the origin and development of the India lobby in the US and Canada–in the face of determined racist opposition in both countries–and Britain’s efforts to disrupt their attempts to organize themselves politically. Overall the author vividly documents the community’s journey from the beginnings of politicization to the height of political lobbying during World War II. Lucidly written and vastly engrossing, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, history, sociology and, of course, the lay reader.