Who was Dalip Singh Saund?

This post was revised to focus on Saund

The Sikh Legal Defense and Education Fund, SALDEF, the agency formerly known as SMART, sent out an announcement on March 31st about an event that they'll be hosting at the Smithsonian in DC. I can't find the release or the news on their website, but I'll summarize to the best of my ability since I've long deleted the message.

It seems like they will be hosting a musical performance by a Sikh/Punjabi collective, Dya Singh World Music Group, and wanted to let folks know that they're bringing culture to the capital. My initial response was "aiight - they're representing in the nation's capital. That's cool."

Then I was told to re-read the notice and realized that as part of the event, they are honoring the assistant Attorney General, Alex Acosta. It's not only that they are kissing up to this guy and to the Feds in general (and the worst kind of Feds: Justice Department cronies). Regardless of Acosta's support of language access initiatives for English Language learners, he's still in Ashcroft's old house.

Worse yet, they are actually giving him a "Dalip Singh Saund Award."

What is a Dalip Singh Saund Award supposed to be, anyway? I thought initially that it sounded like a cool thing - honor the man who broke the mold and became the first Indian/Asian American congressman by naming an award after him. But is it enough to be a "first"? Councilman John Liu, of Flushing says it all the time. He's not comfortable or content with being called "the first". So what - by chance of racism, quirky electoral politics, and historical inevitability, you were the first. But what did you do with that position? I was asking D, can she think of any legislation that Saund actually drafted and shepherded through congress? Wasn't he married to a white woman? Did he stay quiet on the floor of congress? I respect that he became a congressman, but it's not enough to stop there. And just flaunting his name as a superstar of the community doesn't really mean much either. Will M. Night Shyamalan be seen as a "first" as well? How about Bobby Jindal? So what?

I'd rather that we celebrated more revolutionary characters and leaders in our history here, though the names may not be as prominent (or their stories as mythologized). Like Gurdit Singh, who risked his life (and those of more than 300 people who were not as affluent or protected as him) on the continuous journey of the Komagata Maru to challenge the racism of the British Empire and Commonwealth Canada. Or those folks who were part of the Gadr Party and eventually killed by the British in an effort to quell the growing unrest within the subcontinent and the diaspora about being subjects of the Empire.

I know that the Congressman from India is in vogue at this point, with endless stories about his life entering the desi media as Jindal, the jilted gubernatorial candidate, marched his diverted path toward the partisan pandemonium in Washington. But I'm just annoyed that the focus takes all light from the far more interesting individuals in our community memory, and as usual, distills our complex history into video/sound/personality-bytes for the mainstream.