In 1918, Bhagat Singh Thind enlisted in the U.S. Army, later seeking naturalization. Though initially granted citizenship, it was revoked when the Bureau of Naturalization challenged his eligibility as a non-“white” person. This set the stage for the landmark 1923 Supreme Court case, United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind. The Court ruled unanimously against him, adopting a “common man” definition of whiteness that excluded Indians. This decision retroactively stripped citizenship from dozens of Indian immigrants and fundamentally reshaped U.S. immigration and racial law for decades.
