Born in 1893 in Amritsar, Punjab, Kala Bagai arrived in San Francisco in 1915 as one of the few South Asian women in the U.S. After being barred from her own home in Berkeley by racist neighbors and witnessing her husband’s despair following the revocation of his citizenship, she navigated immense personal tragedy with quiet tenacity. She raised three sons as a widowed immigrant and later remarried. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she transformed her home into a central hub for new South Asian immigrants. She hosted cultural events, receptions, and benefits, providing a welcoming environment for newcomers who were often isolated in a country that had historically treated them with hostility. The Smithsonian described her as “a life-long advocate for immigrants and a mother figure among South Asian communities in California”. Her legacy was officially recognized in 2021 when Berkeley renamed a downtown street “Kala Bagai Way,” the first in the city honoring an Asian American
