Bhairavi Desai
Bhairavi Desai is a labor organizer and immigrant rights advocate. As co-founder and executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, she built the nation’s largest union representing taxi drivers, securing improved wages, workplace protections, and debt relief for thousands of immigrant workers. Her leadership has made the Alliance one of the most influential […]
Deepa Iyer
Deepa Iyer is a civil rights advocate, strategist, and author whose work has strengthened racial justice and immigrant rights in the United States. Following the September 11 attacks, she served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), helping document discrimination against South Asian, Sikh, Muslim, and Arab communities while advocating for equitable […]
Urvashi Vaid
Urvashi Vaid was a civil rights lawyer, writer, and one of America’s leading LGBTQ+ advocates. As executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, she helped shape national campaigns for equality, anti-discrimination protections, and LGBTQ+ political participation. Through decades of legal advocacy and public leadership, Vaid became one of the most influential voices connecting civil […]
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay
Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay was an Indian freedom fighter, social reformer, and cultural ambassador. During speaking tours across the United States, she introduced American audiences to India’s independence movement while advocating for democracy, women’s rights, and international cooperation. Her lectures helped broaden American understanding of India’s political aspirations and strengthened ties between Indian and American civil society.
Kala Bagai
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 […]
Anup Singh
Dr. Anup Singh was a pioneering Indian-American activist, author, and intellectual who shaped early Indian political advocacy in the United States. A Harvard alumnus, he co-founded the National Committee for India’s Freedom in Washington, D.C., in 1943. As chief editor of its journal, Voice of India, he provided the movement’s ideological backbone, articulating anti-colonial struggles […]
J.J. Singh
Jagjit “JJ” Singh (1897–1976) was a transformative Indian-American businessman and lobbyist whose grassroots efforts fundamentally altered U.S. immigration policy. As president of the India League of America, he built a powerful, diverse coalition—including activists, labor leaders, and public figures like Albert Einstein—to challenge the racial barriers preventing Indian naturalization. His relentless lobbying led to the […]
Akhay Kumar Mozumdar
Akshay Kumar Mozumdar (1881–1953) was a prominent Indian American spiritual teacher and a key figure in the early 20th-century New Thought Movement. Born in India, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1904, gaining citizenship in 1913. His life became a legal landmark when his citizenship was revoked following the United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind […]
Bhicaji Balsara
Bhicaji Balsara (1872 – 1962) was among the earliest Indian immigrants to secure U.S. citizenship after successfully challenging racial barriers under existing naturalization law in the early twentieth century. Arriving in New York in 1900 as a cotton buyer, he applied for citizenship in 1906. Despite initial judicial resistance based on his race, he successfully […]
Taraknath Das
Taraknath Das was an Indian nationalist, scholar, and early immigrant who helped lay the intellectual foundations of the Indian American community. After arriving in the United States in the early twentieth century, he advocated for Indian independence while pursuing an academic career. He later taught political science at Columbia University, where his scholarship focused on […]