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Saund (Dalip Singh) papers
CEMA 202
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Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Title: Dalip Singh Saund papers
Creator:
Saund, Dalip Singh, 1899-1973
Identifier/Call Number: CEMA 202
Physical Description:
22.31 Linear Feet
(21 document boxes, 13 half-document boxes, 6 flat oversize boxes, 1 flip-top box, 23 motion picture film reels, 21 audiotape
reels, and 15 10-inch disks)
Date (bulk): 1921-2002
Abstract: Papers of Dalip Singh Saund (1899-1973), American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives, 29th
District of California (1955-1962).
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Language of Material:
Spanish; Castilian
, German
, Central Khmer
, Vietnamese
, Panjabi; Punjabi
, Urdu
, Polish
, Dutch; Flemish
, Czech
.
This collection has been arranged by topic into five series - Series 1: Personal and family materials; Series 2: Private business
materials; Series 3: Judgeship materials; Series 4: House of Representatives materials; and Series 5: Audiovisual materials.
Born in Chhajulwadi, Amritsar district, Punjab Province, British India, Dalip Singh Saund (1899-1973) immigrated to the United
States to study at the University of California Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in mathematics in 1924. Saund married Marian
Kosa in 1928. Over the next two decades, the Saund's raised three children in the Imperial Valley, where he established himself
as a farmer and fertilizer distributor.
Saund was a vocal advocate for Indian independence, and in 1930, he wrote and published
My Mother India, in order to bring attention to the inequities of the caste system of India, likening it to racism in the United States.
Federal law at the time prevented him from becoming a U.S. citizen and becoming more involved with local politics. In the
early 1940s, he helped organize efforts to open citizenship to South Asian immigrants, founding the India Association of America.
With the passage of the 1946 Luce-Celler Act, Saund became a United States citizen in 1949.
The next year, Saund was elected to the Imperial County Democratic Central Committee and ran for a judgeship in the Westmoreland
Judicial District in Imperial county in California. He won, but his election was vacated because he had not yet been a citizen
for a full year. Two years later, in 1952, Saund was elected judge of the same court and served until his resignation on January
1, 1957, when he took office as a member of the United States House of Representatives, for the 29th District of California.
Saund was the first Sikh American, first South Asian American, and first member of a non-Abrahamic faith to hold an elected
office in the United States Congress.
While in Congress, Saund served on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, as a delegate
to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference, and was named vice chairman of a large congressional delegation participating
in the Mexico-United States Inter-Parliamentary Group. He also remained a strong advocate for his district's specific interests.
He helped veterans and their families access benefits, worked to secure millions in funding for the March Air Force Base and
the Naval Auxiliary Air Station and the Corona Naval Ordnance Laboratory, collaborated with committee chairmen to fund flood
control projects, won funding for irrigation efforts on American Indian land, opened new post offices, built new roads, improved
Imperial Valley airports, assisted scientists developing new strains of cotton, and worked to protect the Bracero farm labor
program.
While running for a fourth term in 1962, Saund suffered a stroke while traveling from Los Angeles to D.C. He stayed in the
race while recovering in the hospital, even winning the Democratic primary, but lost the general election. He died after suffering
a second stroke on April 22, 1973.
- Sources:
- History, Art and Archives, U.S. House of Representatives website. Accessed August 30, 2023.
- PBS Roots in the Sand, "Triumph and Tragedy of Dalip Saund." Accessed August 30, 2023.
- Congressional Record, House, 85th Cong., 2nd sess. (23 August 1958): 19922–19923. Accessed August 30, 2023.
The collection is open for research. Audiovisual materials may only be accessed pending reformatting.
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through
the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to
the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and are retained by the creator
and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assignees.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department
of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University
of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and
is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright
owner, heir(s), or assignees. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or their assigns for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Gift of Eric Saund, 2020.
[Identification of Item], Dalip Singh Saund papers, CEMA 202. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Papers of Dalip Singh Saund American politician and member of the United States House of Representatives, 29th District of
California (1955-1962), dating largely from 1921-2002. Career materials include newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, congressional
records, campaign literature, correspondence, audiovisual items, and ephemera from his time in office. Family materials relate
to Saund's wife, Marian Kosa, dating primarily to the early 20th century, and include family histories, correspondence, and
photographs.
You Can't Eat Dirt: Leading American's first all-women tribal council and how we changed Palm Springs by Vyola J. Ortner and Diana C. Du Pont has been cataloged separately and placed in Special Collections book stacks.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Legislators -- United States -- Archives
Politicians -- California -- Archives
East Indian Americans -- California -- Archives
Sikhs -- California -- Archives
Legislative materials
Family papers
Printed ephemera
Ephemera (general object genre)
Audiovisual materials
Kosa family -- Archives
United States. Congress. House -- History -- 20th century -- Records and correspondence