Bhikanji’s solution, radical for Jains, was that
renunciation was more important than saving of
an animal’s life. He argued that if one were, for
instance, to save the life of a dog, one would then
be responsible for the violent KARMA of that animal
in the rest of its life. Other Jains, shocked at this
conclusion because of its apparent rejection of the
Jain notion of AHIMSA or noninjury, predicted that
Bhikanji would never have even 12 disciplines.
Therefore, when the sect did in fact take hold, it
became known as the Therapantha (the way of
the 13).
Further reading: V. G. Nair, Jainism and Therapanthism
(Bangalore: Adinatha Jaina Shvetambara Temple, 1970);
Muni Nathmal, Acarya Bhiksu: The Man and His Philoso-
phy (Churu: Adarsa Sahitya Sangha, 1968).
Thind, Bhagat Singh (1892–1967) teacher
of Sant Mat in the United States
Bhagat Singh Thind, an Indian-American disciple
of the reformist SANT MAT movement, became the
subject of a court case in the 1920s that had far-
reaching consequences for the American Indian
community.
Thind, born in AMRITSAR, Punjab, and initi-
ated by Sant Mat Satguru Sawan Singh (1858–
1948), migrated to the UNITED STAT E S in 1913. He
attended the University of California and earned
his living, as did many Punjabis, working in the
lumber mills in Oregon. During World War I he
served in the U.S. Army. In 1920 he applied for
and was granted citizenship.
Thind’s move to become a naturalized citizen
occurred in the wake of the passage of the Asian
Exclusion Act of 1917, which included provisions
that blocked further immigration from India.
India’s inclusion in the definition of “Asians” to
be excluded had in part been prompted by the so-
called “Hindoo riots” that occurred in Washing-
ton, Oregon, and northern California protesting
the many jobs that were given to Punjabi men in
the lumbering industry.
After the final approval of Thind’s citizenship,
a naturalization examiner challenged the court’s
decision. That challenge initiated a three-year
court process that rested on a provision of an
earlier 1790 law, which had opened citizenship
to any “free white person” not otherwise encum-
bered. Thind argued that he was a “Caucasian”
and hence a “white person.” The case went to
the United States Supreme Court, which in 1923,
in an opinion written by Justice George Suther-
land, ruled that not all Caucasians were white
in the common understanding of that term and
revoked Thind’s citizenship. That ruling also led
to the withdrawal of a number of other previous
grants of citizenship to Indian Americans. The
ruling in the Thind case stood as federal policy
until changes were enacted in immigration law
in 1965.
In the meantime, Thind remained in the United
States and maintained his vocation as a Sant Mat
teacher, though generally describing himself as a
Sikh (see SIKHISM). He lectured widely across the
United States, primarily to non-Indian audiences,
and authored a number of books and booklets. He
educated himself on American religion and argued
for his faith, comparing it to transcendentalism
and Christianity. In his mature years, cut off from
the Sant Mat community, he developed his own
unique, eclectic spiritual system.
He later married a French American, Vivian
Davies, who worked for many years to introduce
Indian culture into the United States. They had
one son, David, who keeps his father’s writings
in print.Further reading: David Christopher Lane, The Radha-
soami Tradition: A Critical History of Guru Successorship
(New York and London: Garland, 1992); Bhagat Singh
Thind, The Bible of Humanity for Supreme Wisdom (New
York: Author, n.d.); ———, Divine Wisdom, 2 vols.
(New York: Author, n.d.); ———, Radiant Road to Real-
ity (New York: Author, 1939); “United States vs. Bhagat
Singh Thind, Decided February 19, 1923,” Supreme
Court Reporter 43, no. 10 (April 1, 1923).K 446 Thind, Bhagat Singh