19 Facts About Kala Bagai

Kala Bagai was a South Asian American immigrant and community activist.

Kala Bagai married Vaishno Das Bagai, and moved to Peshawar to live with him.

Vaishno Das Kala Bagai was involved with the anti-colonial Ghadar Party.

When Kala Bagai was 22, she, Vaishno and their sons moved to the United States, arriving in San Francisco in September 1915.

Kala Bagai was one of very few South Asian women in the United States, and her family was among the few able to immigrate together to the United States.

Vaishno Das Bagai had learned English in school in India, but Kala had yet to learn the language.

Kala Bagai learned English after arrival, with the support of a German family who helped look after her children, giving her time to study.

Kala Bagai found ways to support the Indian independence movement.

Vaishno Das Kala Bagai became a naturalized United States citizen in 1921, but his citizenship was revoked in the wake of the 1923 Bhagat Singh Thind decision.

Kala Bagai couldn't make a go of things the way he dreamed of in San Francisco, for his family and, you know, the idea of a business and all that were kind of vanishing.

Kala Bagai invested the life insurance payment, and was proud to be able to eventually send all three of her sons to college, to Stanford, UC Berkeley, and USC.

Kala Bagai finally received her United States citizenship in 1950, after the passage of the Luce-Celler Act of 1946.

Kala Bagai remarried in 1934, to Mahesh Chandra, another Ghadar activist and an old family friend.

Kala Bagai reinvented herself, attending night school, wearing Western dresses, and even learning tennis.

Kala Bagai had many close American friends and never went on a social visit without a gift box of See's candy.

Kala Bagai organized with other South Asian immigrant and American women, planned arts events, raised funds for post-Partition refugees, welcomed newcomers to her home, and built connections.

Kala Bagai built bridges wherever she could between her adopted American culture and the great diversity of Indian culture.

Kala Bagai died in Los Angeles on October 4,1983, at age 90.

Kala Bagai's story has become a subject of increasing interest to Asian American and other historians after her death.