[Assam] Re; [assam] Dalip Singh Saund Among Asian American Trailblazers:Obama

[bhuban.baruah]

Times of India (May 12, 2012)


WASHINGTON: Identifying first Indian-American Congressman Dalip Singh 
Saund as among early trailblazers for Asian-American community, 
president Barack Obama said the community must be treated beyond as the 
model minority.

Reaching out to the untapped Asian American community ahead of the 
November presidential elections, Obama said treatment of Asian 
Americans must go beyond treating them as the "model minority" to 
better understand the challenges faced by many groups, especially 
recent immigrants.

Majority of the Asian Americans, among the early immigrants, Obama said 
didn't had money.

"A lot of them didn't have belongings. But what they did have was an 
unshakeable belief that this country -- of all countries -- is a place 
where anybody can make it if they try," he said.

"Now, many of them faced hardship; many of them faced ridicule; many of 
them faced racism. Many were treated as second-class citizens -- as 
people who didn't belong. But they didn't give up. They didn't make 
excuses. They kept forging ahead. They kept building up America," he 
said.

"But they were trailblazers like Dalip Singh Saund -- a young man from 
India who, in 1920, came to study agriculture, stayed to become a 
farmer and took on the cause of citizenship for all people of South 
Asian descent," Obama said addressing the annual gala of Asian Pacific 
American Institute for American Studies.

"And once Dalip earned his own citizenship, he stepped up to serve the 
country he loved -- and became the first Asian American elected to the 
Congress," Obama said amidst a round of applause.