How this Bhagat Singh had warred with US

The story of

Bhagat Singh Thind

is an important one for the Sikh American community, but, arguably, one that has not got its due.

Despite being in the US Army during WW1, Thind was denied US citizenship in a 1923 Supreme Court Case titled “United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind''. However, he remained and fought for Indian independence and received citizenship in 1936.

Bringing this story to life is Ohio-born

Harjus

Singh whose roots lie in Punjab, director of the upcoming “All Quiet on the Home Front'', starring Waris Ahluwalia.

“This is a very human story and not something one has to be Indian to understand, the character just happens to be an Indian during a time where they were not allowed to be citizens in the US. What really inspired the film was also the relevance of Bhagat Singh Thind's story to current events and when we started developing the film it started becoming more relevant as the political climate in the US has shifted.“The theme of 'What do we define to be American' has been one that has been becoming more relevant. I wanted to tell a story about a great American hero who just happened to be Indian and Sikh“, Harjus says.

The documentary focuses on Bhagat Singh Thind's fight but also other aspects of his life. The central relationship of the film revolves around Bhagat and his Irish lawyer, Thomas Mannix. Thomas was also a solider in WW1 but came back with PTSD.

The story is about how an Irishman and Indian can go from strangers to brothers; ethnicity shouldn't be a barring factor to becoming family and fellow citizens.Thomas tried to help Bhagat to be able to stay in the country and Bhagat tries to help Thomas. “It's that brotherhood that should be reflected in the country. It doesn't matter what your ethnicity is, it's the quality of your character and holding up American ideals that should make you a citizen,“ he says. “Thematically, this film is about 'What do we define to be an American citizen?' and `How do we treat our veterans?', two issues that I believe are as relevant today as they were in the 1920's“.

In response to the film, “the Punjabi diaspora is realising the im portance of telling our stories and using film as a medium to gain understanding from the community. We do have something to say and we are the best people to express these ideas not only for other Punjabis, but for the rest of the world“.

However, it is not for an exclusively Punjabi audience. In a preliminary screening at Singh's film school, “The 500-seat theatre was packed to capacity (many people sat on the floor and others stood around) and the response from the 99% non-SikhIndian audience was amazing.There were a lot of Americans who were amazed by the story but also how this was a real person who lived and influenced how America operates. That this film was able to connect with an audience from such a wide background was humbling and made us realize we have something here with this film“ On Waris Ahluwalia's involvement, Harjus says: “The Sikh community within the U.S. are relat ive ly cl o s e, a n d a f t e r reaching out to a series of people, it became a situation of knowing someone who knows someone who was able to connect me with Waris. From there I emailed him the script. I wasn't sure if I was going to get anything back. Waris is a complete professional and admittedly, I believe being a Sikh helped me get the initial contact with him, but he evaluated the script for its quality on its own. If the script was not up to his professional standards, I don't believe he would've taken on the project. However, it was a combination of the quality of the script and the character of Bhagat Singh Thind being portrayed as a flawed human being who just happens to be a Sikh and an American hero. It seemed like it was a project he was interested in and he moved mountains to make room for the film.Even after being denied entry on the Aero Mexico flight out of Mexico, pushing his already busy schedule back, he was still able to rearrange and make it in time for filming. He really went out of his way to be part of this film and for that I will always be humbled“.

The film will premiere at the Sikhlens Film Festival next month in California before a festival run, and Singh hopes this can change American perception of Sikhs, through being able to relate to Bhagat Singh Thind: “To be able to relate to a character with the Sikh identity and then remember he has a turban and beard, that a person with this identity is like any other human being. It's hard to hate something you understand“.