The Luce-Celler Act of 1946: White Nationalism, Indian Nationalism and the Cosmopolitan Elite
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2014
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Haverford College. Department of History
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Thesis
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The History Department Senior Thesis Prize
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eng
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Open Access
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Abstract
In the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, J.J. Singh and Clare Boothe Luce articulated their distinct visions of the post-war world order. During World War II and the post-war era, Clare Boothe Luce--playwright, journalist, congresswoman, world traveler and cosmopolitan celebrity--feared the world's rising anti-imperial non-white nationalisms. She used the bill to create a social hierarchy for non-white individuals that reified whiteness as the legitimate source of authority. In creating such a hierarchy, Luce hoped to direct non-white nationalism away from becoming anti-white nationalism. J.J. Singh--a successful merchant, Manhattan socialite, Indian nationalist and the President of the Indian League of America--used the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 to secure early international recognition of a secular, united and independent "India." While the British Government obstinately refused to transfer power to the Indian nationalists and refused to recognize the Indian National Congress as a secular political body representative of Indians across religious, caste and ethnic communities, J.J. Singh pulled the levers of the United States Congress to get such a recognition written into the U.S. legal code. Clare Boothe Luce and J.J. Singh were both globally mobile cosmopolitan elites. While they had distinct visions of the post-war world order, they also shared a sense of entitlement to determine its fate. Over cocktails at the Waldorf-Astoria and games of tennis in Greenwich, Clare Boothe Luce and J.J. Singh worked out global politics.