The 1910 U.S. Census Bureau classified South Asian immigrants under the racial category "Hindu," even though it acknowledged that pure-blood Hindus belonged ethnically to the Caucasian or white race, and most people classified as "Hindus" were actually Sikhs.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent scholarly sources discussing census racial classification history, including academic analyses of the 1910-1930 census categories and contemporaneous acknowledgment that most 'Hindus' classified were Sikh Punjabi immigrants, not adherents of Hinduism. [tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850-1930 (seed:relationships_and_lifestyle)
- https://www.communitysolutions.com/resources/short-history-race-question-decennial-census (corroboration)
- https://www.rsfjournal.org/content/4/5/81 (corroboration)