In 1923, the Supreme Court decided in "United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind" that people of Indian descent were not white men, and thus not eligible to citizenship. While Thind was a high caste Hindu born in the northern Punjab region and classified by certain scientific authorities as of the Aryan race, the court conceded that he was not white or Caucasian since the word Aryan "has to do with linguistic and not at all with physical characteristics" and "the average man knows perfectly well that there are unmistakable and profound differences" between Indians and white people. In "United States v. Cartozian" (1925), an Armenian immigrant successfully argued (and the Supreme Court agreed) that his nationality was white in contradistinction to other people of the Near East—Kurds, Turks, and Arabs in particular—on the basis of their Christian religious traditions. In conflicting rulings "In re Hassan" (1942) and "Ex parte Mohriez", United States District Courts found that Arabs did not, and did qualify as white under immigration law.