Caste discrimination in the United States

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Caste discrimination in the United States is a form of discrimination based on the social hierarchy which is determined by a person's birth.[1] Though the use of the term caste is more prevalent in South Asia, in the United States, Indian Americans also use the term caste.[2][3]

Caste is not officially recognized by law in the United States. However, the existence of caste discrimination in the US tech sector was acknowledged by a group of Dalit female engineers from Microsoft, Google, Apple and other tech companies. In 2021, the student body of California State University system passed a resolution against caste discrimination that came in to effect from 01 January 2022.[4][5]

Overview[]

History of caste in the United States[]

Caste is a birth-based social stratification system.

Historically, dominant-caste Hindus have used their caste privilege to gain citizenship in America. In 1923, A.K. Mozumdar and Bhagat Singh Thind argued that they passed the whiteness test because they were caste Hindus and had pure "Aryan" blood.[6][page needed]

In 1910, the Asiatic Exclusion League argued that Asian Indians should be denied citizenship through naturalization. The league described Hindu ancestry as "enslaved, effeminate, caste ridden, and degraded" and Hindus as the "slaves of Creation".[7][page needed] Such Hinduphobic rhetoric formed the idea of the "Hindoo invasion", an iteration of the "Yellow Peril."[7][page needed] In 1953, W. Norman Brown, founder of the Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote that "a large number of Americans...have a picture of India ... where everyone is a beggar and caste is more important than life".[8]

In recent times, caste discrimination has followed the immigrants to the US from India, Nepal and other south Asian countries. It has been mostly underreported despite its influence on job opportunities and marriage prospects among south Asian immigrants.[9][10]

Legal position[]

Caste is not officially recognized by law as a category of discrimination in the United States,[11][12] since caste discrimination was not a known phenomenon.[2] It has come to light only in recent times due to reported incidents of discrimination.[13][14] There have been earlier attempts to get institutions recognize the discrimination related to caste.[15][16][need quotation to verify]

However, the California law bars discrimination on the basis on ancestry. Dalit lawyers believe that caste discrimination is covered under it.[17] Legal scholars have also argued that caste discrimination is cognizable as race discrimination, religious discrimination and national origin discrimination.[18]

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination approved a resolution condemning caste or descent-based discrimination.[19]

Studies on caste in the United States[]

The oppressed castes of South Asia, known as Dalits, form 1.5% of all Indian immigrants to the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study carried out in 2003.[20] The 'high' or 'dominant' castes make up more that more than 90% of Indian migrants as per a study in 2016.[21][a]

A survey on caste discrimination conducted by Equality Labs[b] found 67% of Indian Dalits living in the US reporting that they faced caste-based harassment at the workplace, and 27% reporting physical assault based on their caste.[25] The survey also documents personal anecdotes about discrimination and isolation at schools, workplaces, temples and within communities.[20] The Carnegie Enowment researchers pointed out that the study used a non-representative snowball sampling method to identify participants, which might have skewed the results in favour of those with strong views about caste.[26][23]

The Ambedkar King Study Circle made a call to record and share experience of castiest practices in the United States. The received testimonies show some of the ways in which caste consciousness and discrimination are practiced by the Indian Diaspora in the United States.  The testimonies record feeling various types of discrimination in various places like school, workplace, social gatherings and neighborhood. Usually this discrimination borders on the sense of notional and real 'untouchability'. Ritual untouchability is a cultural issue in India and food is classified into touchable food and untouchable food according to ones ritual or caste status. Though the practice of untouchability has been abolished in India, food related cultural practices continue. Certain foods are considered to be polluting foods. The testimonies reveal that the individuals are often prodded on their food practices. These questions seem to be asked until the Savarna enquirer can be certain of the caste of the enquired. The testimonies also show that post the establishment of caste identity the treatment meted out to them was discriminatory . The testimonies also show that Savarnas in question lack sensitivity in this regard. The AKSC also went to record more types of discriminations like misrepresentation of Indian culture as a result of Savarna dominance , segregation and exclusion because of caste Identity, open expression of hostility to affirmative Action and/or Dalit, Bahujan Identity, entitled and discriminatory behavior by members of so-called 'upper castes' at school/work place and caste Based Favoritism[27][28]

A study conducted by a project of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, using a sample from YouGov, found 5% of the Indian Americans reporting they faced caste discrimination. A third of them said that they faced discrimination from other Indian Americans, another third said they faced it from non-Indian Americans, and a final third said that they faced it from both Indian and non-Indian Americans. The researchers found this response perplexing as non-Indians would not have had caste as a salient category.[26]

Forty-seven percent of the Hindu respondents in the Carnegie study said that they identify with a caste; the percentage was 53% for foreign-born respondents and 34% for American-born respondents. The researchers comment that, on the whole, the majority do not identify with caste, and this is much more so for American-born Hindu Americans.[26]

Homophily based on caste, i.e., tendency to associate with the people of the same caste, was reported by 21% of the respondents; 24% said that they did not know the caste of the people they associated with. The remainder said that they associate with some or most people of their caste (23% and 31% respectively.[26]

Dalits in the United States[]

African Americans and dalits[]

Lower caste activists in India have found common ground with the struggles of African Americans in the US.[29] The lower caste activist body Dalit Panthers was formed taking inspiration from Black Panther Party.[3][30] Martin Luther King, Jr. too had an empathetic association with the untouchables in India, and when he visited India in 1959 he said, "Yes, I am an untouchable, and every negro in the United States of America is an untouchable."[31]

Discrimination in the workplace[]

In 2020, the caste based discrimination in Silicon Valley came to surface with a lawsuit by California against Cisco Systems filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and as amicus curiae by Ambedkar International Center.[32] The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Cisco and two of its employees for discrimination against a lower caste Indian engineer.[33][34]

The existence of caste discrimination in the US tech sector was acknowledged by group of Dalit female engineers from Microsoft, Google, Apple and other tech companies.[15][35]

The Ambedkar King Study Circle which is a US based activists group along with 15 other organizations intervened to send an appeal to top American companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft demanding that the CEOs intervene immediately to address the issue of caste discriminations.  The AKSC wanted the companies to bring in caste sensitivity training in similar lines to the gender, race, sexuality training practices that exist. AKSC emphasized on fair and equal opportunity recruitment, retention and appraisal policies. [36] [37][38]

In May 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Akshardham in Robbinsville Township, New Jersey to investigate forced labor of lower caste Indian workers.[39][40][14] The workers were brought on religious visa and the FBI removed about 90 workers from the site.[41]

Discrimination in education[]

In 2015, California State Board of Education initiated a regular ten-year public review of the school curriculum framework.[42] The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and a coalition of other Hindu activists sought to literally erase the word "dalit" from the syllabus,[43][better source needed] which was contested by South Asian Histories for All Coalition, an interfaith, multi-racial, inter-caste coalition.[42][44]

In 2021, the student body of California State University system, representing half a million students, passed a resolution seeking a ban on caste-based discrimination.[45] The campaign was spearheaded by Prem Pariyar, a Nepali origin Dalit student, who came to the US in 2015 escaping persecution in his home country, and claimed that he faced discrimination in the US as well.[45] For the affected students, casteism is manifested through slurs, microaggressions and social exclusion.[46] The resolution cited the survey by Equality Labs where 25 percent of Dalits reported having faced verbal or physical assaults.[45] Al Jazeera noted that the resolution was authored by a higher caste student and backed by other students rom other racial and religious groups.[45]

In January 2022, the Board of Trustees of the California State University responded, announcing that they added "caste" as a protected category in the University's anti-discrmination policy.[47] The change was subtle, according to CNN. The word "caste" was added in parentheses after the term "race and ethnicity".[46] A group of faculty in the University had written to the Board of Trustees citing lack of "due diligence" in instituting the measure. They said that the existing policy of the University, which covers national origin, ethnicity and ancestry, already provided adequate protection, and claimed that the new measure would result in singling out and targeting the Hindu faculty.[48][49] But for the advocates and student leaders who campaigned for it for over two years, it was a civil rights victory.[46]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ In contrast, in India only 4% identify themselves as Brahmin, and 26% as General Category, which means that 70% of the population is from non-dominant castes.[22]
  2. ^ Described as a "Dalit rights organisation"[23] and a "a nonprofit organization focused on ending what it calls caste apartheid".[24]

References[]

  1. ^ Chakravarty, Paula; Subramanian, Ajantha (May 25, 2021). "Why Is Caste Inequality Still Legal in America? (Guest essay)". The New York Times. ProQuest 2531700704. Archived from the original on May 25, 2021.
  2. ^ a b Cooper, Kenneth J. (March 27, 2018). "Indians have imported casteism to the US & a black journalist writes on the need to ban it". The Print.
  3. ^ a b Paul, Sonia (April 25, 2018). "When Caste Discrimination Comes To The United States". NPR News.
  4. ^ "Viewing Interim CSU Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Exploitation, Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Retaliation :: PolicyStat". calstate.policystat.com. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  5. ^ CNN, Harmeet Kaur. "Colleges and universities across the US are moving to ban caste discrimination". CNN. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
  6. ^ Equality Labs, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Takaki, Ronald (1998). Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans (Updated and Revised). Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-4566-1107-1.
  8. ^ Chakravorty, Sanjoy; Kapur, Devesh; Singh, Nirvikar (2017). The Other One Percent: Indians in America. Modern South Asia. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 24. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190648749.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-064874-9.
  9. ^ "Exposing Caste Discrimination in the United States".
  10. ^ "Caste Discrimination in the USA: A Public Radio and Online Series".
  11. ^ Martin, Phillip (February 27, 2019). "Caste Bias Isn't Illegal In The United States. But This University Is Trying To Fight It". WGBH News.
  12. ^ "Explained: Getting America to recognise caste: previous efforts, renewed push". October 16, 2020.
  13. ^ Harmeet Kaur, CNN Illustrations by Max Pepper. "Even in the US, South Asians say caste has proved hard to escape". CNN.
  14. ^ a b Correal, Annie (May 11, 2021). "Hindu Sect Is Accused of Using Forced Labor to Build N.J. Temple". The New York Times.
  15. ^ a b Tiku, Nitasha (October 27, 2020). "India's engineers have thrived in Silicon Valley. So has its caste system". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2454517954.
  16. ^ Sarkar, Sreya (July 15, 2020). "Cisco, Caste Discrimination and the Endurance of Denial in Overseas Indians". The Wire.
  17. ^ Mukherji, Anahita (March 10, 2021), "California's Legal Ground in Battling Caste Discrimination Takes Centre Stage in Historic Cisco Case", The Wire, “If you are born Dalit, your children will be Dalits and nothing can change that,” [John Rushing] says, adding that the court has solid legal ground to say caste discrimination is illegal.
  18. ^ Krishnamurthi & Krishnaswami 2021, p. 481.
  19. ^ Mayell, Hillary (June 2, 2003). "India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, Discrimination". National Geographic.
  20. ^ a b Tinku Ray (March 8, 2019). "The US isn't safe from the trauma of caste bias". WGBH News.
  21. ^ French, Patrick (December 10, 2016). "All Come to Look for America (Review of The Other One Percent: Indians in America by Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh)". The Indian Express.
  22. ^ "Attitudes about caste in India", Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation, Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, June 29, 2021
  23. ^ a b Sriram Lakshman, Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity’s faculty union, The Hindu, 24 January 2022.
  24. ^ Nani Sahra Walker, Even in the U.S. he couldn’t escape the label ‘untouchable’, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2021.
  25. ^ Equality Labs, 2018, pp. 20, 27.
  26. ^ a b c d Badrinathan, Sumitra; Kapur, Devesh; Kay, Jonathan; Vaishnav, Milan (June 9, 2021), Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
  27. ^ "Testimonies of Practice of Caste in the USA". Ambedkar King Study Circle. October 9, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  28. ^ "After case against Cisco, US group gathers evidence against caste discrimination in Silicon Valley". The Economic Times. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  29. ^ Slate, Nico (2012). "The Dalit Panthers: Race, Caste, and Black Power in India". In Nico Slate (ed.). Black Power beyond Borders: The Global Dimensions of the Black Power Movement. Contemporary Black History. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 127–143. doi:10.1057/9781137295064_7. ISBN 9781137295064 – via Springer Link.
  30. ^ Michael, S. M.; Michael, Sebastian Maria (2007). Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values. SAGE. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-7619-3571-1.
  31. ^ "America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system". The Guardian. July 28, 2020.
  32. ^ "California's Legal Ground in Battling Caste Discrimination Takes Centre Stage in Historic Cisco Case". The Wire.
  33. ^ Web Desk (July 1, 2020). "California sues Cisco over discrimination against dalit employee". The Week.
  34. ^ Rishi Iyengar (July 1, 2020). "California sues Cisco for alleged discrimination against employee because of caste". CNN.
  35. ^ "A statement on caste bias in Silicon Valley from 30 Dalit women engineers", The Washington Post, October 27, 2020
  36. ^ "SOLIDARITY STATEMENT TO END CASTE PRACTICES IN SILICON VALLEY AND THE USA – India Civil Watch International (ICWI)". Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  37. ^ "Press Release IAAAC_Aug12_2020". Ambedkar King Study Circle. August 12, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  38. ^ "When fight against casteism moves to the US - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  39. ^ Misra, Shubhangi (May 12, 2021). "Swaminarayan temple in US raided, workers taken from India treated as forced labour: Report".
  40. ^ Silva, Daniella (May 12, 2021). "Hindu temple in New Jersey accused of 'shocking violations' in forced-labor lawsuit". NBC News.
  41. ^ Simko-Bednarski, Evan (May 12, 2021). "Lawsuit claims New Jersey Hindu temple was built on forced labor". CNN.
  42. ^ a b "Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go". NewsClick. July 15, 2020.
  43. ^ Soundararajan, Thenmozhi; Momin, Abdullah; Kaur, Harjit; Sengupta, Anasuya (July 1, 2020). "Erasing tolerance? HAF's changes can only be described as ahistorical edits to history books (blog)". The Indian Express.
  44. ^ Harrington, Theresa (2017). "Hindus urge California state board to reject textbooks due to negative images". EdSource.
  45. ^ a b c d Naik, Raqib Hameed. "US students pass resolution to end discrimination against Dalits". Al Jazeera.
  46. ^ a b c Harmeet Kaur, Colleges and universities across the US are moving to ban caste discrimination, CNN News, 30 January 2022.
  47. ^ Walker, Nani Sahra (January 20, 2022), "Cal State system adds caste to anti-discrimination policy in groundbreaking decision", Los Angeles Times
  48. ^ Singh, Namita (January 24, 2022), "Faculty members of California State University protest inclusion of caste in non-discriminatory policy", Independent
  49. ^ Lakshman, Sriram (January 24, 2022), "Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity's faculty union", The Hindu
Sources

Further reading[]

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