Caste discrimination in the United States

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Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates 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 and Bali, in the United States, South Asian Americans also use the term caste.[2][3]

Caste is not officially recognized by law in the United States, except in Seattle, Washington. On February 21, 2023, Seattle became the first U.S. jurisdiction to add caste to its list of categories protected against discrimination.[4] In other places such as California,[5] caste is implicitly covered as a subset of other categories under anti-discrimination laws. The existence of caste discrimination in the U.S. tech sector was also 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.

Overview

History of caste in the United States

The U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790 limited citizenship to "free white persons," forcing immigrants to determine their racial classification in federal courts.[6]Template:Reference page[7]Template:Reference page In 1910, the Asiatic Exclusion League argued that people of Asian origin should be denied citizenship through naturalization.[7]Template:Reference page The league described Hindu ancestry as "enslaved, effeminate, caste-ridden, and degraded" and Hindus as the "slaves of Creation."[8]Template:Reference page

In 1913, A. K. Mozumdar, an immigrant from Bengal living in Washington State, applied for United States citizenship. Mozumdar argued that as a high-caste Hindu of what he described as Aryan descent, he shared racial origins with Europeans. His application was accepted, making him one of the earliest South Asian immigrants to obtain U.S. citizenship.[9]

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 as a land of meditating omphalopsychites, hypnotic swamis, naked ascetics, bejewelled princes of fabulous wealth and incomparable harems, gross superstition, bare-skinned, poverty-stricken, famine-ridden masses, where everyone is a beggar and caste is more important than life."[10]Template:Reference page

Caste discrimination may have accompanied immigrants to the US from India, Nepal and other South Asian countries.[11] Based on the 2017 American Community Survey, about 5.9 million South Asians live in the U.S.[12] Despite being one of the fastest-growing immigrant groups, caste discrimination may be underreported despite its potential influence on job opportunities and marriage prospects among South Asian immigrants.Template:Citation needed Indian migrants account for a large number of high-skilled workers in STEM fields, which could lead to an issue of caste discrimination in the workplace in areas such as Silicon Valley.[13] Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, said, “Wherever South Asians go, they bring caste."[14]

Race and caste

Several observers see parallels between race in the United States and caste. When Martin Luther King, Jr. visited India in 1959, he was introduced by the principal of a school with Dalit students (then called "untouchables") as a "fellow untouchable from the United States of America". Although taken aback by this description, King agreed with it after reflection, thinking, "Yes, I am an untouchable, and every Negro in the United States of America is an untouchable."[15]Template:Reference page[11]

In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson argues that racial stratification in the United States is best understood as a caste system, akin to those in India and in Nazi Germany.[16][17]

Caste activists in India have found common ground with the struggles of African Americans in the US.[15] The activist group Dalit Panthers was inspired by the American Black Panther Party.[3][18]

Caste is not explicitly recognized as a category under most anti-discrimination laws in the U.S. According to some commentators, this was because caste was an unknown concept when these laws were originally passed.[19][9][2] It has come to light only in recent times due to reports of discrimination.[20][21] Others have said that categories such as ancestry as in California law already cover caste discrimination.[22] Legal scholars have also argued that caste discrimination is cognizable as race discrimination, religious discrimination, and national origin discrimination.Template:Sfn

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination approved a resolution condemning caste or descent-based discrimination.[23]

In February 2023, Seattle became the first city in the United States to explicitly ban caste-based discrimination.[24]

California Senate Bill 403

In 2023, California State Senator Aisha Wahab introduced SB 403, a bill that would have made California the first state in the nation to include caste in the list of legally protected categories against discrimination.[25] The bill defined caste as "an individual's perceived position in a system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status," which could be determined by several factors including the "inability or restricted ability to alter inherited status; socially enforced restrictions on marriage, private and public segregation, and discrimination; and social exclusion on the basis of perceived status."[26] SB 403 added caste to existing anti-discrimination protections in housing, employment, and public education.[27][28] The bill did not mention a specific ethnicity or religion.[29] The bill was supported by some Dalit rights groups and opposed by some Hindu organizations, who claimed the bill was unnecessary and unfairly singled out Hindu Americans.Template:Citation needed

The state legislature approved the bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who wrote that pre-existing anti-discrimination laws already prohibited caste discrimination.[28][29]

Studies on caste in the United States

According to a 2003 study by the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania, 1.5% of Indian immigrants were Dalits or members of lower classes.[30] Another 2016 study found that the 'high' or 'dominant' castes make up more than 90% of Indian migrants.[31]Template:Efn

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a study in 2021 and reported that 47% of Hindu respondents identified with a caste. The research concluded that the majority of respondents (53%) do not identify with caste, especially among those born in America. Of those that identified with a caste, roughly 1% each identified with scheduled caste (dalit) and scheduled tribe (adivasi) categories.[32]

A survey on caste discrimination conducted by Equality LabsTemplate:Efn found 67% of Indian Dalits living in the U.S. reported that they faced caste-based harassment at the workplace, with 27% reporting verbal or physical assault based on their caste.Template:Sfn The survey also documents personal anecdotes about discrimination and isolation at schools, workplaces, temples and within communities.[30] The Carnegie Endowment 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.[32][33]

The Carnegie Endowment study, using a sample from YouGov, found 5% of Indian Americans reporting they faced caste discrimination.Template:Efn 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.[32]

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).[32]

The Ambedkar King Study Circle collected testimonies of how caste consciousness and discrimination are practiced by the Indian diaspora. The testimonies record various types of discriminatory practices in schools, workplaces, social gatherings and neighborhoods. Usually this discrimination borders on the sense of notional and real 'untouchability'.[34][35]

Psychosocial toll

Caste-based discrimination imposes psychological distress on its victims, especially from lower castes. Dalits suffer at the hand of discrimination, being referred to as "untouchable" and "dirty".[36] Dalits are often bullied by upper-caste classmates and treated differently by teachers, which is trauma that translates from one generation to the next.[27] South Asians report experiencing diminished self-esteem, feelings of isolation, and enduring anxiety and fear. The Equality Labs study in the US found that those from lower castes "fear retaliation and worry about being "outed" and hence "hide their caste."[37] This fear of being outed can manifest in several ways; for example, some families opt to change their surnames to one considered more "caste neutral" (i.e. "Kumar", "Singh", "Khan") in order to avoid ridicule and isolation.[38] The long-term impact on mental health can be severe.[39]

Discrimination issues

Discrimination issues in the workplace

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.[13][40]

Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC), a US based activist group, along with 15 other organizations, sent an appeal to top American companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft demanding that the CEOs intervene immediately to address the issue of caste discrimination. The AKSC wanted the companies to bring in caste sensitivity training similar to the gender, race, sexuality training practices. AKSC emphasized fair and equal opportunity recruitment, retention and appraisal policies.[41][42][43]

In May 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided Akshardham in Robbinsville Township, New Jersey to investigate slavery and forced labor of lower caste Indian workers.[44][45][21] The workers were brought to the U.S. on religious visas. The FBI removed about 90 workers from the site.[46]

In April 2022, Google cancelled a planned talk by Thenmozhi Soundararajan as part of its Diversity Equity and Inclusivity programme. It was allegedly done under pressure from employees, accusing her of being Hinduphobic and anti-Hindu. Some felt their lives would be endangered if the talk went ahead. Rather than bringing their community together, it caused division and rancor, according to the Google spokesperson. The senior Google manager who invited Soundararajan resigned over the incident.[47][48][14]

Cisco lawsuit

In 2020, caste-based discrimination issues in Silicon Valley came to the surface with a lawsuit by the State of California against Cisco Systems filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH, later named Civil Rights Department).[22] The Department sued Cisco and two of its senior engineers for discrimination against a Dalit engineer (identified as "John Doe"), who alleged that he received lower wages and fewer opportunities because of his caste.[49][50]

After an initial filing in a United States District Court, the department refiled in Santa Clara County Superior Court in October 2021[51] Cisco filed a demurrer asking for dismissal on the grounds that caste and ethnicity were not protected categories under the Fair Employment and Housing Act of California. The Ambedkar International Center and other Dalit organizations filed an amicus curiae brief, arguing that the California law does in fact prohibit caste discrimination.[22] The Hindu nationalist advocacy group Hindu American Foundation (HAF) filed a claim in a United States District Court stating that the California department infringed on the civil rights of Hindus by asserting that Hinduism mandates caste discrimination.[52]

In April 2023, the California Civil Rights Department dismissed (withdrew) its case against the two engineers accused of discrimination, following an order from the Santa Clara Superior County Court, though it continued with the case against the Cisco corporation.[53] According to court filings, the accused lead of the division had actively recruited "John Doe", offering him a generous starting package and stock grants, knowing all along his caste background. He had also recruited other Dalits, including the one that was eventually chosen for the leadership role that John Doe was denied.[52][17] HAF reviewed the case files and alleged that the California department's narrative in the case was full of lies.[54]

Discrimination issues in education

In 2015, California State Board of Education initiated a regular ten-year public review of the school curriculum framework.[55] The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and a coalition of other Hindu activists sought to literally erase the word "Dalit" from the syllabus,[56][57] which was contested by a coalition of interfaith, multi-racial, inter-caste groups called "South Asian Histories for All".[55][58]Template:Relevance inline

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.[59] 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.[59] For the affected students, casteism is manifested through slurs, microaggressions and social exclusion.[60] The resolution cited the survey by Equality Labs where 25 percent of Dalits reported having faced verbal or physical assaults.[59] Al Jazeera noted that the resolution was authored by a higher caste student and backed by other students from other racial and religious groups.[59]

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-discrimination policy.[61] The change was subtle, according to CNN. The word "caste" was added in parentheses after the term "race and ethnicity".[60] 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.[62][33] But for the advocates and student leaders who campaigned for it for over two years, it was a civil rights victory.[60]

In December 2022, Brown University became the first Ivy League institution to add caste to its nondiscrimination policy. Brown's vice president for Institutional Equity and Diversity noted that caste was covered under existing nondiscrimination policies, "but we felt it was important to lift this up and explicitly express a position on caste equity.”[63]

See also

Notes

Template:Notelist

References

  1. ↑ Why Is Caste Inequality Still Legal in America? (Guest essay). The New York Times(May 25, 2021).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Indians have imported casteism to the US & a black journalist writes on the need to ban it. The Print(March 27, 2018).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 When Caste Discrimination Comes To The United States. NPR News(April 25, 2018).
  4. ↑ Seattle becomes first US city to ban discrimination based on caste, Best, Paul. Fox News(21 February 2023).
  5. ↑ California governor vetoes bill that would ban caste discrimination, Kaur, Harmeet. CNN(9 October 2023).
  6. ↑ Immigrants and Immigration Law: A State of the Field Assessment. Journal of American Ethnic History({Template:Date).
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Forgotten Asian Americans: The East Indian Community in the United States. Pacific Historical Review({Template:Date).
  8. ↑ The Cultural Defense: Beyond Exclusion, Assimilation, and Guilty Liberalism. California Law Review({Template:Date).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Explained: Getting America to recognise caste: previous efforts, renewed push. The Indian Express(October 16, 2020).
  10. ↑ Early American Images of India. India Quarterly({Template:Date).
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system. The Guardian(2020-07-28).
  12. ↑ Demographic Information. South Asian Americans Leading Together. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 India's engineers have thrived in Silicon Valley. So has its caste system. The Washington Post(October 27, 2020).
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Silicon Valley Has a Caste Problem. Slate Magazine(2022-07-18).
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Black Power beyond Borders: The Global Dimensions of the Black Power Movement{{#if:Slate|, Slate}. Palgrave Macmillan US(2012). ISBN 9781137295064
  16. ↑ Isabel Wilkerson's 'Caste' Is an 'Instant American Classic' About Our Abiding Sin. The New York Times(July 31, 2020).
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Mark Chandler, Protecting Our People, Cisco Blogs, 3 November 2020.
  18. ↑ Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. SAGE(2007). ISBN 978-0-7619-3571-1
  19. ↑ Caste Bias Isn't Illegal In The United States. But This University Is Trying To Fight It. GBH(2019-02-27). Retrieved 2025-12-17.
  20. ↑ Even in the US, South Asians say caste has proved hard to escape, Kaur, Harmeet. CNN(2020-09-04). Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Hindu Sect Is Accused of Using Forced Labor to Build N.J. Temple. The New York Times(May 11, 2021).
  22. ↑ India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, Discrimination. National Geographic(2003-06-02).
  23. ↑ Seattle becomes first city in U.S. to ban caste discrimination, Bharath, Deepa. FOX13 News(2023-02-21). Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  24. ↑ California considers ban on caste discrimination. BBC News(23 March 2023).
  25. ↑ Bill Text - SB-403 Discrimination on the basis of ancestry.. leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  26. ↑ 27.0 27.1 'Once we win California, the nation is next': what a caste discrimination ban means for Americans. The Guardian(2023-09-27). Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  27. ↑ 28.0 28.1 California passes bill banning caste-based discrimination, Osgood, Brian. Aljazeera. Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  28. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Newsom surprise veto deals crushing blow to caste-based civil rights movement. San Francisco Chronicle(October 7, 2023). Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  29. ↑ 30.0 30.1 The US isn't safe from the trauma of caste bias. WGBH News(March 8, 2019).
  30. ↑ 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(December 10, 2016).
  31. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 32.3 Social Realities of Indian Americans: Results From the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace(9 June 2021).
  32. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named The Hindu opposes
  33. ↑ After case against Cisco, US group gathers evidence against caste discrimination in Silicon Valley. The Economic Times.
  34. ↑ Testimonies of Practice of Caste in the USA. Ambedkar King Study Circle(2021-10-09).
  35. ↑ "They Say We're Dirty". Human Rights Watch({Template:Date).
  36. ↑ The divisive debate over California's anti-caste bill. BBC News(2023-06-09). Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  37. ↑ Using surnames to conceal identity. The Times of India(2009-02-21). Retrieved 2023-10-09.
  38. ↑ Living with Diabetes: Lay Narratives as Idioms of Distress among the Low-Caste Dalit of Nepal. Cross-Cultural Studies in Health and Illness({Template:Date).
  39. ↑ A statement on caste bias in Silicon Valley from 30 Dalit women engineers(October 27, 2020).
  40. ↑ Solidarity Statement to End Caste Practices in Silicon Valley and the USA. India Civil Watch International (ICWI). Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  41. ↑ Press Release IAAAC_Aug12_2020. Ambedkar King Study Circle(2020-08-12). Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  42. ↑ When fight against casteism moves to the US. TOI+, The Times of India(August 27, 2020).
  43. ↑ Swaminarayan temple in US raided, workers taken from India treated as forced labour: Report. The Print(May 12, 2021).
  44. ↑ Hindu temple in New Jersey accused of 'shocking violations' in forced-labor lawsuit. NBC News(May 12, 2021).
  45. ↑ Lawsuit claims New Jersey Hindu temple was built on forced labor. CNN(2021-05-12).
  46. ↑ Nitasha Tiku, Google's plan to talk about caste bias led to ‘division and rancor’, The Washington Post, 2 June 2022.
  47. ↑ Google cancelled Dalit activist's talk on caste after pressure from employees, The News Minute, 3 June 2022.
  48. ↑ California sues Cisco over discrimination against dalit employee. The Week(July 1, 2020).
  49. ↑ California sues Cisco for alleged discrimination against employee because of caste. CNN(July 1, 2020).
  50. ↑ [{{{url}}} Caste Discrimination in Silicon Valley? Indian Americans Divided Over Issue at Hearing](May 21, 2021).
  51. ↑ 52.0 52.1 Caste discrimination case against 2 Indian-origin engineers dismissed in US(11 April 2023).
  52. ↑ Cisco still faces caste bias suit; engineers' case dismissed(10 April 2023).
  53. ↑ Suhag A. Shukla, Dismissal of Cisco case proves engineers were targetted because they were Indian, The Print, 21 April 2023.
  54. ↑ 55.0 55.1 Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go. NewsClick(July 15, 2020).
  55. ↑ Last hearing today: Should the word 'Dalit' be used in California textbooks?. Scroll.in(19 May 2016).
  56. ↑ Erasing tolerance? HAF's changes can only be described as ahistorical edits to history books (blog). The Indian Express(July 1, 2020).
  57. ↑ Hindus urge California state board to reject textbooks due to negative images, Harrington, Theresa. EdSource(2017).
  58. ↑ 59.0 59.1 59.2 59.3 US students pass resolution to end discrimination against Dalits. Al Jazeera.
  59. ↑ 60.0 60.1 60.2 Harmeet Kaur, Colleges and universities across the US are moving to ban caste discrimination, CNN News, 30 January 2022.
  60. ↑ Cal State system adds caste to anti-discrimination policy in groundbreaking decision(January 20, 2022).
  61. ↑ Faculty members of California State University protest inclusion of caste in non-discriminatory policy(January 24, 2022).
  62. ↑ Brown University adds caste to nondiscrimination policy. Brown University(December 2022).
Sources

Further reading

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