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Inherited discrimination

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.

Overview

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History of caste in the United States

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The U.S. Naturalization Act of 1790 limited citizenship to "free white persons," forcing immigrants to determine their racial classification in federal courts.[6]: 87 [7]: 588  In 1910, the Asiatic Exclusion League argued that people of Asian origin should be denied citizenship through naturalization.[7]: 581  The league described Hindu ancestry as "enslaved, effeminate, caste-ridden, and degraded" and Hindus as the "slaves of Creation."[8]: 1066 

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]: 50 

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.[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

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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]: 135 [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]

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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.[23]

In August 2002, the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination approved a resolution condemning caste or descent-based discrimination.[24]

In February 2023, Seattle became the first city in the United States to explicitly ban caste-based discrimination.[25]

California Senate Bill 403

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In 2023, California State Senator Aisha Wahab introduced SB 403 to include caste in the list of legally protected categories against discrimination.[26] 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."[27] SB 403 proposed to add caste to the existing anti-discrimination protections in housing, employment, and public education.[28][29] The bill did not mention a specific ethnicity or religion.[30] It was supported by some Dalit rights groups and opposed by some Hindu organizations, the latter claiming that the bill was unnecessary and unfairly singled out Hindu Americans.[31]

The state legislature approved the bill, but it was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom, who declared that the pre-existing anti-discrimination laws already prohibited caste discrimination.[29][30]

Studies on caste in the United States

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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.[32] Another 2016 study found that the 'high' or 'dominant' castes make up more than 90% of Indian migrants.[33][a]

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a study in 2021 and reported that the majority of respondents (53%) do not identify with caste, especially among those born in America. Of those that identified with a caste (47%), roughly 1% each identified with scheduled caste (dalit) and scheduled tribe (adivasi) categories.[35]

A survey on caste discrimination conducted by Equality Labs[b] 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.[38] The survey also documents personal anecdotes about discrimination and isolation at schools, workplaces, temples and within communities.[32] 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.[35][36]

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." However, a significant portion of Indians in the US deny ever facing caste discrimination.[39] The Carnegie Endowment study, using a sample from YouGov, found 5% of Indian Americans reporting they faced caste discrimination.[c] 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.[35]

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).[35]

The Ambedkar King Study Circle collected testimonies from Dalit workers about alleged discrimination from Indian colleagues.[40]

Discrimination issues

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Discrimination issues in the workplace

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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][41]

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.[42][43][44]

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.[45][46][21] The workers were brought to the U.S. on religious visas. The FBI removed about 90 workers from the site.[47]

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.[48][49][14]

Cisco lawsuit

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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 Civil Rights Department (CRD, earlier called Department of Fair Employment and Housing).[22] The Department sued Cisco and two of its senior engineers in managerial positions for discrimination against a Dalit engineer. The allegations were that the Dalit engineer received lower wages and "fewer opportunities" because of his caste.[50][51] The "fewer opportunities" is an apparent reference to a leadership position that the Dalit engineer felt entitled to.[52]

After an initial filing in a federal district court, the Department refiled the case in Santa Clara County Superior Court in 2021.[53] 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]

In April 2023, California Civil Rights Department "voluntarily dismissed" (withdrew) the case against the accused managers, while continuing to proceed against Cisco.[54] Multiple explanations have been offered for this withdrawal. According to the Associated Press, the case was dismissed by an order of the court.[54][d] According to a civil rights think tank called "Caste Files", the Department was forced to withdraw the case due to a motion of sanctions filed by the accused managers. If the motion went ahead it would have "exposed the loopholes" in the case while the political battle for SB 403 bill was ongoing.[55] The Press Trust of India highlighted the supposed loopholes, stating that, according to court filings, the lead manager himself had actively recruited the Dalit engineer, giving him a generous package, with full knowledge of his caste background. He had also recruited other Dalit engineers, and the engineer chosen for a leadership position in preference to the alleged victim was also a Dalit engineer.[52][56] The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) claimed to have reviewed the case files and declared that the California department's narrative was full of lies.[57]

The HAF also filed a case in a federal court charging the California department of infringement of civil rights of Hindus through its assertion that Hinduism mandates caste discrimination.[52] The federal court ruled against HAF but allowed to amend its complaint. Meanwhile, the California department also amended its case removing references to caste and Hinduism, thereby obviating HAF's involvement in it.[58]

The Civil Rights Department faced further setbacks. Cisco's motion to compel document production was granted and CRD was charged a penalty. The "unscientific" Equality Labs survey was thrown out as evidence. The anononymity clause for the alleged victim of discrimination was struck down. In court testimonials, Cisco exposed the alleged victim, leading the court to observe "the lack of specific and current evidence of harm".[55] Sundar Iyer, the senior manager accused of discrimination, went public with allegations of unethical practices against the CRD. He stated that the CRD assigned him a religion and a caste ("Hindu Brahmin") without him identifying as either. It also claimed that the alleged victim was the only Dalit on his team, which was untrue.[59]

Discrimination issues in education

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In 2015, California State Board of Education initiated a regular ten-year public review of the school curriculum framework.[60] According to the coalition South Asian Histories for All, The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and a coalition of other Hindu activists sought to erase the word "Dalit" from the syllabus.[61][62][60][63 According to HAF, their suggested change was not to remove the word "Dalit," but to distinguish between varna and jati.

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.[67] The change was subtle, according to CNN. The word "caste" was added in parentheses after the term "race and ethnicity".[66] 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.[68][36] But for the advocates and student leaders who campaigned for it for over two years, it was a civil rights victory.[66]

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.”[69]

See also

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Notes

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  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.[34]
  2. ↑ Described as a "Dalit rights organisation"[36] and as "a nonprofit organization focused on ending what it calls caste apartheid".[37]
  3. ↑ This compares with 1–2% people identifying with scheduled castes/tribes.
  4. ↑ If it was dismissed by the court then the meaning of "voluntary dismissal" by the Department becomes unclear.

References

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  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. 1 2 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. 1 2 Paul, Sonia (April 25, 2018). "When Caste Discrimination Comes To The United States". NPR News.
  4. ↑ Best, Paul (February 21, 2023). "Seattle becomes first US city to ban discrimination based on caste". Fox News.
  5. ↑ Kaur, Harmeet (October 9, 2023). "California governor vetoes bill that would ban caste discrimination". CNN.
  6. ↑ Lee, Erika (1999). "Immigrants and Immigration Law: A State of the Field Assessment". Journal of American Ethnic History. 18 (4): 85–114. ISSN 0278-5927.
  7. 1 2 Hess, Gary R. (1974). "The Forgotten Asian Americans: The East Indian Community in the United States". Pacific Historical Review. 43 (4): 576–596. doi:10.2307/3638433. ISSN 0030-8684.
  8. ↑ Chiu, Daina C. (1994). "The Cultural Defense: Beyond Exclusion, Assimilation, and Guilty Liberalism". California Law Review. 82 (4): 1053–1125. doi:10.2307/3480939. ISSN 0008-1221.
  9. 1 2 "Explained: Getting America to recognise caste: previous efforts, renewed push". The Indian Express. October 16, 2020.
  10. ↑ Mukherjee, Sujit (1964). "Early American Images of India". India Quarterly. 20 (1): 43–50. ISSN 0974-9284.
  11. 1 2 Wilkerson, Isabel (July 28, 2020). "America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ "Demographic Information". South Asian Americans Leading Together. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  13. 1 2 Tiku, Nitasha (October 27, 2020). "India's engineers have thrived in Silicon Valley. So has its caste system". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2454517954.
  14. 1 2 O’Leary, Lizzie (July 18, 2022). "Silicon Valley Has a Caste Problem". Slate Magazine.
  15. 1 2 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.
  16. ↑ Garner, Dwight (July 31, 2020). "Isabel Wilkerson's 'Caste' Is an 'Instant American Classic' About Our Abiding Sin". The New York Times.
  17. ↑ Mack, Kenneth W. (July 31, 2020). "Running deeper than race: America's caste system". The Washington Post.
  18. ↑ Michael, S. M.; Michael, Sebastian Maria (2007). Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values. SAGE. p. 172. 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. February 27, 2019. Archived from the original on March 5, 2025. Retrieved December 17, 2025.
  20. ↑ Kaur, Harmeet (September 4, 2020). "Even in the US, South Asians say caste has proved hard to escape". CNN News.
  21. 1 2 Correal, Annie (May 11, 2021). "Hindu Sect Is Accused of Using Forced Labor to Build N.J. Temple". The New York Times.
  22. ↑ Krishnamurthi & Krishnaswami 2021, p. 481.
  23. ↑ Mayell, Hillary (June 2, 2003). "India's "Untouchables" Face Violence, Discrimination". National Geographic. Archived from the original on February 20, 2021.
  24. ↑ Bharath, Deepa (February 21, 2023). "Seattle becomes first city in U.S. to ban caste discrimination". FOX13 News. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  25. ↑ Patel, Savita (March 23, 2023). "California considers ban on caste discrimination". BBC News.
  26. ↑ "Bill Text - SB-403 Discrimination on the basis of ancestry". leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  27. ↑ Yang, Mary (September 27, 2023). "'Once we win California, the nation is next': what a caste discrimination ban means for Americans". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  28. 1 2 Osgood, Brian. "California passes bill banning caste-based discrimination". Aljazeera. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  29. 1 2 Hosseini, Raheem (October 7, 2023). "Newsom surprise veto deals crushing blow to caste-based civil rights movement". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  30. ↑ "The divisive debate over California's anti-caste bill". June 9, 2023. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
  31. 1 2 Tinku Ray (March 8, 2019). "The US isn't safe from the trauma of caste bias". WGBH News.
  32. ↑ 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.
  33. ↑ "Attitudes about caste in India", Religion in India: Tolerance and Segregation, Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project, June 29, 2021
  34. 1 2 3 4
  35. 1 2 3 Sriram Lakshman, Group opposes protection from caste discrimination in California Varsity's faculty union, The Hindu, 24 January 2022.
  36. ↑ Nani Sahra Walker, Even in the U.S. he couldn't escape the label ‘untouchable’, Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2021.
  37. ↑ Equality Labs, 2018, pp. 20, 27.
  38. ↑ "The divisive debate over California's anti-caste bill". BBC News. June 9, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
  39. ↑ "After case against Cisco, US group gathers evidence against caste discrimination in Silicon Valley". The Economic Times. ProQuest 2427577235.
  40. ↑ "A statement on caste bias in Silicon Valley from 30 Dalit women engineers", The Washington Post, October 27, 2020
  41. ↑ "Solidarity Statement to End Caste Practices in Silicon Valley and the USA". India Civil Watch International (ICWI). Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  42. ↑ "Press Release IAAAC_Aug12_2020". Ambedkar King Study Circle. August 12, 2020. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  43. ↑ "When fight against casteism moves to the US". TOI+, The Times of India. August 27, 2020.
  44. ↑ Misra, Shubhangi (May 12, 2021). "Swaminarayan temple in US raided, workers taken from India treated as forced labour: Report". The Print.
  45. ↑ Silva, Daniella (May 12, 2021). "Hindu temple in New Jersey accused of 'shocking violations' in forced-labor lawsuit". NBC News.
  46. ↑ Simko-Bednarski, Evan (May 12, 2021). "Lawsuit claims New Jersey Hindu temple was built on forced labor". CNN.
  47. ↑ Nitasha Tiku, Google's plan to talk about caste bias led to ‘division and rancor’, The Washington Post, 2 June 2022.
  48. ↑ Google cancelled Dalit activist's talk on caste after pressure from employees, The News Minute, 3 June 2022.
  49. ↑ "California sues Cisco over discrimination against dalit employee". The Week. July 1, 2020.
  50. ↑ Rishi Iyengar (July 1, 2020). "California sues Cisco for alleged discrimination against employee because of caste". CNN.
  51. 1 2 3 Lalit K. Jha (April 11, 2023), "Caste discrimination case against 2 Indian-origin engineers dismissed in US", The Print, PTI
  52. ↑ Sunita Sohrabji (May 21, 2021), "Caste Discrimination in Silicon Valley? Indian Americans Divided Over Issue at Hearing", India West, vol. XLVI, no. 28
  53. 1 2 Deepa Bharath (April 10, 2023), "Cisco still faces caste bias suit; engineers' case dismissed", The Washington Post, AP
  54. 1 2 Gomez, Jonathan (June 14, 2024), "CasteFiles Lists Six Milestones in Dismantling the Cisco Caste Discrimination Case", castefiles.com
  55. ↑ Mark Chandler, Protecting Our People, Cisco Blogs, 3 November 2020.
  56. ↑ Suhag A. Shukla, Dismissal of Cisco case proves engineers were targetted because they were Indian, The Print, 21 April 2023.
  57. ↑ Karthikeyan Shanmugam, The Hindu Supremacist Disinformation Campaign Against the Caste Discrimination Litigation in US, The Wire, 16 October 2024.
  58. ↑ Jyoti Yadav, Accused of caste bias, ex-Cisco engineer Sundar Iyer wants to ‘fix’ what CRD did — ‘let down Dalits’, ThePrint, 4 March 2024.
  59. 1 2 "Cisco Case Shows Indians Still Take Caste Where they Go". NewsClick. July 15, 2020.
  60. ↑ Mridula Chari (May 19, 2016). "Last hearing today: Should the word 'Dalit' be used in California textbooks?". Scroll.in.
  61. ↑ 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.
  62. ↑ Harrington, Theresa (2017). "Hindus urge California state board to reject textbooks due to negative images". EdSource.
  63. ↑ McDermott, Mat (May 25, 2016). "We Never Erased the Word 'Dalit'". Hindu American Foundation. Retrieved June 29, 2026.
  64. 1 2 3 4 Naik, Raqib Hameed. "US students pass resolution to end discrimination against Dalits". Al Jazeera.
  65. 1 2 3 Harmeet Kaur, Colleges and universities across the US are moving to ban caste discrimination, CNN News, 30 January 2022.
  66. ↑ Walker, Nani Sahra (January 20, 2022), "Cal State system adds caste to anti-discrimination policy in groundbreaking decision", Los Angeles Times
  67. ↑ Singh, Namita (January 24, 2022), "Faculty members of California State University protest inclusion of caste in non-discriminatory policy", Independent
  68. ↑ "Brown University adds caste to nondiscrimination policy". Brown University. December 2022.
Sources
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