A recent lawsuit against Cisco from the State of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing made headlines for its seemingly rare case of an employee who was part of the Dalit, or “untouchable,” caste being discriminated against by his Brahmin, or dominant caste, workplace superior. The argument against Cisco makes a claim for caste discrimination under the Equal Protection Laws’ terms for racial or religious discrimination, opening the door to interesting comparative analogies.
This lawsuit gives us occasion to unpack the multimodal histories within the South Asian diaspora, revealing South Asia to be more than a land of spirituality or the birthplace of wealthy technocrats. In reality, diasporic cultural communities are often formed via caste organizations or otherwise segregated by caste. While these groups might not feel harmful, especially to dominant caste members, denying accountability for the ways cultural communities continue to perpetuate casteism maintains the hierarchy of caste-based privilege across the world. Such a hierarchy results in dominant caste members having greater access to educational and professional opportunities while members of an oppressed caste are excluded from certain cultural spaces or religious traditions.
“Caste doesn’t really feature in the vocabularies of American society, but caste is just not an Indian thing; it’s a global thing,” said Suraj Yengde, Harvard associate with the Department of African and African American Studies and author of Caste Matters, in an interview with the HPR. Casteism, camouflaged within aspects of South Asian cultures that have traveled across the globe, pervades social, educational, and workplace communities in the U.S.
Regional Creation of Casteism
Caste was largely codified by the Manusmriti, a portion of the Sanskrit Dharmashastras, which are treatises on conduct, morality, and ritual from the Vedic schools of Hindu tradition. The Manusmriti depicts a hierarchical system with four varnas: the dominant Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (merchants), Shudras (laborers), and the outcasted Dalits (untouchables). Dalits and Adivasis (natives of South Asia), and Other Backwards Classes (OBCs) compose the larger group of caste-oppressed Bahujans. Over time, socializing forces cemented these hierarchies, and religious traditions emphasizing the superiority of Brahmins, such as Brahmanism, grew around them.
While the Vedic varnas are endemic to civilization in Northern India, the migration of Brahmin majorities to Southern India complicated and augmented pre-existing class divisions and religious traditions that predated the existence of Brahmanism. The chronology of events remains controversial since modern scholars must work with limited historical records about ancient texts, travel patterns, social structures, or legal systems. Beginning in the South and traveling northwards, the vernacular Bhakti movements of later centuries brought a degree of religious reform as Vedic traditions like caste-based divisions were denounced, and more accessible forms of ritual and worship were avowed instead. Still, the social residues of caste persist in religious and cultural contexts to this day.
Caste liberation movements that demanded socioeconomic inclusion and political enfranchisement in the mid-19th century differ widely between India’s regions and cultural groups. South India and Western India’s movements for caste liberation often revolved around deep criticism of Brahmanism and Hinduism. In the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, non-Brahmins have begun participating in government through the Justice Party and the self-respect movement. On the other hand, different sects of dominant caste Brahmins are vying for power in the West Indian state of Maharashtra. North India movements questioning caste in the 19th and the 20th centuries were complicated by Hindu-Muslim religious conflicts during partition and often directly responded to state policies. It’s clear that casteism also contributes to, and is in turn exacerbated by, an array of regional, political, and socioeconomic factors.
In an interview with the HPR, Dr. Balmurli Natrajan, professor of anthropology at William Paterson University, says that caste operates horizontally and vertically. Castes are viewed both as higher and lower than one another and as qualitatively nearer or closer to each other. While it’s more immediately clear how caste adopts a vertical hierarchy, thousands of sub-castes representing immense linguistic and geographic diversity confound assessments about which castes are closer to one another, or how they are socially related. These qualitative evaluations of similarity and superiority work to further dictate power dynamics in the government, workplace, and everyday social life — including most often the permissibility of marriage.
Thus, significant geographic diversity and nuanced power structures clarify that there is no singular caste system with four strictly divided divisions based on occupation alone. Rather, there are many regional systems of casteism. However, these complexities cannot be used to avoid addressing the systemic and structural violence of casteism.
There’s a commitment to fighting casteism on paper — in fact, the liberal Indian Constitution outlaws caste-based discrimination. Also, reservation policies, akin to affirmative action policies, set aside a portion of government jobs and admissions spots in public educational institutions for certain castes. These policies have increased subjugated caste representation in the Indian public sector, but not the private sector. According to Dr. Anupama Rao, associate professor of history at Barnard and Columbia, these policies can euphemize or justify caste as a form of merit or professional specialization under the argument that dominant caste individuals must get their jobs based on work ethic or intelligence rather than on affirmative action.
“Since educational and employment networks function through social networks, we see enduring forms of segregation,” Rao told the HPR. In the realm of education, applicant filtering processes in India are built around caste. Dominant caste members have greater social mobility and tend to attend the most well-regarded higher education institutions in metropolitan centers. Without social capital, it’s more difficult to apply to competitive schools or jobs, know what lucrative fields to study, access tutorials, and succeed within them. Then, “who can come to America depends on who can come out of India,” Natrajan explained. Dominant caste members are able to see themselves represented among those eventually able to use higher education as a stepping stone to America.
Caste and Immigration
Post Indian independence in 1947, immigration to America constituted of farmers and peasants from the Punjab region. A wave of these immigrants also went to the Caribbean as well as East and South Africa. Many later made a second move to the U.K. or U.S. Then, following the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the caste composition of immigrants changed as most H1B work visas were offered to professionally qualified and business families. In the 1990s, these educational requirements became even more stringent and almost entirely favored those in STEM fields.
“Technocrats and scientists have colonized the public sphere and tend certainly to be dominant caste,” explained Rao, speaking about post-1965 immigration waves. A University of Pennsylvania study found that in 2003, only 1.5 percent of Indian immigrants in the United States were Dalits or members of oppressed castes. It follows then that the overwhelming majority of Indians who secured places in the American workforce and academia are from a dominant caste, as degree-educated H1B visa holders. These same individuals are now responsible for university admissions and corporate hiring. Because dominant caste members are supported by those who share their caste, U.S. immigration policy guarantees that there will be de facto caste discrimination, according to Dr. Ajantha Subramanian, professor for South Asian Studies at Harvard, in an email statement to the HPR.
More recently, the liberalization of both Indian education and the economy has allowed non-dominant caste members to acquire visas and pursue an education in a wider array of disciplines. In turn, this is beginning to broaden caste diversity within the United States. However, this already slow progress is dampened further by dominant caste members adhering to two “linked myths — of themselves as a model minority and of America as the land of opportunity — that have deepened their investment in a narrative of humble origins where histories of caste privilege are strikingly absent,” Subramanian noted.
Caste in Professional Spheres
Even those born and raised in America are explicitly tied to their caste through family surname, creating an inescapable environment of fear. In fact, 52% of Dalits surveyed in 2016 by Equality Labs reported that they worry about being outed as lower caste because of both physically threatening risks and social stigmas associated with caste-identity. The survey also found that a quarter of Dalits say they’ve faced physical assault, two-thirds of members of Dalits have faced workplace discrimination due to their caste, and 41% percent find academic institutions sites of discrimination.
Organizations like Equality Lab and the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle are pioneers in compiling information about caste in America. These accounts of discrimination make it clear that colleges and employers need to take significant action. The only American academic institution that includes caste in its non-discrimination policy is Brandeis University. Caste-based protections need to be added to all corporate and university non-discrimination policies. The scope of U.S. academic and corporate recruitment should also explicitly recognize underrepresented caste groups.
Yengde shared his own journey coming from a Dalit family and becoming a first-generation scholar at Harvard, emphasizing the difficulty of having his concerns seriously considered in academic spaces with other Indians: “I think Indians are the champions of microaggressions. They will talk all politely [to me], but in interactions, they prioritize their own feelings. When I am talking about my experiences of caste, [other South Asians] will literally bring out their own experiences with White professors and how they feel. That is valuable, but by doing that, they have now created a competition.” As competing narratives of oppression discount caste struggles, academia is rendered a deeply exclusive space that is culpable for casteism.
“It’s unfortunate people are just not able to fathom what I’m trying to convey, as a scholar,” Yengde continued. “People of all identities just don’t have the training to think about it.” Although discussions about minority experience are becoming increasingly prevalent in academic spaces, caste was not discussed in academic conferences until a couple of years ago. Yengde challenges everyone, especially those claiming to be well-intentioned liberals, to reflect on caste. In the diaspora’s professional and educational spheres, there is widespread denial of casteism and treatment as if it’s an outdated relic limited to South Asia.
Culture of Caste
In reality, casteism is not simply discrimination; discrimination is just one form of casteism concerned with legality. Beyond the obvious examples of human rights abuses or discrimination, casteism is a normalized set of practices that disguises itself as harmless at the surface level. Natrajan told the HPR that it is hard to see caste in operation if you are not trained, and that dominant caste people struggle to identify casteism. Just as a virus is harmful even when dormant, casteism is present even when hidden as expressions of minority culture.
For example, casteism is still camouflaged in some Hindu traditions. Gotras, for instance, are patrilineal clan names given to Brahmins, Kshatriyas, or Vaishyas. Both making a religious offering at the temple (archana) and performing a thread ceremony (upanayanam) require asking families for their gotra. The thread ceremony is only for Brahmins and remains a visible caste marker. Interestingly, there are cases of resistance in which members of subjugated castes can repeat names they’ve heard others use during archana, according to Natrajan. Unfortunately, other traditions are impossible to escape; the priest profession is almost entirely limited to hereditary succession among Brahmins, raising urgent questions about the true democratization of even vernacular Hindu traditions.
Marriages ensure that dominant caste lineages continue by excluding subjugated castes. The empirical reality and cultural norm are that many South Asian marriages are arranged or preferred as being between members of the same caste. While arranged marriages are not categorically wrong or inferior to love marriages, they can and do aid caste-based segregation in the name of cultural consonance and familial traditions. Although they’re private affairs, marriages become public concern when arranged through matrimonial sites from public caste organizations. It might seem apolitical to seek a partner of the same caste because you were raised with similar traditions, but this is not a power-neutral decision.
“Multiculturalism unintentionally abets and enables caste to survive and be safe in the U.S.,” said Natrajan, who termed this phenomenon the culturalization of caste. “Caste organizations are often non-profits, have trust-funds, and most fundamentally organize marriages that allow for the reproduction of caste.” Although South Asians are victims of racial and religious prejudice in America, celebrating minority culture can be a form of discrimination in the U.S. and support for majoritarianism in India. After all, dominant caste members overwhelmingly support Narendra Modi’s brand of caste prejudice, Islamophobia, and capitalist ambition.
Creating Change
However, many dominant caste groups are able to dismiss critical discussions about Hinduism as attacks on minority culture. Subramanian recounted the 2005 controversy over the portrayal of Hinduism in sixth-grade textbooks in California, initiated by groups like the Vedic Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation. While a few requested edits corrected the portrayal of gods and temples in South Asia, other more concerning ones asked to remove or soften mentions of caste and gender oppression. “These organizations attempted to characterize educational material about structural violence within Hinduism as evidence of their own victimization by a non-Hindu majority,” Subramanian said. Within 48 hours, a group of international Indian scholars cosigned a letter arguing that the revisions were fueled by a Hindu nationalist agenda. Ultimately, only 70 of the original 500 edits were approved. Continued appeals from Hindu groups and a similar controversy in 2016 culminated in the inclusion of casteism in textbooks.
Akin to being colorblind in discussions about racism, being caste-blind, or avoiding discussions about caste is not a solution to combating the complex social oppression and prejudice. As the Cisco lawsuit ushers in a wave of new conversations, more students and employees from subordinated caste backgrounds are empowered to share their experiences. Acknowledging these stories and unpacking the ways caste hides in culture is not cultural genocide. Rather, it is a reflection on privilege and commitment to prompting even the smallest of changes to the communities around us. After all, as Yengde says, “We cannot change the world when we are unable to work through our own homes.”
Image Credit: Image by Reedie Suzanne licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.