Seattle becomes first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination

The Seattle City Council has added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban caste discrimination.

Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. The movement is getting resistance from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community.

Proponents of the ordinance approved by a 6-1 vote Tuesday say that caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries, and that without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the U.S. will have no protections.

Councilmember Kshama Sawant, the only Indian American on the council, said that the ordinance, which she proposed, does not single out one community, but that it accounts for how caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries.

The origins of the caste system in India can be traced back 3,000 years as a social hierarchy based on one’s occupation and birth. It is a system that has evolved over the centuries under Muslim and British rule. The suffering of those who are at the bottom of the caste pyramid — known as Dalits — has continued. Caste discrimination has been prohibited in India since 1948, a year after the nation’s independence from British rule.

Dalit activists from Seattle and beyond rallied at Seattle City Hall in support of the ordinance, said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, founder and executive director of California-based Equality Labs.

The U.S. is the secondmost popular destination for Indians living abroad, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the U.S. diaspora grew from about 206,000 in 1980 to about 2.7 million in 2021. The group South Asian Americans Leading Together reports that nearly 5.4 million South Asians live in the U.S. — up from 3.5 million in the 2010 census. Most trace their roots to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Over the last three years, several colleges and university systems have moved to prohibit caste discrimination.

In December 2019, Brandeis University near Boston became the first U.S. college to include caste in its nondiscrimination policy. The California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and UC Davis have all adopted similar measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers in 2021 as part of its contract with its graduate student union.

The Seattle measure had the support of Dalit activistled organizations such as Equality Labs. The groups say caste discrimination is prevalent in diaspora communities, manifesting itself in the form of social alienation and discrimination in housing, education and the tech sector, in which South Asians hold key roles.

Opposition to the ordinance came from groups such as the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America, which say it unnecessarily singles out a community already vulnerable to discrimination in the U.S.