Movement to end prejudice grows
In 2015, I was invited to a lunch at the home of a South Asian acquaintance in the Yolo County city of Woodland. Having recently arrived from Nepal, I didn’t know many people in this country, and was looking forward to making new connections. But during the lunch, when it was my turn to serve myself from the buffet, I was stopped and told not to approach — because I would “pollute the food.” Instead, a plate would be prepared and handed to me.
Why? Because I am a Dalit. Dalit is a term that refers to individuals at the lowest level of the caste system in Hinduism. Formerly commonly referred to as “untouchables,” Dalits often experience brutal violence and discrimination from dominant caste members. While most associated with Hinduism and South Asia, caste is actually a system of apartheid that affects 260 million people globally and it persists across religions and continents. Caste identity is determined on the basis of birth and affects one’s social status, access to education, wealth, housing and other resources. It also assigns “spiritual purity,” wherein those at the top of the hierarchy are considered “purest,” and those outside the hierarchy are “impure.”
Even though I had left Nepal to escape caste-based discrimination, the lunch and numerous other experiences since have taught me that casteism still plagues South Asians throughout our diaspora, including here in the United States. According to a 2018 survey by Equality Labs on caste-based discrimination in South Asian American communities, 25% of Dalits who responded reported that they had experienced verbal or physical assaults because of their caste identity.
When I began my graduate studies at Cal State East Bay in 2019, I thought I would find relief from such discrimination in an academic community that valued diversity and inclusion. But focusing on my educational goals proved difficult. Repeatedly, I witnessed caste-oppressed students face discrimination in the classroom, in dining and in housing, where dominant caste students openly refused to share apartments and dorms with us. We faced casteist slurs and humiliating segregation, and sometimes even caste-based sexual assault and harassment. I met Dalit students who tried to hide their identity for fear of being found out.
Research suggests that our experiences
at Cal State East Bay are not unique. According to the Equality Labs survey, 1 in 3 Dalit students has experienced educational discrimination and 2 in 3 Dalits reported unfair workplace treatment. As the report concluded, “wherever South Asians go, they take caste with them.” And in diaspora settings, anti-Dalit discrimination is often invisible to people outside the community, hiding in plain sight.
Because of my and my fellow Dalit students’ experiences, I began organizing to get caste added as a protected category at CSU East Bay and to ban caste discrimination. Our initial efforts required educating students and faculty about the persistence of casteism on our campuses, sharing data and research as well as recounting our widespread experiences of indignity and discrimination. Our first win came in April 2021 when the Cal State Student Association voted to recognize casteism and called for the California State University system to address caste equity.
The vote galvanized us and our organizing quickly became a statewide movement. Finally, after more than two years of continuous advocacy, we
achieved our goal. In November, UC Davis became potentially the first higher education institution in the U.S. to add caste as a category to its antidiscrimination policy. And this month, the CSU system announced it would do the same, joining a small but growing number of academic institutions across the country.
As a graduate from Cal State East Bay, I see this historic civil rights win as personal. Having the largest fouryear public university system in the country recognize caste as a protected category will benefit millions of CSU students, staff and faculty. After the announcement, the Cal State Board of Trustees also unanimously ratified a historic collective bargaining agreement with the 29,000-member California Faculty Association that will recognize caste as a protected category in antidiscrimination clauses for all contracted employees.
Thanks to the hard work and persistence of activists across the country, there is growing recognition of casteism in the United States. In 2020, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Cisco Systems for caste discrimination,
and last May, the FBI raided a New Jersey temple for exploiting Dalit workers and paying them $1.20 an hour.
Dalit activists and their allies are holding public and private institutions accountable for their caste-based discrimination, particularly universities and colleges where Dalit students like me seek refuge in higher education in the hopes of a better life.
Caste discrimination is a reality we can no longer ignore. As South Asian Americans, we need to face not only our histories, but the marginalization that still persists within our communities. The broader country can help that effort by learning about the diversity that exists in South Asian cultures, resisting any temptation to view us as a single monolith and supporting the work of Dalit activists in building a more diverse and inclusive society that we all deserve.