Caste in the US: says survey

March 23, 2018

Caste in the US: Dalits face discrimination in South Asian American institutions, says survey

Historical discrimination

Since 2016, the South Asian Histories for All Coalition, a diverse group of academics, students and community members of various nationalities, religions and caste identities, has been lobbying hard with a textbook revision committee in California to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of caste and its related discrimination in books prescribed for the fifth and sixth grades.

The coalition faced a pushback from forward caste Hindu groups, which claimed that caste discrimination was a matter of the past and to speak of it in textbooks today would amount to religious discrimination.

In November, the committee approved changes in textbooks in favour of the latter groups.

Yet, caste discrimination in the United States has been prevalent from the time of the earliest Hindu immigrants from India, according to the survey. For instance, AK Mazumdar, the first South Asian American to be granted citizenship, and Bhagat Singh Thind, a leader of the Punjabi Ghadar movement in the United States that sought to free India from British rule, both identified as “high caste Hindu, of full Indian blood” to differentiate themselves from other Indians and therefore to claim whiteness.

“This survey is an invitation for all South Asians to stop denying this violence and to listen to the voices of Dalits and other caste-oppressed migrant communities and work to end this discrimination once and for all,” said Soundararajan.

The report recommended that action be taken at schools, work places and places of worship to prevent caste-based discrimination and violence.

https://scroll.in/article/872964/my-parents-changed-our-last-name-survey-lays-bare-caste-discrimination-among-south-asians-in-us

March 23, 2018

7 minutes ago, LordOfMud said:

Caste in the US: Dalits face discrimination in South Asian American institutions, says survey

Historical discrimination

Since 2016, the South Asian Histories for All Coalition, a diverse group of academics, students and community members of various nationalities, religions and caste identities, has been lobbying hard with a textbook revision committee in California to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of caste and its related discrimination in books prescribed for the fifth and sixth grades.

The coalition faced a pushback from forward caste Hindu groups, which claimed that caste discrimination was a matter of the past and to speak of it in textbooks today would amount to religious discrimination.

In November, the committee approved changes in textbooks in favour of the latter groups.

Yet, caste discrimination in the United States has been prevalent from the time of the earliest Hindu immigrants from India, according to the survey. For instance, AK Mazumdar, the first South Asian American to be granted citizenship, and Bhagat Singh Thind, a leader of the Punjabi Ghadar movement in the United States that sought to free India from British rule, both identified as “high caste Hindu, of full Indian blood” to differentiate themselves from other Indians and therefore to claim whiteness.

“This survey is an invitation for all South Asians to stop denying this violence and to listen to the voices of Dalits and other caste-oppressed migrant communities and work to end this discrimination once and for all,” said Soundararajan.

The report recommended that action be taken at schools, work places and places of worship to prevent caste-based discrimination and violence.

https://scroll.in/article/872964/my-parents-changed-our-last-name-survey-lays-bare-caste-discrimination-among-south-asians-in-us