Marxist firebrand and outgoing Seattle Metropolis Council member, Kshama Sawant, pushing by way of a invoice including the phrase “caste” to the town’s non-discrimination statute in entrance of a whole lot of South Asians protesting for and in opposition to the invoice, it was not the primary time the town was roiled over caste.

A century in the past the Puget Sound American, a neighborhood Seattle space each day, printed a xenophobic diatribe over a small variety of Indian migrants residing within the space.

“Have we a dusky peril,” the paper requested, pointing to the “Hindu caste system” among the many explanation why locals ought to “maintain the Hindus out.”

For at the very least the previous century or longer, one of the crucial persistent stereotypes Indians confronted, together with “cows and karma” is “caste”. The wording of Sawant’s invoice traffics in these very stereotypes about Hindus and Indians — equating caste with Hinduism — to attain a political purpose.

Ending discrimination wherever it exists is an effective and needed purpose. However why achieve this many Indian People like me oppose this invoice if we’re in opposition to discrimination? If solely those that are responsible of discriminating primarily based on caste want to fret, why are we involved?

These questions typically come from Indian commentators, bringing to thoughts the outdated proverb in regards to the frog within the properly who is aware of nothing of the ocean. They appear unaware not solely of the constraints of their very own experiences residing as Indians in India, but in addition the vastly completely different realities of Indian People residing in America with many now a number of generations faraway from India.

Additionally Learn: Extra Dalit college students going to Oxfords, Harvards. West now will get the caste divide

Against insurance policies that single out a group

The rationale we oppose Seattle’s “caste” invoice is as a result of we’re against any coverage that singles out a specific group as inherently bigoted and deserving of particular policing. We’re against any coverage that’s unattainable to implement and implement with out singling out and harming Indians and South Asians within the US. And we’re against any coverage that contravenes the US Structure.

Discrimination harms, and that’s why broad and customarily relevant classes are essentially the most highly effective instrument to guard in opposition to it. Seattle’s metropolis ordinances already proscribe discrimination primarily based on nationwide origin, faith and ancestry — none of which single out anyone group or presume any specific perpetrator and sufferer. Perversely, Sawant’s invoice violates the very non-discrimination insurance policies it’s amending by including a class that demonises after which singles out, for disparate remedy, members of a group primarily based on their nationwide origin, faith or ancestry.

Over time, there’s a actual worry that Sawant’s invoice might dissuade the hiring of South Asians altogether—and, properly, Dilip Mandal, an Indian columnist who calls himself a “professor within the Middle of Brahmin Research”,  has admitted that that’s precisely what he seeks. He additionally says that “figuring out somebody from one’s personal caste group is like understanding the again of their very own hand.” He quotes a survey by the Pew Analysis Middle to make his level.

However Mandal appears to ignore that Pew surveyed solely Indians in India, not Seattle. Or that the Carnegie Endowment survey, the one large-scale survey centered on Indian People accomplished thus far, discovered that solely a 3rd of Hindu People born in the USA determine with any caste in any respect.

However on one level the Pew and Carnegie surveys agree: 82 per cent of all Indians (70 per cent of whom are designated as SC/ST/OBC) and 95 per cent of all Indian People have by no means personally confronted caste discrimination, demolishing any claims of rampant caste discrimination in both nation.

Additionally Learn: India is Hindu, Hindus are India — Why Indian People assume the way in which they do

A sweeping denial of equal safety

ThePrint’s Opinion and Options editor Rama Lakshmi, echoes Sawant’s presumption about Hindu People. She is unsparing even of Hindu People that deny that they discriminate primarily based on caste. Denying any recognition of caste as a Hindu is sufficient, apparently, to be “construed as racism.” Not solely are Hindu People trapped in caste, Lakshmi, argues that whereas many Indian immigrants rejoice “advantage” as opening their path to the US, the “tone-deaf phrase ‘advantage’ itself is a product of social filtering and discrimination processes”. She celebrates “caste” consciousness in metropolis and college insurance policies institutionalising caste in America as a result of she hopes it can permit Dalits, together with “privileged caste” tech staff to “profit from the affirmative motion variety pie with regards to touchdown American jobs.”

Lakshmi is completely off the mark in her assertion that Indian People are benefiting from variety quotas within the U.S. right this moment — particularly within the tech sector or schooling. Aside from the truth that quotas have been dominated as an unconstitutional denial of equal safety by quite a few American courts, together with the US Supreme Court docket, there’s additionally a landmark lawsuit pending earlier than the US Supreme Court docket arguing the counterfactual: that Indians and different Asians are brazenly discriminated in opposition to in faculty admission insurance policies to actively cut back their populations at prestigious universities as a result of they exemplify an excessive amount of advantage (excessive GPAs, check scores and different achievements).

One of many first ensures enshrined within the US Structure is equal safety underneath the regulation. This implies legal guidelines should apply equally to all folks no matter background. In letter and intent, nonetheless, Sawant made clear she is making a coverage particularly relevant solely to Seattle South Asians who’re presumed to be inherently bigoted, whereas each different racial or ethnic group will get the advantage of the doubt.

Along with caring with this sweeping denial of equal safety, our issues are additionally about implementation.

Additionally Learn: Hindu-People are in denial about caste. It’s been in non secular scriptures for lengthy

Vegetarian weight-reduction plan, celebration of Holi as caste markers

In India, caste identities are native, and research present that standing can differ for a similar communities residing in several places. As one speaker opposing the caste coverage mentioned in Seattle, a distinguished Indian American caste activist who self-identifies as a Dalit carries the surname of “Soundararajan” which is usually related to castes ascribed “dominant” standing in Tamil Nadu. How, probably, would an Indian American, initially from, say, Kanpur, or an Indian American who’s grandparents moved to the US within the Nineteen Sixties discern this activist’s caste and supposed standing? Given such complexities, will South Asians be singled out and compelled to examine packing containers and self-declare a caste for administrative expediency, many have requested.

Even worse, since caste can’t be distinguished by identify, color or bodily markers, activists previous to and on the Seattle metropolis council listening to took to utilizing a choice for a vegetarian weight-reduction plan, not consuming out at eating places or celebrating Holi as indicators of caste bias. Figuring out the overall unfamiliarity most People have about Indians, it’s secure to imagine that Seattle bureaucrats adjudicating caste complaints will probably be guided by the false and detrimental stereotypes Sawant’s invoice and its champions foreground. And so, many people now fear in regards to the spectre that the burden of implementing and adjudicating “caste discrimination” complaints creates an unsure maze for human sources departments at main tech firms in Seattle the place many South Asians are employed.

Whereas Sawant and her allies rejoice what they declare is a “historic win” for “the oppressed”, what they appear to utterly miss is that they’ve truly scored a self-goal — and the losers are all Indians and South Asians.

Whereas India might have “schedules”, “caste certificates” and “atrocity legal guidelines” which designate teams of individuals into those that are entitled to particular applications and protections and those that aren’t, American regulation doesn’t. So simply as a self-declared Dalit particular person may file a criticism of office discrimination primarily based on caste, a self-declared “basic class” individual may simply as simply file a declare in opposition to a Dalit particular person within the workplace who castigates her vegetarianism or celebration of Holi and excludes her from a gaggle project. Certainly, a so-called “Brahmin” staffer working in Sawant’s Seattle workplace may file a discrimination criticism insisting that Sawant has made the workplace a hostile atmosphere together with her fixed demonisation of “Brahmanical tyranny.”  All of this makes all South Asians of any and each caste background seem like each a nuisance and a legal responsibility.

That Sawant and her ideological allies are incorrect in conflating the social evil of caste discrimination with the Hindu custom that insists on oneness of all existence is apparent, and that the system of categorising castes as ‘depressed’ or ‘basic’ was instituted underneath colonial British censuses, is indeniable.

So why would Sawant suggest a invoice particularly concentrating on her personal South Asian group when classes like ethnicity or ancestry, which would come with the widespread understanding of ‘caste’, are already operational?

The reply might lie in Sawant’s political ideology and pervasive Hinduphobic rhetoric that adhering to Hindu traditions is to perpetuate bigotry by way of caste.

Take for instance that in introducing the caste invoice, Sawant described caste as a system of oppression, and added, “As a socialist, as Marxist, we’re against all oppression…we consider that may occur solely by way of truly ending capitalism itself and ushering in a socialist system.”

Or {that a} Harvard educational, Suraj Yengde, who’s a distinguished supporter of Sawant’s decision, brazenly shows anti-Hindu hatred, he has mentioned that “a self-respecting human will relinquish Hindu id” or that “Hinduism is exploitation and homicide of Dalits all over the place”.

A blinkered Indian intelligentsia exporting their home-grown caste faultlines do us within the diaspora no favours in any respect.

Seattle papers is probably not warning of a “dusky peril” to maintain “the Hindus out” in 2023, however peril lurks for Hindus and Indians in Seattle nonetheless.

Suhag A. Shukla is the co-founder and govt director of the Hindu American Basis. She tweets @SuhagAShukla. Views are private.

Rama Lakshmi’s response:

I didn’t use the phrase ‘quotas’ in any respect in my article on the Seattle caste ban. It’s as a result of I do know that quotas are outlawed within the US. Having studied and labored within the US, I’m conscious of the range necessities and compliance of employers.

Views are private

ThePrint closes the dialogue right here.

(Edited by Theres Sudeep)