MArxist firebrand and outgoing Seattle City Council member, Kshama Sawant, Push It was not the first time the city was linked to race, through a bill that added the word “race” to the city’s non-discrimination law in front of hundreds of South Asians in support and protest of the bill.
a century ago puget sound americana local Seattle area daily, published A xenophobic diatribe on the small number of Indian expatriates living in the area.
“Do we have a looming crisis”, pointing to the “Hindu caste system” as among the reasons why locals “should keep Hindus out”.
At least for the past century or so, the most persistent stereotype faced by Indians as well “Cow and Karma” Is “Caste”, words Sawant’s bill traffics in the same stereotypes about Hindus and Indians to achieve its political goal – equating caste with Hinduism.
Eliminating discrimination wherever it exists is a good and necessary goal. But if we are against discrimination then why do many Indian Americans like me oppose this bill? If those who discriminate on the basis of caste are the only ones who need to worry, then why should we worry?
These questions often come from Indian commentators, who call to mind the old proverb about the frog in the well who knows nothing of the sea. They seem oblivious not only to the limits of their own experiences of living as Indians in India, but also to the vastly different realities of Indian Americans living in America, many generations removed from India. Have gone
Read also: More Dalit students are going to Oxford, Harvard. the west now gets caste division
opposed policies that alienate a community
The reason we oppose Seattle’s “race” bill is because we oppose any policy that makes a particular community inherently bigoted and deserving of special policing. We oppose any policy that is impossible to implement and enforce without harming Indians and South Asians in America. And we oppose any policy that violates the US Constitution.
Discrimination hurts, and that’s why broad and generally applicable categories are the most powerful tools to prevent it. Seattle’s city ordinances already prohibit discrimination on the basis of national origin, religion, and ancestry—none of which singles out any single community or recognizes particular perpetrators and victims. Perversely, Sawant’s bill violates the very same non-discrimination policies, which are being amended by adding a category that calls for unequal treatment, for members of a community on the basis of their national origin, religion or race. separates the
Over time, there is a real fear that Sawant’s bill could prevent South Asians from being hired altogether – and, says Dilip Mandal, an Indian columnist who calls himself A “Professor at the Center for Brahmin Studies”, has accepted that’s exactly it wants to, He too They say that “recognizing someone from one’s caste group is like knowing the back of one’s own hand.” he quotes a survey To have your say by the Pew Research Center.
But Mandal feels that Pew only surveyed Indians in India and not Seattle. or that carnegie endowment surveyThe only large-scale survey focused on Indian Americans completed to date found that only a third of Hindu Americans born in the United States identify with any caste.
But at one point the Pew and Carnegie surveys Agree: 82 percent of all Indians (70 percent of whom are designated as SC/ST/OBC) and 95 percent of all Indian Americans have never personally faced caste discrimination, Which demolishes any claim of large scale caste discrimination in any country.
Read also: India is Hindu, Hindus are India – Why Indian Americans Think the Way They Think
Comprehensive Denial of Equal Protection
ThePrint’s Opinion and Features Editor Rama Lakshmi, echoes Sawant’s perception of Hindu Americans. It also does not spare Hindu Americans who deny that they discriminate on the basis of caste. As a Hindu denying any recognition of caste is, apparently, enough to be “understood as casteist”. Not only are Hindu Americans stuck in caste, Lakshmi argues that while many Indian immigrants celebrate “merit” as opening their way to America, “the tone-deaf word ‘merit’ itself is a source of social filtering and discrimination.” is a product of processes”. She celebrates “race” consciousness in the city and university policies that institutionalize caste in the US because she hopes it will lead to “privileged race” tech workers as well as Dalits to “get affirmative action diversity to land American jobs”. benefit from”.
Lakshmi is completely wrong in her claim that Indian Americans are benefiting from diversity quotas in America today – especially in the tech sector or education. In addition to the fact that quotas have been ruled as unconstitutional denial of equal protection by several US courts, including US Supreme CourtThere is also a landmark case pending before the US Supreme Court, which makes a counterfactual argument: that Indians and other Asians are openly discriminated against against College admissions policies tend to actively reduce their populations at prestigious universities because they exemplify too much merit (high GPAs, test scores, and other achievements).
One of the first guarantees enshrined in the US Constitution is equal protection under the law. This means that the laws should apply equally to all people, regardless of background. However, in the letter and intent, Sawant clarified that she was specifically making the policy applicable only to Seattle South Asians, who are considered inherently larger, while treating every other racial or ethnic group with suspicion. get benefits.
Besides being concerned about this pervasive denial of equal protection, we are also concerned about implementation.
Read also: Hindu-Americans are in denial about caste. It has been in religious scriptures for a long time
Vegetarian food, Holi celebrations as caste symbols
In India, caste identities are local, and studies are Show This situation may be different for the same community living in different places. As a speaker protesting the caste policy in Seattle noted, a prominent Indian American caste activist who self-identifies as a Dalit, bearing the surname of “Soundarajan”, is often referred to as “dominant” status in Tamil Nadu. are linked to the castes as described. Presumably, how would an Indian American, originally from Kanpur, or an Indian American whose grandparents migrated to America in the 1960s, understand the caste and perceived status of this activist? Given such complexities, many have asked whether South Asians will be singled out and forced to check boxes and declare castes for administrative convenience.
Worse, since race cannot be distinguished by name, color, or physical markers, workers there prior to Seattle and city council hearing Prefered vegetarian food, did not eat out in restaurants celebrating holi Caste as an indicator of prejudice. Knowing the general unfamiliarity of most Americans about Indians, it is safe to assume that Seattle bureaucrats adjudicating caste grievances will be guided by the false and negative stereotypes that Savant’s bill and its champions foreground. And so, many of us now worry about the specter that the burden of enforcing and adjudicating “racial discrimination” complaints creates a precarious quandary for human resources departments at Seattle’s major tech companies where Many South Asians are employed.
While Sawant and his allies claim a “historic victory” for the “oppressed”, what they completely miss is that he actually scored an own-goal – and the losers are all Indians and South Asians.
While India may have “Schedules”, “caste certificateand “opinion laws” that designate groups of people as those who are entitled to special programs and protections and those who are not, American law does not. can file a complaint of discrimination, in the same way a self-proclaimed “general category” person can easily file a claim against a Dalit person in an office that celebrates his vegetarianism or Holi and gives him a group assignment Indeed, a so-called “Brahmin” employee working in Sawant’s Seattle office can file a discrimination complaint, saying that Sawant has made the office a “brahmanical tyranny” with her continued displays of tyranny. All this seems to be both a nuisance and a liability to all South Asians of any and every caste background.
that Sawant and his ideological allies are wrong in associating the social evil of caste discrimination with the Hindu tradition which emphasizes Unity all existence is categorical, and that the system classification of castes Whether it was established as ‘depressed’ or ‘common’ under the colonial British census is unquestionable.
So why would Sawant propose a bill specifically targeting her South Asian community when categories such as ethnicity or race, which would include a common understanding of ‘caste’, are already in place?
The answer may lie in Sawant’s political ideology and widespread Hinduphobic rhetoric that following Hindu traditions is perpetuating bigotry through caste.
Take, for example, Sawant’s description of caste as a system of oppression while introducing the Caste Bill, and couple“As a socialist, as a Marxist, we are opposed to all oppression… We believe that this can only happen by really ending capitalism and introducing a socialist system.”
or that Suraj Yengde, a Harvard academic, who is a prominent Supporter He has said that Sawant’s proposal openly displays anti-Hindu hatred. He “a self-respecting human being would give up his Hindu identity” or He “Hinduism is exploitation and murder of Dalits everywhere”.
In the blink of an eye, Indian intellectuals are not doing us diaspora any favor by exporting their home born caste faults.
Seattle’s papers may not warn of a “darker threat” to “keep Hindus out” in 2023, but Hindus and Indians in Seattle are at risk nonetheless.
Suhag A. Shukla is the co-founder and executive director of the Hindu American Foundation. she tweets @SuhagASukla. Thoughts are personal.
Rama Lakshmi’s answer:
I have not used the word ‘quota’ in my speech Articles on Seattle Caste Restrictions, This is because I know that quotas are illegal in the US. Having studied and worked in the US, I am aware of employers’ diversity requirements and compliance.
views are personal
ThePrint closes the discussion here.
(Editing by Therese Sudip)