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| California Senator Aisha Wahab, center, introduced a bill that would ban discrimination by caste. |
Some say that caste, a 3,000 years-old practice of social stratification, affects interactions among South Asians living in the US and should be against the law.
Senate Bill 403 was recently introduced in California by State Senator Aisha Wahab, seeks to end discrimination based on caste. If approved and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, California would be the first state to codify the caste ban. Seattle became the first US city to formally outlaw caste on Feb. 21.
Since 1948, the practice of caste was outlawed in India after the subcontinent gained its freedom from Great Britain but the 3000-year old custom has ingrained itself in South Asian society so deeply that it still forms an heiarchial value system that places people in different levels of society where there is no hope for movement up or down and interaction between the different castes are discouraged.
As the first Afghan American and Muslim elected to the California state senate, Wahab has received both support and criticism from the South Asian community after introducing the bill. She represents the 10th Senate District, which encompasses Silicon Valley with its large Asian American population.
Despite the law, caste is practiced in the US, say critics who mainly come from the lower castes. In general, Brahmins occupy the highest level. Caste is not something widely discussed among South Asians who would prefer to keep it out of the public eye.
South Asian immigrants to the US are affected by the caste system, said Wahab. "Because of the caste system people are treated very differently and they are restricted by their families on whom they can marry," Wahab said in an interview with the Guardian. It also affects how they are treated in employment, housing and by financial institutions.
"Why did Seattle feel the need to ban caste-based discrimination? Why is Toronto also doing the same? Why is there such a big movement to tackle this issue? Because it’s happening," she said in the Guardian.
Incidents involving tech companies brought attention to the age old practice. The California Civil Rights Department sued Cisco on behalf of an engineer who claimed two other South Asian American engineers, discriminated and harassed an employee on the basis of caste.
That case was dismissed by an order of the Santa Clara Superior County Court last week but the Civil Rights Department said in an email to the Associated Press that they will continue pursuing the complaint, which might appealing the court ruling. Cisco refused to comment on the pending litigation.
In another instance, Google canceled a speech to be given by a Dalit anti-caste activist, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, who intended to show how caste was affecting Google's South Asian workforce. The presentation was cancelled reportedly because some Hindu employees complained to management that they felt they were being targeted on the basis of religion.
Soundararajan's presentation was based on data gathered by her civil rights organization, Equality Labs, which found that two-thirds of American Dalits have faced discrimination in their US workplace. 
Surnames, skin tones and dialects are commonly used to try to determine a person’s caste, said Gaurav Pathania, a sociologist and expert in caste at Eastern Mennonite University, in an PBS interview. For individuals in the so-called lower castes, he said, “there are experiences shared of being excluded from social gatherings and being harassed with casteist slurs.” In both subtle and overt ways, the caste system impacts everyday interactions for many in the South Asian diaspora.
“Caste has now migrated, and those people with the casteist mindset have many caste perceptions which contributed to believing in the idea of superiority and inferiority.” This is reflected in various types of discrimination and expulsion of people in lower castes in the US, Pathania said.
The issue of caste has sharply divided South Asian Americans. The Hindu American Foundation wrote a letter to Wahab, who sponsored SB 403.
"We oppose SB-403 because both its legislative intent and impact will result in an unconstitutional denial of equal protection and due process to South Asians (the vast majority of whom are of Indian origin) and other vulnerable ethnic communities.," the letter stated in part.
"SB-403 unfairly maligns, targets and racially profiles select communities on the basis of their national origin, ethnicity and ancestry for disparate treatment, thereby violating the very laws it seeks to amend, the Unruh Civil Rights Act. It further violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the US and California State Constitutions.”
As amended, SB 403 will be reheard by the Judiciary Committee. If it makes it out of the committee stage, it will need to pass the state Senate and Assembly and be signed by the governor before it becomes law.
"These are all the issues that are not talked about in the mainstream media and public," says Wahab. "So we as policymakers want to be proactive and make sure that all people are protected regardless of where they come from or their background or anything like that."
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