California governor blocks bill banning caste discrimination

California State Sen. Aisha Wahab, center, introduced the bill that would have banned caste in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill Saturday.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill  what would have been a precedent-setting law banning caste discrimination. 

SB 403, introduced by Sen. Aisha Wahab earlier this year, overwhelmingly passed the Assembly and State Senate earlier this year. It exposed deep divisions in California's South Asian communities.

Newsom, who was caught between Democratic progressives and civil rights advocates, and an influential conservative South Asians, said the proposed laws was "unnecessary" because existing law already prohibited discrimination.

“In California, we believe everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who they are, where they come from, who they love, or where they live,” Newsom said in a statement. “That is why California already prohibits discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other characteristics, and state law specifies that these civil rights protections shall be liberally construed.”

Newsom's veto was welcomed by Samir Kalra, managing director of the Hindu American Foundation, who stated: "With the stroke of his pen, Governor Newsom has averted a civil rights and constitutional disaster that would have put a target on hundreds of thousands of Californians simply because of their ethnicity or their religious identity, as well as create a slippery slope of facially discriminatory laws."

"We thank Governor Newsom for listening to the thousands of voices that contacted his office and seeing that SB-403 was premised on racist rhetoric, a baseless lawsuit, egregious Civil Rights Department misconduct, false claims about the Hindu religion and South Asian community at large, and the self-serving, methodologically flawed, caste survey by Equality Labs," continued the HAF statement.

Caste is an ancient, complex social system that regulates people's social status based on their birth. It's primarily associated with India and Hinduism, but caste-based divisions are also found in other faiths and countries.

Even though caste s illegal in India, the social construct is so embedded in South Asian culture, it still affects most aspects of life, including who one associates with, who one marries and employment opportunities. The immigrant workers brought to the US for their tech skills make up a significant number of employees in the high-tech industry. Members of the lower castes say the belief system also made the trip across the Pacific.

Caste issues have surfaced prominently in Silicon Valley, where Indian workers with bachelor’s degrees made up 27% of tech workers in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties in 2021, according to CalMatters. Wahab's district covers part of Silicon Valley in the State Senate.

The state filed a lawsuit against Cisco two years ago in behalf of an employee who accused managers of bias because of his lower caste status. He alleged that he received lower pay and was denied career opportunities. While the state has dropped charges against the managers, the suit against Cisco is still being litigated.

Althugh Cisco is the poster child of caste in California, is not alone in its awkward dealing with caste, which is not a protected class in California, unlike race, ethnicity and religion. Other Silicon Valley giants such as Google and Microsoft and other companies, who employ large numbers of H-1B visa holders, most of whom come from South Asia, have also come under scrutiny. 

If the bill had been signed by Newsom, California would have been the first state to ban the caste system. The cities of Seattle and Fressno, Calif. have instituted bans on caste.

Wahab's office did not immediately respond to Newsom's veto, but several of the bill's supporters did not hesitate to express their disappointment.

Amar Shergill, former chairperson of the California Democratic Party’s progressive caucus which backed the bill, was undeterred in his support. He noted that past civil rights bills also took many tries, and many years, before they passed.

“It is a testament to the righteous energy in this movement that we came so far, so fast,” Shergill wrote on X. “Caste discrimination is a scourge which we have brought to the top of public consciousness and that new fact will spare many people from suffering. I am confident that this issue will receive favorable outcomes when it is tested in Court because we have successfully educated the legal world and won them to our side.”

"The Sikh Coalition was proud to sponsor this legislation, because we know firsthand the pain and trauma that comes with being targeted by hate, and the Sikh faith explicitly condemns caste discrimination," said Harman Singh, Policy & Education Director, Sikh Coalition. "Accordingly, we joined more than 45 Sikh organizations and gurdwaras in California urging Gov. Newsom to sign this bill. While we are frustrated by this failure to take a meaningful step forward for the civil rights of all, we will continue to fight for legislation that protects all communities—including the Dalit community—from hate and discrimination."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow me at Threads.net/eduardodiok, @DioknoEd on Twitter or at the  blog Views From the Edge.

Anti-caste bill passes California Senate, 34-1

California's Senate Bill 403 brought out supporters and opponents during hearings.

The California Senate voted 34-1 May 11 in favor of legislation outlawing caste discrimination in the state. 

If Senate Bill 403 passes in the state Assembly and is enacted, California could become the first state in the nation to make caste bias illegal by adding it as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

“California reaffirms its commitment to stand against discrimination and I’m proud that this is a bipartisan effort amongst my colleagues, said State Sen. Aisha Wahab, who authored the bill. SB 403 is one of the most high-profile bills in the legislature this session, and brought out a record number of people to comment on the bill at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in April."

Senator Wahab, who has been working on this bill since November 2022, has received numerous threats, including death threats. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with unanimous bipartisan support.

Of the legislation, Wahab says “this bill is about workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights. This bill is about ensuring the American Dream is accessible to all those who pursue it.” SB403 is now headed to the Assembly, and must make its way through committees and a floor vote before it reaches Governor Newsom’s desk.

The bills is supported by ACLU, Bend the Arc, California Labor Federation, Alphabet Workers Union, MeToo International, and many others.

Opponents have maintained that the law will single out Hindus and people of Indian descent.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter or at his blog Views From the Edge.

California looking at a bill banning caste-based bias

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."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.