The (S)QUAD of “Caste” in North America
In the year 2023, and even before that, the Hindu community in the United States and Canada has witnessed a barrage of attacks in various forms. From being accused of being agents of foreign national political parties to physical attacks on Hindu temples and from disinformation campaigns on Hindu festivals to targeting specific Hindu symbols as evil and oppressive — the Hindu community has seen it all.
However, one thing that has baffled some of the Hindus, mainly because of the mainstreamed nature of the trope, is the series of caste legislation/motions/resolutions that have been passed (or attempted to pass) across North America. From California Senate to Toronto District School Board and from various universities to private corporations, entities are updating their anti-discrimination policies to include “caste” as a protected category to give an impression that they are “outlawing” this form of discrimination.
So, one natural question that occurs to many is, “Who are these people who bring up such caste-related laws, motions or resolutions, and why are they doing it?”
If you observe carefully, four types of entities are involved in such cases. First is your political class, number two is your academia, number three is non-governmental organizations (or in this case, actually, it’s not even a not-for-profit), and the fourth is the media, which, unfortunately, plays a very biased and a negative role in such issues.
Political Class:
Now, one may wonder why they do that now. I would divide the political class into two parts — one who tables such laws and others who support or vote in favour of such laws.
Now, if you look at any average politician, what are their major motives for doing anything? And I’m talking about an average politician. There might be some exceptions, but that is fine. However, on average, two major motivations for any politician will be “votes” and “funding.” So, how many votes are you able to get the politician when s/he does something? Or how much funding are you able to give (or make accessible) to a politician for a given action? In some cases, toeing a certain line would open certain doors of funding for their own political campaign or funding for their political party which they can boast about and help improve their stature in the party. If you want to identify such politicians, look at their political growth trajectory. See where they are being platformed. See their donor information, if publicly available. See what kind of people they associate with or engage with.
In some cases, a politician might be tabling such motions just because they belong to a particular ideology and they think they are doing social justice or playing an important role in furthering that ideology. In such cases, very little can be done to change the mind of such politicians. Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant would be one such example. Even the ideologically charged Senator of California, Aisha Wahab, did not meet certain groups that did not share her views on SB403. All you can do is name and shame them and ensure that such toxic politicians don’t get elected next time.
And then there is a class of politicians, the largest population, I bet, who are completely clueless about the “caste” trope. But they still vote in favour because they fear they will be seen as “supporting discrimination” if they abstain or vote against such laws. The Toronto District School Board’s “caste” motion saw many such board members who did not know anything about “caste” but still voted in favour under the fantastic (totally unscientific) excuse of — “Just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there”. Such politicians need to be educated. They mostly have their heart in the right place, but they have a fear, especially if they’re white, that they will be seen as “white supremacists” if they vote against such laws. They might still go ahead and vote in favour, but not engaging with them is never an option.
Academia:
Academics generally provide intellectual cover to the assertions that form the basis of these caste laws/motions/resolutions, like in the Toronto District School Board case. A professor from Carlton University in Ottawa tried to intellectualize the assertions in the motion, which were completely devoid of data or evidence. In fact, when Zakir Patel, one of the school board trustees, asked SADAN, headed by Professor Jangam of Carlton University, to provide at least one example of caste-based discrimination, SADAN could not answer that. However, the presence of such academics gives an impression of legitimacy to any assertions made on “caste,” even if no data or evidence backs them.
Now, you may wonder why would they do that. For example, some of you may remember that Rutgers University professor Audrey Truschke used profanities for Prabhu Shree Ram a few years ago. But after that statement, an organization, ironically called Sadhana, hosted the professor because they were not really happy that the professor had only said this once. So they wanted her to double down on her statement — ek baar mein maja nahi aaya, dobaara karte hai (only once isn’t fun, let’s do it again!) — called her on their platform to elaborate on that. Now, during that conversation, at one point, she said something that perfectly summed up the academic echo chambers that are created in Western universities. She said that while she does not insist on her students following her thought process — she basically wanted to say that she gives her students the freedom to have their own thinking and so on — but if they want to pass the exam or get good grades, they must write what has been taught to them.
So, think about it! In order to get a certificate or a degree where she is the professor, the student must follow what she teaches. Now extend that thought. So today, it is about a grade in a subject. Tomorrow, it will be about the degree that the student is pursuing. The day after tomorrow will be about getting a job as a professor or a lecturer at that university. And the day after, it will be about getting a tenure position. So, in every step of your professional life in academia, you have to toe a certain line; if you do not, you will suffer professionally. We know many academics — in India, the US, Canada, Europe — who have suffered professionally because they refuse to sing a particular tune that the people in power in that academic circle want them to. So, in some cases, these academics may be involved in such disinformation about “caste”, out of compulsion, but in other cases, they may have been indoctrinated since that’s the atmosphere we see in our universities. So they really believe in what they’re saying even though there is no evidence.
SJ Organizations:
Now, if you have followed these “caste” laws across North America, there will be a few names you would repeatedly come across, like Equality Labs and SADAN (in the case of Canada). You may wonder why these organizations, like Equality Labs, are doing what they’re doing.
We need to understand that the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) budgets are ever-increasing in Western countries. Now, when it comes to traditional discriminations like Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and anti-black racism, there has been much written about, read about and researched about these sorts of discriminations, and they have reached a certain level of maturity in terms of the discourse. So, in order to justify the continued increase in budgets and an opportunity to grab those increased budgets, the DEI community or the groups need to come up with something new. And I’m telling this, especially the “something new” with full responsibility because the CBC documentary on “caste” literally used these words — “Canada’s newest form of discrimination.” So, for them, caste is like a new toy in the market, which they get to play with. These organizations position themselves as “experts” (self-certified) in providing workshops to train (rather, brainwash) the staff, teachers, lawmakers, students, etc., on “caste.” And, by the way, these workshops will require funding, which is where these increased budgets will find their pockets. So, these budgets become their source of income, which is what they’re targeting. So this is their bread and butter, and the same goes for SADAN in Canada. One only needs to do a web search to see if Equality Labs is a “not-for-profit” organization or not. Just search if Equality Labs is a 501c(3) organization.
Media:
Now, the final piece of the quad is the media. Now, unfortunately, the media has played a negative role when it comes to reporting on caste-related issues. Mostly, the articles have either ignored the Hindu perspective on the caste or severely underplayed it. Many Hindu advocacy organizations such as CoHNA have experienced it firsthand when a media outlet in the US interviewed a Dalit-Bhujan person on the “caste” topic, but the interview was completely ignored in the article that came out because the narrative was not in alignment with what they wanted to have. So, the Hindu community has seen that when the media does not get what they want, even from the very people they claim to be fighting for, they simply ignore them.
This has more to do with ideological conformity than with personal hatred. If you notice, the premise of any article on such “caste” related laws is that the proposed legislation is intended to “outlaw discrimination.” What the articles don’t mention, by extension of that statement — because that will not just be factually incorrect but also sound stupid — is that caste-based discrimination is legally protected or the existing laws are insufficient to protect caste-based discrimination. Secondly, it also projects, without any need to mention explicitly, that individuals and organizations opposing such laws are in favour of caste-based discrimination. Guilty until proven innocent? And the Hindu community fits perfectly in this Marxist binary of oppressor vs oppressed. Economically well-to-do, enough proportion of fair-skin people to conflate with whites, self-censoring, and pagans (so, won’t get support from the right-wing ecosystem either).
And let’s not forget the media’s role in various genocides like the Holocaust. I would recommend “The Gray Lady Winked” by Ashley Rindsberg to get a glimpse.
One of the biggest miracles of this “caste” trope is that this is one area that has united the American/Canadian left as well as right, like nothing else. For the right wing, it is a lighter to ignite anti-immigration and anti-heathen sentiments among the general public, projecting Hindus as inherently backward, savage, filthy pagans. For the left wing, it gives them another target group, which can be projected as inherently and irredeemably “oppressive” — the source of all the oppression in the world (and if you think I am exaggerating, you’re probably unaware of Isabelle Wilkerson’s book).
