California State Senator Aisha Wahab Introduces Bill to Add Caste as Protected Category in State’s Anti-Discrimination Laws
- If the bill is passed, the largest state in the union will become the first to ban discrimination based on caste.
California State Senator Aisha Wahab has introduced a new bill to add caste as a protected category in the state’s anti-discrimination laws alongside gender, race and disability. If passed, California will become the first state in the U.S. to ban discrimination based on caste. The Democrat, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state Legislature, represents Senate District 10, including Hayward, Union City, Newark, Fremont, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, San Jose and Santa Clara.
In a press statement sent to American Kahani, Wahab said her bill “would clarify California civil rights law to explicitly include protection against discrimination based on a person’s position in a caste, which SB 403 defines as a system of social stratification where each position is characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, social barriers, and other forms of segregation.”
Noting that “caste discrimination against the caste-oppressed Dalits occurs across industries and may include bullying, harassment, bias, wage theft, sexual harassment, and even trafficking,” she said, “caste-oppressed people have also been rejected from rental housing when their caste identity is discovered.” Additionally, she noted how “the practice of endogamy—the custom of only marrying within one’s defined social position—perpetuates caste across generations.”
The California bill comes a few weeks after Seattle became the first city in the U.S. to specifically ban caste discrimination. On Feb. 24, the city council voted 6-1 to approve the legislation, proposed by Council Member Kshama Sawant, a socialist and the only Indian American in the council, to ban caste-based discrimination in the city, prohibit businesses from discriminating based on caste, and ban discrimination based on caste in places of public accommodation.
Wahab is spearheading the bill “because caste bias affects her constituents,” she told The Washington Post and highlighted the high-profile instances that originated in her district, which includes parts of Silicon Valley and the East Bay. “Charges and lawsuits related to caste discrimination have increased across California,” she said in the press statement. She mentions Lakireddy Bali Reddy, an upper-caste South Asian American— then one of Berkeley’s richest landlords — who, along with his family was charged in 200 for trafficking multiple Dalit minor girls and young women from India and subjecting them to sexual servitude and labor exploitation in the United States.
“Caste discrimination against the caste-oppressed Dalits occurs across industries and may include bullying, harassment, bias, wage theft, sexual harassment, and even trafficking.”
Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, who grew up in California, “faced casteist bullying in K-12 schools and university,” she said in an Equality Labs press release. “We know that we might face threats and bigotry, but we will meet our opponents with love and empathy for this is how we turn our pain into power and we are unstoppable in our commitment to be free of caste discrimination.” She said her organization is “thrilled to be working with Senator Wahab’s office on this historic bill and we look forward to making California the first state in the nation to make caste equity protections explicit.”
Meanwhile, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and the Coalition of Hindus of North America have opposed the bill. The HAF says the bill “maligns all people of South Asian descent.” The group sent a letter to Wahab, stating that although it shares “the admirable goals of standing up for civil rights and eliminating all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including based on caste,” it opposes the bill “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.”
HAF said the bill “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.” Additionally, the bill “violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the US and California State Constitutions,” HAF said.
In the past few years, the Golden State has seen high-profile cases of caste discrimination across many industries, including technology, education, construction, restaurants, domestic work, as well as medical and legal fields. The Cisco lawsuit, and the resignation of Tanuja Gupta, a project manager at Google News, which happened in Wahab’s district, “have shined a light on the pervasiveness of caste discrimination in California,” according to Equality Labs, a Dalit civil rights organization.
Last April, to mark Dalit History Month, Gupta invited activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan. The Google News diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) talk was eventually canceled because of “disinformation” about Soundararajan and the organization she lead, resulting in Gupta’s resignation.
In June 2020, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a federal lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, against Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco) and two managers for discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. The lawsuit alleged that managers at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters campus, which employs a predominantly South Asian workforce, harassed, discriminated against, and retaliated against an engineer because he is Dalit Indian.
Last January, California State University (CSU) became the first university system in the U.S. to add caste to its anti-discrimination policy. The genesis of the CSU’s decision began in March 2021, when a student body at California Polytechnic demanded that it and the CSU include the Indian caste system in their anti-discriminatory policy. The demand was made in a resolution adopted on March 3 by Associated Students, Inc, the student body of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
A month later, later, Alphabet Workers Union demanded that caste be included in the company’s anti-discrimination policy and be integrated into their equity practices. The employees union of the parent company of Google and several subsidiaries put their demands forward in a statement supporting the lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Cisco for caste-based discrimination.
“Dalit American activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, who grew up in California, “faced casteist bullying in K-12 schools and university,” she said in an Equality Labs press release.”
This isn’t just false – it’s brazenly stupid. How are we to understand that teachers and students at the Kindergarten level understand what “caste” is and what a “Dalit” is and perpetuated caste-based discrimination against Dalits…. in AMERICA??
It’s beyond ridiculous that these so-called Dalit-Activists peddle lies like this that are completely out of sync with reality. Outside of India no one knew what a Dalit was until opportunistic, power-hungry politicos like Thenmozhi Soundararajan started shouting about it in the public space and insisted that they were being discriminated against – in non-Hindu America where Hindus makes up < 1 % of the total population! Let's not forget that this Thenmozhi Soundararajan was the same one who was scheduled to give a talk at Google that was canceled – because it was full of hateful stereotypes propagated against Brahmins and Google didn't want that in their inclusive and welcoming workspace. Now she can't stand the fact that her particular brand of caste hatred isn't being welcomed with open arms, so she is resorting to brazen dishonesty because, let's face it – that's what politicians are about.
Let's not forget that Equality Labs has historically supported the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from Kashmir. They aren't about "equality" – only about using the political process to get what they want by force.