Indian American Anti-Caste Coalition Appeals to California Governor Newsom to Sign SB403

America Against Caste Discrimination (AACD) is a coalition of 20+ organizations, representing the full diversity of the Indian American community across religious and caste lines, coming together to support SB403 and the historic campaign to prohibit caste discrimination in the state of California. Below is a letter that our coalition sent to CA Governor Gavin Newsom urging him to approve SB403:

Dear Governor Newsom:

We are America Against Caste Discrimination, a group of more than 20 organizations transcending lines of faith, caste, and race to stand firmly in support of SB403 and the fight to end caste discrimination. We represent the full diversity of the Indian-American community, across faith and caste lines – a set of organizations far more broad and representative than the far-right groups opposing this bill.

We write to urgently inform you of something you may not be aware of that pertains to SB403: that much of the mobilization urging you to veto the bill is anchored by groups with disturbing ties to far-right extremism. Like many other far-right groups, these organizations – most notably the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHP-A), the Coalition of Hindu Organizations of North America (CoHNA), and the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) – often work by exaggerating their size – including with the use of sophisticated disinformation networks, sometimes supported by groups within India. 

Make no mistake, however: these groups do not represent Hindu Americans, let alone all South Asian Americans. Despite the fact that most Indian-Americans are committed Democratic voters, these fringe groups, while opportunistically putting pressure on Democratic politicians, are encouraging a rightward shift in the Indian American community. For example, these organizations together organized the event “Howdy Modi,” an event that cemented an alliance between the Indian far-right and the US far-right by celebrating both Trump and Modi. At the event, Modi even tacitly endorsed Donald Trump by shouting the slogan “Ab ki bar Trump Sarkar,” meaning “This time around, let a Trump government come to power.”

These organizations have supported and amplified far-right candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy, repeatedly targeted the Democratic Party, and have taken regressive positions on issues like public education and affirmative action. Their opposition to SB403 – which ultimately convinced a handful of Republicans, but not a single Democrat – is no different. One of these organizations, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), even tweeted a veiled warning to Democrats after the bill was passed, writing “WeWillRemember.”

We are not the only ones to speak of the far-right nature of these organizations. Fact sheets released by the University of Georgetown’s BRIDGE Initiative on three key organizations in this anti-SB403 network have made clear their extremist and Islamophobic positions in the U.S. and India, and their ties to each other, as well as to the larger far-right ecosystem. 

These organizations have supported and amplified far-right candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy, repeatedly targeted the Democratic Party, and have taken regressive positions on issues like public education and affirmative action.

This information is corroborated by a significant body of independent reporting and academic research. The VHP-A, for example, is the American wing of the Indian Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu extremist group that the CIA World Factbook classified as a “militant religious organization” for many years. The VHP in India has been implicated in countless instances of deadly violence, including the 2002 anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat, and the VHP-A has repeatedly invited extremist speakers to the United States. As the Georgetown Bridge Initiative’s factsheets show, both CoHNA and HAF maintain close ties not only to the VHP-A but to other Hindu extremist groups both in India and abroad.   

These groups have a powerful disinformation machine that is able to spread lies at great speed about key issues, often supported by the “IT Cell” of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Luckily, their lies are frequently exposed. Most recently, for example, a federal court dismissed the Hindu American Foundation’s spurious lawsuit against the California Civil Rights Department, ruling that the HAF’s claims to represent Hindus were weak and that its claims of reverse discrimination were “highly speculative and seemingly implausible.”

The court ruling reminds us of the chilling similarities between Hindu Supremacist language against SB403 and other far-right claims of “reverse discrimination” that draw on fear and division. Such claims are akin to allegations that protections against racism would somehow target white Americans, that Title IX protections for women would somehow discriminate against men, and that protections for LGBTQ+ individuals would target those not from the Queer community. These arguments have historically been used to deny justice to oppressed groups, and only seek to further the continuance of discriminatory practices by forestalling accountability for them. They put forward a divisive understanding of inter-ethnic relations that is zero-sum rather than pluralistic, and that fails to understand that all of us are stronger and safer when our neighbors are too. 

These right-wing arguments have also been refuted by a large number of Hindu- and Indian-Americans who are in support of SB403. Endorsing them in any way would legitimize spurious arguments against progressives across the United States. We strongly encourage you to stand with us on the side of progress and hope you will take a principled stance in support of caste-oppressed communities.

We look forward to seeing SB403 signed into law soon.

Sincerely,

The Member Organizations of America Against Caste Discrimination:

Ambedkar International Center (AIC)

Ambedkar International Mission (AIM)

Ambedkarite Buddhist Association of Texas (ABAT)

Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC)

Bhim International Foundation, USA

Boston South Asian Coalition

Boston Study Group

Coalition of Seattle Indian Americans

Dalit Solidarity Forum

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Educational Aid Society

Federation of Indian American Christians of North America (FIACONA)

Great Truth

Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR)

India Civil Watch International (ICWI)

Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC)

Office of Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant

Periyar Ambedkar Study Circle

Periyar International

Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha, Bay Area

Socialist Alternative

South Asian American Coalition to Renew Democracy

South Asian Left Activist Movement

Workers Strike Back

(Top photo: Hindus for Human Rights)

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Karthikeyan Shannugam is the convener of Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC), California, a social organization whose aim is to challenge caste, class, race, gender and religious oppression and oppressors on ideological, political and social fronts.

Pranay Somayajula  is the Director of Research and Advocacy Campaigns for Hindus for Human Rights. He is a writer, researcher, and cultural critic whose work has appeared in The Drift, The Nation, Jacobin, and Electric Literature, among other outlets. He also runs the Substack blog culture shock, where he writes about everything from the climate crisis to South Asian diasporic identity.