Rutgers University Bars Caste-based Discrimination; Won’t Add it as Separate Category as it’s Already Covered in it’s Non-discrimination Policy 

Rutgers University will not be adding caste as a separate category, as it’s already covered by the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment. In a Jan. 13 announcement, the New Jersey-based university noted that caste discrimination is already covered under existing categories in the policy, such as discrimination based on ancestry and national origin. “Because caste is already covered by the Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment, the university will not be taking steps to amend this policy at this time,” the university said. 

The university also announced proactive measures to combat casteism on all its campuses. They include launching training programs that will address caste awareness, aiming to educate students, staff, and faculty on identifying and preventing caste-based discrimination. The Office of Employment Equity (OEE) has further committed to making the reporting process for caste-related incidents clearer and more accessible, and include caste in future campus climate surveys conducted by the Office of University Equity and Inclusion.

Hindu American organizations are applauding the decision, calling it victory for Hindu and South Asian students and faculty and advocacy groups.  In a statement, Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) applauded the university’s decision “restating existing university policy already protects against caste discrimination. She said the HAF “will also continue to monitor closely any trainings or surveys the Rutgers Administration conducts to ensure that students are not treated differently on the basis of their race, ethnicity, or religion, and  that South Asian and Hindu American students are not falsely or negatively stereotyped as a matter of policy or process.”

In a separate statement sent to American Kahani, Shukla said “this decision once again validates the first-of-their kinds arguments HAF’s legal team researched and developed when the question of caste policies first arose in 2021. The question of whether caste as a protected class under American laws is constitutional is a novel one and our arguments, emerging from our team’s 70+ years of collective legal experience, have enabled not only HAF to push back, but empowered the community, including other organizations, to do the same at the campus, county, and state levels.”

According to CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America), numerous Hindu students at Rutgers and community leaders have been sounding the alarm for the past few months, on the growing attempts to manufacture ‘caste consciousness’ at the university, as well as educating other student organizations and raising concerns via internal channels. 

Nikunj Trivedi, president of CoHNA is a Rutgers alumnus. “As someone who has been active in the alumni community, I am pleased to see a decision grounded in reason and facts versus the emotions of a small privileged set of activists,” he said. “Now, we want to ensure that the DEI team is also sensitized on the ramifications of the topic as it considers adding questions on caste in its survey. We will continue to encourage our student team and other organizations at Rutgers to engage with the DEI Office to ensure that the questions are neutral and do not encourage biased answers or community stereotyping.”

Hitesh Trivedi, associate chaplain at Rutgers University said he’s “glad that the University Labor Relations office recognized that caste is already covered under their current policy and not fall for the report by the task force, which singled out Hindu students and faculty.”

The decision comes five months after the Rutgers University task force, chaired by Audrey Truschke, Associate Professor of South Asian History at the Rutgers’ Newark campus, released a report recommending including caste as a protected category in its nondiscrimination policy. The task force demonstrated the need for the policy and outlined its likely impact on students, staff, and faculty. It also highlighted the consequences of allowing caste-based discrimination to continue unchecked.

Truschke explained the decision to American Kahani. “Rutgers has announced, for the first time in our university’s long history, that caste-based discrimination is barred on all campuses,” she said. “This is a significant step forward for caste equity at Rutgers, and I welcome it,” she added. “This is a significant step forward for caste equity at Rutgers, and I welcome it.”

Explaining the decision, Truschke noted that “the Rutgers administration chose to add caste as a subsidiary category of four existing protected categories — religion, ancestry, national origin, and race. This has been a common strategy among American universities and carries certain advantages, such as not having to formally amend Rutgers policy (a lengthy and involved process) and maintaining the status quo that Rutgers anti-discrimination policy mirrors New Jersey state law,” she explained. “In any case, whether ‘caste’ is added in policy language or binding interpretive guidance thereof is a difference without a distinction in this case,” she said. “Caste-oppressed individuals now have protections at Rutgers, whereas they did not before.”

The Rutgers announcement “was accompanied by a lengthy discourse on the intersectional nature of caste and caste discrimination that draws from the Caste Task Force Report,” Truschke said. She called it “a promising sign that our mission to educate the wider Rutgers community about caste and caste oppression is already working, and I look forward to further building on this foundation,” she added. “Rutgers barring caste discrimination on campus is a great first step in the long battle for caste equity.”

The Indian American Muslim Council also lauded the decision. “IAMC lauds Rutgers University’s willingness to act on concerns presented by students and faculty who have reported facing caste-based discrimination,” said IAMC executive director Rasheed Ahmed. “Going forward, we encourage the university to continue to heed the advice of experts and further seek to amend university policy to make caste a protected category in its own right.”

After the Rutgers University task force came out in August, the HAF sent a letter to the Rutgers’ Office of General Counsel in August, advising that “creating a separate category of caste would break with the longstanding principle of facial neutrality that underpins equal protection and non-discrimination, and would thus unlawfully single out Hindu American and South Asian  American students and faculty for disparate treatment and additional legal scrutiny.”

Similarly, CoHNA and its CoHNA Youth Action Network (CYAN) team at Rutgers had argued that caste is already covered under existing categories in the policy, such as ancestry and national origin. In addition to being unnecessary, the inclusion of loaded words like caste would actually lead to profiling and discrimination against students and faculty of Hindu and Indian origin, since caste is not a neutral word and instead is primarily associated with these communities. 

One of the students, who wished to remain anonymous, told CoHNA that it was “very intimidating” to speak up in such an environment, and so he is “very pleased that the Rutgers administration listened to the concerns of students.”

The Rutgers’ decision follows in the footsteps of California Governor Newsom, who in 2023 vetoed legislation that would have established ‘caste’ as a protected category on similar grounds.  

But is a stark contrast to some universities in the U.S. who have added caste to their nondiscrimination policy. In 2019 December, Brandeis University became one of the first higher education institutions in America to add caste to its nondiscrimination policy. “Discrimination based on caste will now be expressly prohibited at our university, just as discrimination based on race, color, ancestry, religious creed, gender identity and expression, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status, or any other category protected by law is prohibited,” read a statement from the university. 

Two years later, in 2021,Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers last year as part of its contract with the Harvard Graduate Student Union. In December 2022, Brown University became the first Ivy League school to add caste to its campus-wide nondiscrimination policy. That year, in January, California State University (CSU) became the first university system in the U.S. to add caste to its anti-discrimination policy.