The anti-caste alter-network: equality labs and anti-caste activism in the US

Abstract

As a pan-South Asian phenomenon that marks certain groups and bodies as untouchable, caste-based discriminatory practices have also traveled with the South Asian diaspora. This article examines the case of anti-caste activism, especially in the context of its transnational potentials which have blossomed with the ubiquitous uptake of digital technology worldwide. We examine anti-caste activism in the US through the work of Equality Labs, an anti-caste civil rights organization that works with digital and non-digital activist strategies. Analyzing a range of material including surveys and reports, online chatter, and journalistic discourse we show how the organization’s work is part of a larger, transnational network of anti-caste activism—something we term the anti-caste alter-network.