Caste Discrimination Among Indian Diaspora in the USA

Abstract

The large and prosperous Indian diaspora in the USA has earned the epitaph of ‘model minority’, but it obscures the spectre of caste discrimination within. The caste has travelled with the Indians across the globe and keeps rearing its ugly head of discrimination within the community. The article explores the emergence of the Indian diaspora and presence of caste discrimination in the USA. The recent case of caste discrimination against Cisco (MNC) and its Indian employees in California has opened the Pandora box. Since caste is not recognized under any American law, the case has been filed under Civil Rights Act, 1965, which forbids discrimination on the basis of religion, ancestry, national origin/ethnicity and race/colour. Hence, Cisco case is the first opportunity in the United States for caste to be incorporated as a protected legal category at par with race, religion ethnicity and so on. Moreover, it situates the case within larger global Dalit rights movements, their efforts to incorporate caste within the ambit of racism at various international forums and its inclusion as a protected characteristics within the Equality Act, 2010, of the United Kingdom. These efforts are to challenge the caste hegemony at both local and global levels and strive for its eradication.