Casteism, camouflaged within aspects of South Asian cultures that have traveled across the globe, pervades social, educational, and workplace communities in the U.S.Ĭaste was largely codified by the Manusmriti, a portion of the Sanskrit Dharmashastras, which are treatises on conduct, morality, and ritual from the Vedic schools of Hindu tradition. “Caste doesn’t really feature in the vocabularies of American society, but caste is just not an Indian thing it’s a global thing,” said Suraj Yengde, Harvard associate with the Department of African and African American Studies and author of Caste Matters, in an interview with the HPR. Such a hierarchy results in dominant caste members having greater access to educational and professional opportunities while members of an oppressed caste are excluded from certain cultural spaces or religious traditions. While these groups might not feel harmful, especially to dominant caste members, denying accountability for the ways cultural communities continue to perpetuate casteism maintains the hierarchy of caste-based privilege across the world. In reality, diasporic cultural communities are often formed via caste organizations or otherwise segregated by caste. This lawsuit gives us occasion to unpack the multimodal histories within the South Asian diaspora, revealing South Asia to be more than a land of spirituality or the birthplace of wealthy technocrats. The argument against Cisco makes a claim for caste discrimination under the Equal Protection Laws’ terms for racial or religious discrimination, opening the door to interesting comparative analogies.

A recent lawsuit against Cisco from the State of California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing made headlines for its seemingly rare case of an employee who was part of the Dalit, or “untouchable,” caste being discriminated against by his Brahmin, or dominant caste, workplace superior.

Caste matters