The Seattle City Council on Tuesday brought caste to the town`s anti-discrimination legal guidelines, turning into the primary U.S. town to prohibit caste discrimination and the primary withinside the global to byskip this sort of regulation out of doors South Asia.
Calls to outlaw discrimination primarily based totally on caste, a department of human beings primarily based totally on beginning or descent, have grown louder amongst South Asian diaspora groups withinside the United States. But the motion has been getting pushback from a few Hindu Americans who argue that such rules maligns a selected network.Tensions withinside the network had been seen at Seattle City Hall on Tuesday as a loud listening to culminated with a 6-1 vote with a majority of the council agreeing that caste discrimination crosses country wide and non secular obstacles and that with out such legal guidelines, the ones going through caste discrimination withinside the U.S. will don’t have any protections.
The packed room, which overflowed with activists from each aspects bearing banners, chanting slogans, difficult audio system and town officers as they made their feedback, laid naked stark divisions over this difficulty withinside the South Asian diaspora. A majority of these found in council chambers had been supporters of the ordinance and people hostile had been a vocal minority.
As council participants voted in want of the ordinance, the chamber erupted into cheers of “Jai Bhim,” which means “victory for Bhim” a rallying cry followed with the aid of using fans of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian Dalit rights icon whose given call changed into Bhimrao. Dalit agencies and their supporters say caste discrimination is time-honored in U.S. diaspora groups, manifesting itself withinside the shape of social alienation and discrimination in housing, schooling and the tech quarter wherein South Asians keep key roles.
Yogesh Mane, a Seattle resident who grew up as an untouchable in India, broke into tears as he heard the council`s decision. “I’m emotional due to the fact that is the primary time such an ordinance has been exceeded everywhere withinside the global out of doors of South Asia,” he stated. “It’s a anciental moment.”
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, govt director of Oakland, California-primarily based totally Equality Labs, whose advocacy paintings at the side of network companions maintains to push caste discrimination legal guidelines forward, known as the council vote “a way of life strugglefare that has been won.”
“We were given the guide of over 2 hundred groups from Seattle and across the country,” she stated. “It’s a effective message that Dalit human beings aren’t alone. The South Asian network has united to mention we need to heal from the trauma of caste.”
Council Member Kshama Sawant, a socialist and the best Indian American at the City Council, stated the ordinance, which she proposed, does now no longer unmarried out one network, however it bills for the way caste discrimination crosses country wide and non secular obstacles. Sawant stated the council obtained over 4,000 emails in guide of the ordinance.
“We’ve heard masses of gut-wrenching testimonies over the previous few weeks displaying us that caste discrimination may be very actual in Seattle,” she stated. Council Member Sara Nelson who solid the lone dissenting vote agreed with warring parties calling the ordinance “a reckless, dangerous method to a hassle for which we don’t have any records or research.” “This should generate greater anti-Hindu discrimination and will dissuade employers from hiring South Asians,” she stated. “The network this is being impacted is deeply divided in this difficulty.”
Nelson additionally stated the ordinance could additionally get the town entangled in prison battles to which Sawant responded: “Bring it on.” Sawant stated being afraid of complaints isn’t always the manner to impact development or change.
Council Member Lisa Herbold wondered warring parties’ good judgment that the regulation singles out Hindus and those of Indian descent.
“That’s like announcing gender discrimination legal guidelines unmarried out all men,” she stated. “And simply due to the fact we’ve a small populace this is experiencing (caste discrimination) that does not make it any much less important.”
Shobha Swamy, a consultant of the Coalition of Hindus of North America stated she changed into dissatisfied with the aid of using the council deliberations and line of questioning. The organization stated they obtained a display of guide from over a hundred groups.
“Due diligence wasn’t done,” stated Swami, who flew in from Atlanta. C.H. Srikrishna, a San Francisco Bay Area-primarily based totally tech worker, stated he’s involved approximately the ramifications this ordinance would possibly have for the South Asian network. “I too need discrimination to end,” he stated. “But we want to first decide that vast discrimination exists.” Srikrishna, who’s Hindu, believes the ordinance does goal his religion.
“When you are saying it originated 2,000 years ago, this is implicitly blaming Hinduism,” he stated. “That bothers me. I experience betrayed.” Sanjay Patel, a tech organisation proprietor from the Seattle area, stated he by no means felt discriminated in opposition to withinside the U.S. as a member of a decrease caste and that the ordinance pained him as it reminded him of a caste identity, which he concept had come to be obsolete. “I worry with this regulation, groups might be afraid to rent South Asians,” he stated.
Earlier Tuesday morning, numerous activists braved bloodless temperatures and wind gusts to line up out of doors City Hall in order that they could get a threat to talk to the council earlier than the vote. But the council constrained public remark on the assembly wherein greater than three hundred human beings had asked to talk certainly and in person. They heard approximately 1/2 of of the feedback earlier than shifting directly to deliberations and the vote.
The origins of the caste machine in India may be traced again 3,000 years as a social hierarchy primarily based totally on one`s profession and beginning. It is a machine that has developed over the centuries below Muslim and British rule. The struggling of folks who are at the lowest of the caste pyramid — called Dalits — has continued. Caste discrimination has been prohibited in India on account that 1948, a yr after the nation`s independence from British rule.
The U.S. is the second one maximum famous vacation spot for Indians residing abroad, in keeping with the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the U.S. diaspora grew from approximately 206,000 in 1980 to approximately 2.7 million in 2021. The institution South Asian Americans Leading Together reviews that almost five.four million South Asians stay withinside the U.S. — up from the 3.five million counted withinside the 2010 census. Most hint their roots to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Over the beyond 3 years, numerous faculties and college structures have moved to limit caste discrimination.
In December 2019, Brandeis University close to Boston have become the primary U.S. university to encompass caste in its nondiscrimination policy. The California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all followed comparable measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for scholar employees in 2021 as a part of its settlement with its graduate scholar union.