Leah Carter in Los Angeles
California's governor vetoed a historic bill to add caste as a protected category, but efforts to recognize discrimination in the United Statescontinue to pick up steam.
When Prem Pariyar arrived in the US from Nepal in 2015, he didn't expect that he would be sleeping in a van or on couches in employee housing due to his caste affiliation.
"I thought caste discrimination does not exist here. I was very depressed," Pariyar told DW.
Pariyar, a descendant of a family in the Hindu Dalit caste, sometimes referred to discriminatorily as the "Untouchables", is one of many South Asian advocates pushing forward efforts to legally recognize caste discrimination in the US.
While caste is commonly referred to in the context of Hinduism and India, it is a social hierarchy system that is thousands of years old and recognized in several countries across the region, including Nepal, where Pariyar grew up.
"We need to educate everyone so that this system will be stopped," he told DW. "We are isolated generation to generation. There is intergenerational trauma."
Caste discrimination crossing borders
Pariyar decided to come to the US after his family was violently attacked because of their caste in the middle of the night in their home in the capital, Kathmandu.
When he tried to file charges against the assailant, the authorities did nothing, and even threatened him for taking action.
He proceeded to find a job at a restaurant in the US, where his employer offered to house him. However, his colleagues in the house wouldn't share a room with him, making casteist claims and slurs. So, he slept on the couch, instead.
Pariyar, who is now on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter, said his story is not unique. While he had hoped to leave this form of discrimination behind in Nepal, he said he and several others have faced significant hurdles in employment and even safety upon coming to the US.
There are over 5.4 million South Asians in the US, with the majority concentrated in California. They are one of the largest growing demographic groups in the country, with many people coming to work in the tech industry in California's Silicon Valley.
Many US-based Dalits say the system of discrimination has followed them, resulting in harassment, sabotage in the workplace and even violence.
In recent years, activists have united under new groups such as the Californians for Caste Equity Coalition and Equality Labs, which were both instrumental in the push for legal recognitions.
Legal setback
Last month, following over a year of advocacy and a month-long hunger strike, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed Senate Bill 403, which would have made the state the first to include caste in the list of protected classes under civil rights laws.
The bill would have offered employment and housing protections alongside categories such as race, gender and sexual orientation.
However, despite an overwhelming majority (31-5 in the Senate), Newsom called the bill "unnecessary," saying that protections against caste-based discrimination are covered legally under already existing protections that "shall be liberally construed."
The veto created an uproar on both sides of the South Asian community, spurring rallies at the capitol, lobbying lines through hallways, and a hunger strike in favor of the bill.
Those opposing the bill, such as the Hindu American Foundation, called it both racist and a potential "constitutional disaster," which would have "put a target on hundreds of thousands of Californians simply because of their ethnicity or racial identity."
Critics of Newsom's veto decision have said that he made the move in order to maintain relations with a growing Hindu voting base, which largely upholds the caste system.
"Through this process, we shined a light on a long-hidden form of discrimination that persists across multiple communities in California," said Senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American woman elected to the state legislature, and the author of the bill.
Efforts pick up steam
Despite the veto, Fresno, a city in California's Central Valley, unanimously agreed to ban caste-based discrimination specifically, about a week prior.
In February, Seattle became the first US city to outlaw caste-based discrimination. Educational institutions, including California State University, Harvard, Brandeis and University of California – Davis, all in recent years have made separate legal provisions on the matter.
Meanwhile, the corporate world has also added to the movement, with tech giants including Apple and IBM updating employee policies to include caste discrimination in recent years.
Those protections follow a 2020 lawsuit initiated by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Cisco, a $195 billion (€178 billion) company, on the grounds that a Dalit employee had been severely discriminated against by supervisors of a "higher" caste.
Had caste discrimination been recognized then, advocates say, the employee could have won the case.
For now, Pariyar says recent legal efforts have united the Dalit community and others fighting for protections.
"Many more cities are rethinking caste," he said. "Before, I was alone. Now, our people are united, and our voice is one to combat this."
Indian-origin doctor commits $4 million for Hindu advocacy in US
Indian-origin doctor Mihir Meghani has pledged to donate $1.5 million more to the Hindu cause over the next eight years, taking the total number to $4 million.
Hinduism is not just a religion, it's a way of life, a prominent Indian-American physician, who has committed $4 million to advocate Hindu advocacy and awareness causes in the United States, has said.
Emergency care physician Mihir Meghani, who founded the Hindu America Foundation along with his friends two decades ago, at the annual Silicon Valley gala early this month of the organisation pledged to donate $1.5 million more to the Hindu cause over the next eight years.
This contribution will raise his total donations for the cause to $4 million in two decades.
The announcement by Dr Meghani possibly gives him the distinction of being the biggest Indian American donor for the Hindu cause in the United States.
“My wife, Tanvi and I, have contributed $1.5 million to the Hindu American Foundation thus far. We've also contributed a million dollars more over the last 15 years to other Hindu and Indian organisations and causes. Over the next eight years, we're making a pledge of $1.5 million to pro-India and Hindu organisations,” Dr Meghani told PTI in a recent interview.
“I say this to all of you who are viewing this to realise that I don't have a startup company. I don't have any side businesses. I'm an emergency doctor on a salary. My wife is a fitness instructor and a jewellery designer. We're not making millions of dollars a year. We don't have stock options. We're doing this because it's our Dharma, it's our duty,” he said.
Just out of university, Dr Meghani and three of his friends Aseem Shukla, an associate professor in urologic surgery; Suhag Shukla, an attorney and Nikhil Joshi, a labour law attorney co-founded the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) in September 2003, the first of its kind Hindu advocacy group in the US.
Responding to a question, Dr Meghani said Hinduism is not as easily understood by most Americans because most Americans are Christian. “They come from an Abrahamic background. When they look at different religions, they can't understand that Hinduism is not just a religion, it's a way of life. It's a way of thinking about life," he said.
Hindus who are coming from India don't quite understand that they have a Hindu identity and an Indian national identity, he said, adding: "We need to talk about that".
"What we need are Hindus to be strong in the Bharatiya or Indian identity, which is the political identity for our civilisation, but also they should be very proud and open about their Hindu identity. And when they have that, their coworkers, their friends, and neighbours will understand us better,” he said.
One of the early successes of HAF in Washington DC, he said, was to get Diwali recognised in the US.
"Now you can see that Diwali is celebrated at the White House, with the Vice President, in the US Congress and all across different state and local governments across the country. But it took time to get there,” he said about the three-year effort by them.
The Hindu American Foundation, which in its initial years was all based on volunteerism, now has an annual budget of $2.5 million and has several full-time staffers. Its goal is to increase its budget to $5 million next year and $20 million by the end of the decade, he said.
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