When Prem Pariyar left Nepal for the US in 2015, he thought he may go away caste discrimination and violence behind.
Pariyar, a social employee, is Dalit, a part of a bunch previously often called “untouchables” in South Asia. Dalits are at the underside of a inflexible social hierarchy decided by start that attracts distinctions between communities, with every group occupying a selected place within the pecking order. It has carried over by hundreds of years and has dictated nearly each side of Hindu spiritual and social life.
Higher castes lived segregated lives from the decrease castes, they didn’t settle for meals or drink from the decrease castes and one may solely marry inside one’s caste. Many of those practices endure at present, particularly in rural communities.
In Nepal, a number of of Pariyar’s kinfolk had been violently attacked for his or her caste, with officers unwilling to launch an investigation into the crimes.
Pariyar didn’t anticipate discrimination to observe him internationally. Whereas bodily assaults should not frequent, consultants say that prejudices spill over into the US within the type of social aggressions.
One of many first instances Pariyar got here throughout caste discrimination in the US was when he was advised to not contact the meals at a shared desk or to eat with the others as a result of they thought he would possibly pollute the meals.
Whereas finding out at Cal State East Bay, the place he was enrolled within the social work graduate program, he skilled different snubs and types of ostracism on the a part of his friends. Not like different Dalit-identifying college students in the US, Pariyar selected to maintain his final title, which reveals his caste.
“After I skilled the same sort of discrimination on my campus, I assumed that I wanted to share that with my professors,” he mentioned.
Pariyar turned one of many instrumental figures in implementing a brand new coverage by the California State College (CSU) system, which now formally acknowledges caste discrimination and provides a approach to report situations of it.
Social employee Pariyar thought he may go away caste discrimination and violence behind
Recognition marks new milestone
Advocates have hailed the brand new coverage, saying it validates the expertise of many Dalit college students throughout the CSU and United States. Whereas unfavourable discrimination on the idea of caste is outlawed in South Asian nations like India, consultants say caste prejudices nonetheless persist all around the world.
On January 1, CSU, which has 23 campuses throughout the state, turned the primary full college system to acknowledge caste underneath its nondiscrimination coverage.
The coverage additionally marks a milestone in efforts to have caste acknowledged, because the CSU is the biggest four-year public college system in the US.
Along with the CSU system, a number of different universities have included caste in their very own insurance policies, together with College of California, Davis and Brandeis College.
School members decry ‘misguided overreach’
Regardless of widespread assist for the brand new CSU coverage and the opposite establishments’ recognition of caste discrimination, not all school members had been on board.
Greater than 500 school members publicly supported the coverage, whereas a minimum of 80 mentioned they opposed it, claiming that the coverage may perpetuate discrimination towards South Asian college students.
“We consider that this addition is a misguided overreach with none proof for its want and that, as an alternative of curbing discrimination, it would trigger extra discrimination by unconstitutionally singling out and focusing on Hindu school of Indian and South Asian descent,” a press release issued by the Hindu American Basis mentioned.
The assertion additionally referred to as for “the elimination of the discriminatory insertion of ‘caste’ as an extra class,” and mentioned it might reinforce “deeply entrenched, false stereotypes about Indians, Hindus, and caste.”
Makes an attempt to spice up consciousness
When he first started advocating for the adjustments to the CSU system, Pariyar mentioned few had been keen to acknowledge the function that caste performs within the realm of schooling and social constructions inside universities. Now, he and different advocates are working to extend consciousness of the problem by each analysis and workshops.
The survey “Caste in the US,” carried out by Equality Labs, which Pariyar works with, revealed that one in 4 Dalit college students has skilled bodily or verbal assault, whereas a 3rd reported being discriminated towards at their place of schooling.
Whereas advocates say caste protections are a step in the correct course, some really feel that the problem continues to be very deeply rooted — and that caste discrimination takes many types which may’t be straight reported.
“It is a 2,500-year-old construction of violence. It is approach older than white supremacy,” Shaista Patel, a professor of Important Muslim Research with the College of California, San Diego (UCSD), advised DW.
Patel, who’s from a Dalit Pakistani Muslim household, mentioned that she has skilled a number of situations of discrimination, together with threats of violence for her work.
Fostering a protected atmosphere
Whereas the College of California college system hasn’t adopted a uniform recognition coverage, Patel’s Division of Ethnic Research launched a proper assertion condemning caste-based discrimination.
“There are not any authorized protections for caste-oppressed communities in most nations (United States included), as a result of caste just isn’t acknowledged as a class distinct from faith, ancestry, race and many others. Lack of authorized protections permits for caste-based discrimination inside South Asian diaspora,” the assertion mentioned.
Patel says that though her final title would not point out her caste, many individuals are nonetheless conscious of it and he or she’s been ostracized by fellow school members at UCSD.
“There are some South Asian school members who is not going to eat with me on the identical desk due to who I’m,” she mentioned. In recent times, Patel says that a number of Dalit college students, most of whom don’t overtly determine as Dalit attributable to fears of discrimination, have reached out to her to recount their experiences.
“The individuals who reached out, all of them mentioned they weren’t out as Dalits,” she mentioned.
Now, Pariyar hopes that the newest CSU coverage will provide a approach to change that. “They’re hiding their identities to be protected. Is that this the answer? After coaching them [other students on campus], educating them, and after creating consciousness, then the scholars can really feel that they are in a protected atmosphere.”
Edited by: Sou-Jie van Brunnersum