The founding-stone of no religion is discriminatory — exception is the caste system of Hindu religion. According to thousands of years old Manusmriti, the four varnas were created from the body of Brahmā — Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Although specific tasks were assigned to every varna, the social system was not simultaneous, rather it was vertical. Then over the course of time, these varnas divided into various castes. Regardless of the rulers — the Mughal or the British, the power of exploitation was bestowed in the hands of the Brahmins — exploitation of the lower castes.
Those people who were put under the level of Shudras, were called ‘untouchables’, later renamed as ‘dalits‘, but their condition has more or less remained the same. Though we have spent 75 years after the independence, still now, at higher-tier IITs and the IISc, 98% of the professors and more than 90% of assistant or associate professors are from privileged castes, according to a recent report published by Nature journal. In 2019, out of 89 secretaries posted at the Centre, there were just three STs, one Dalit and no OBC.
Before 1947, the colonial government was not interested to pay much attention to the personal matters of the Hindus, exceptions were the abolition of sati , widow remarriage etc. Other countries also were not much aware of it. But now the situation has begun to change. One example is the resolution passed by the Seattle City Council. Seattle has become the first U.S. city to outlaw discrimination based on caste. Council member Kshama Sawant, the only Indian-American on the city council, who proposed this ordinance, said that she had heard hundreds of gut-wrenching stories regarding caste discrimination in the city of Seattle. The City Council voted 6-to-1 in favour of the proposal to update anti-discrimination statutes.
Seattle is an important city, a place of the corporate giants like Amazon and Microsoft. The number of people of Indian diaspora will continue to increase there. The addendum of caste to the city’s anti-discrimination law as if indicates the alarm bell for caste system has rung in that country. It should be remembered that it was Ambedkar himself, who first tried to make the world aware of the Brahmanical and casteist Laws of Manu, by his writings. As council members voted in favour of the ordinance, the chamber erupted into cheers of “Jai Bhim”.
Because of the caste system, the reputation of the Hindu immigrants, who are deemed to be skilled and hard-working, is being damaged. One case which should be mentioned here, is Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing v. Cisco Systems Inc. The lawsuit accused Cisco of denying an engineer, who immigrated from India to the U.S., professional opportunities and promotions because under the traditional caste system, he was from the lower caste and his two managers were from the highest.
Now the disgust at the caste system is growing day by day in the developed countries. Presumably other cities and states will be following the footsteps of Seattle. A few days back, Toronto District School Board had passed a motion recognising caste oppression and Toronto has become Canada’s first school board to recognise caste discrimination. Colorado and Michigan recently declared 14 April as “Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Equity Day”. A few years ago, Brandeis University included caste in its non-discrimination policy. The California State University, Davis, Colby College, Brown University, the Claremont Colleges, Carleton University and the University of California have adopted similar measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for its members in 2021 as a part of its contract with its Graduate Student Union.
The reason behind these recent developments is the massive immigration from India. Many of them are from lower-caste background who have gone to the ‘land of opportunities’.
Ambedkar was prophetic. In 1916, this visionary man wrote “If Hindus migrate to the other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem”.