There was a broad-based representation of Dalit activists who opposed the Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill.
DEHRADUN
The California Governor Gavin Newsom recently vetoed the controversial Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill SB403. The Bill had been already passed by the State Assembly of California, but the Governor vetoed it on the grounds that ample legal provisions already existed in California to prohibit “discrimination based on race, colour, religion, ancestry, national origin, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation and other characteristics” and therefore, “this bill is unnecessary”. What stands out though is the mainstream media portrayal of this veto. To anyone reading the mainstream media reports, it would seem a much-needed law to protect the interests of the Dalits and the Bahujans could not be passed due to so-called activism by upper caste Hindus. In most of the media coverage of this veto, Equality Labs, the organization that introduced this bill is being portrayed as the sole representative of Dalit interests and the US Hindu organizations are almost being portrayed as antagonists to those interests. Just like the Bill itself sought to divide the Hindu community on caste lines, the news of its veto replays that dynamic, ironically enough as the Hindu organizations of the US apparently blocked the passage of a law that would have ended caste discrimination in the US.
In all mainstream media reports, one doesn’t come across a single Dalit voice that was against this Bill. It creates the perception that the Bill got vetoed due to the so-called struggle by America’s Hindu organizations, but they are far from representing the voices of the Dalit community of the US.
If you go through the X accounts of US Hindu organizations like CoHNA, Hindu American Foundation, Castefiles, etc., you would see that there was a broad-based representation of Dalit activists who opposed the Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill and were a part of the advocacy efforts and peaceful protests initiated by these organizations. Why then is there zero representation of these Dalit voices in mainstream media coverage? News outlets like the New York Times, for example, have been quite vociferous in coverage of the Bill, and have been mostly showcasing a one-sided narrative, giving space and representation to the Dalit voices apparently supporting the Bill, but none to those who were part of the struggle against it. Why this bias?
The Ambedkar Phule Network of American Dalits and Bahujans is one such group that has been at the forefront of opposing the California Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill: “This anti-Dalit bill SB-403 was about denying civil rights to us, the very Dalit and Bahujan people, by appropriating our marginalized identity. SB-403 was a weapon to butcher the cultural existence of us, the very Dalits and Bahujans… Along the way, we have lost lives including the beloved leader of marginalized people, Milind Makwana. This is a loss not only for Dalits and Bahujans, but also for humanity. Who is responsible? We get continued to get targeted via cunning appropriation of our marginalized identity for such Bills that produce threats to the cultural and physical well being of us, the marginalized”.
Milind Makwana, a prominent Dalit activist from the US died of a heart attack this July while he was campaigning against the California Anti-Caste Bill SB403. Makwana was staunchly against the Bill and echoed the voice of many other Hindu Americans who thought it was a conspiracy to divide the US Hindu community on the lines of caste. He had arrived in Cupertino, CA on the 18th of July to express his views against the controversial SB403 at the City Council Meeting. However, after attending the meeting, Milind suffered a heart attack, and despite everyone’s best efforts, the Dalit activist could not be saved.
Milind Makwana made immense contributions to the US tech sector; he worked as a Technical Program Manager at a Fortune 500 company in Silicon Valley. He was also an active community member and volunteered to teach Hindu principles and precepts to kids. Milind was also a dedicated volunteer at Sewa International.
The strange thing though is that even though the California Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill has been vetoed, most mainstream media reports do not mention anything of the struggles of Dalit activist Milind Makwana against this Bill, and the fact that he passed away opposing this bill. Such an omission certainly cannot be accidental when Milind Makwana was such a prominent figure in the fight against the Bill, and a lot of information about him is indeed available in the public domain. By pitting “Dalit” voices against the “Hindu” voices, the media too then becomes complicit in this agenda of coopting Dalit identities and voices to suit a certain narrative.
Richa Gautam, the Founder and Policy Director at Castefiles, an advocacy think tank, was directly involved in the whole campaign against SB403. Castefiles was very vocal in advocacy work throughout the campaign, reaching out to lawmakers through direct engagements, writing letters of concern to the attorney general and other important governing bodies, etc.
According to Richa, the reality of Hindu Americans vis-a-vis caste is very different from that portrayed by mainstream media. “Real Hindu Americans did not like the divide of dominant caste and oppressed caste politics because that was simply not the lived experience of people in reality. Dalits who spoke out in media interviews were silenced and their stories not published”, she said.
The singling out of Hindus and calling out for their caste profiling is not limited to the slew of anti-caste discrimination bills in US cities. Hindus are being targeted in educational institutions and corporate companies as well in the name of caste-sensitization workshops. Many such workshops are being organized by so-called Dalit rights organizations like Equality Labs that further perpetuate the stereotype of Hindus being completely driven by caste even in the 21st century. Many US universities have moved to include caste as a protected category in their anti-discrimination policies. This would invariably result in caste profiling of Hindu Americans on US campuses, making them vulnerable to the unwanted attention and perhaps “hatred” of others on campus who would view them as oppressors and practitioners of the caste system.
The obvious question is: is it fair to target a minority community in a western country on the supposed existence of a system that dates back more than 3,000 years, and no evidence of which whatsoever exists in that western country? The sole logic here seems to be is that because the Hindu caste system is so vile, therefore, one needs these kinds of pre-emptive laws to address any untoward incident that might happen. Well, by that logic, one should be passing all sorts of laws against various communities—a separate law targeting the whites because historically they colonized so many countries, another law targeting Muslims because Islamic terrorist organizations have been shedding the blood of innocents for too long. The very idea of passing such laws sounds farcical. Then why and how is it completely normal to demand laws targeting a peaceful minority community that has no history of practicing in that country what the law seeks to exclusively prevent?
The only “evidence” of caste discrimination in the US being quoted by the supporters of the California Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill was the lawsuit filed against Cisco managers Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella that, after dragging on for three years, was dismissed due to lack of evidence.
Hindu American organizations say that the vetoing of the California Anti-Caste Discrimination Bill is certainly a big win but it’s just the first one and the road to struggle is long ahead. “The fight doesn’t stop because the bills can go into different states and our goals now should be to make political and civic engagement our biggest initiative of the next few years. This jolt should wake everyone up and build on the momentum of the new found political engagement that Indian Americans have shown despite having to face discrimination in GC quotas as well—as you know many of us do not have a vote”.
Rati Agnihotri is an independent journalist and writer based in Dehradun (Uttarakhand).