Thenmozhi Soundararajan has spent her life battling for equity. Now California could pass a landmark law protecting it
, the largest Dalit civil rights organization in the US, which conducted the first survey on caste discrimination in the US.south Asian populations in the country, has become ground zero for the caste equity movement., alleging that two high-caste Indian managers had discriminated against a Dalit engineer by subjecting him to lower pay and inferior terms of employment.
“It’s a culmination of a life’s work, both living under the trauma of caste and turning that pain into power,” she said. “I wish I could tell my younger self that it’s going to be OK.”The Indian caste system, which dates back three thousand years, divides Hindus by birth into four categories that determine their place in society. Brahmins, members of the highest caste, have historically served as priests and teachers.
The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act brought in a wave of highly skilled professionals, such as doctors, scientists and engineers, from Asian countries. A vast majority of these highly skilled immigrants from South Asia, Thomas said, had come from educated, upper-caste families. In 1990, Congress created the H1B visa program for skilled foreign workers, creating an influx of tech workers from India who largely hail from dominant castes.
“The dominant-caste profile of south Asian immigrants in the US creates an environment where violence and hostility can thrive,” Thomas said. “You can be a religious minority and still perpetuate caste discrimination.”Soundararajan describes the caste-abolition movement in the US as “interfaith and multiracial and very queer”.
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