US university’s anti-caste discrimination policy discriminates against Hindus, critics claim
- California State University faces a backlash after bringing in protections against discrimination based on the ancient social hierarchy derived from Hinduism
- While many people, lower caste Dalits among them, have cheered the move, higher class Brahmins and others warn it ‘marks all people of Indian descent as suspect’
For Hindus in South Asia, a person’s social status is determined at birth with those from the Brahmin and Kshatriya communities occupying the highest castes, while Vaishyas, Shudras and Dalits are considered the lowest strata of society.
Caste hierarchies are also prevalent among the Sikh, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian communities in the region but there has been growing attention paid to casteism among Hindu South Asians, including in the US, which is home to 5.4 million people of South Asian descent.
CSU, the public university system of America’s most populous state, has 485,550 students and 55,909 faculty and staff employed in its 23 campuses.
Rebutting the opposition’s letter, over 500 faculty members including 110 from California State University wrote to the university trustees and California faculty association in support of the policy.”