Seattle bans caste discrimination: What does the law entail? What is the debate around it?

The resolution was moved by Kshama Sawant, Seattle City council member and upper-caste Hindu, and was approved by the Council by six to one vote. “It’s official: our movement has won a historic, first-in-the-nation ban on caste discrimination in Seattle! Now we need to build a movement to spread this victory around the country,” tweeted Sawant after the resolution was passed.

It’s official: our movement has WON a historic, first-in-the-nation ban on caste discrimination in Seattle! Now we need to build a movement to spread this victory around the country ✊ pic.twitter.com/1mBJ1W3v6j

— Kshama Sawant (@cmkshama) February 22, 2023

However, certain groups, such as the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), have raised concerns over the move, claiming that “it singles out Hindu Americans for additional legal scrutiny in the name of preventing discrimination”.

What exactly does the resolution say?

According to a news release by the Seattle City Council, “the legislation banning caste-based discrimination will prohibit businesses from discriminating based on caste with respect to hiring, tenure, promotion, workplace conditions, or wages. It will ban discrimination based on caste in places of public accommodation, such as hotels, public transportation, public restrooms, or retail establishments. The law will also prohibit housing discrimination based on caste in rental housing leases, property sales, and mortgage loans.”

Basically, the legislation will recognise caste as a unique basis of discrimination, similar to race or gender. Currently, caste “is not an explicitly protected class”, an article by Seattle-based Real Change News reported. Quoting a spokesperson from the Seattle Office of Civil Rights, the article said that currently, “if our office were to receive a complaint based solely on caste discrimination, we would not be able to investigate it”.

The resolution passed last evening is set to change this.

What would this mean?

This move has set a precedent for other cities also adopting such laws in the future. As Kshama Sawant’s tweet indicates, Seattle is likely to be just the first city in the US to recognise and ban caste-based discrimination. A similar trend has been observed in college campuses across the US.

Caste discrimination has no place in society anywhere in the world, including here in America.

That is why some colleges and universities have banned it on campuses, and workers are fighting for their rights and their dignity in cases involving caste discrimination. 🧵

— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) February 21, 2023

In December 2019, Brandeis University near Boston became the first US college to include caste in its nondiscrimination policy. However, since then, the California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all adopted similar measures. In 2021, Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers as part of its contract with its graduate student union.

However, this move has also polarised the Indian-American population. Tensions within the community were visible at Seattle City Hall on Tuesday, reported AP. Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of advocacy group Equality Labs, whose work was central to this resolution being passed, called the council vote “a culture war that has been won.”

Just why exactly are some groups opposing the resolution?

Principle opposition to the resolution has come from Hindu organisations across the US who see this move as something that could lead to further “anti-Hindu discrimination”. The lone dissenter, Council Member Sara Nelson, echoed some of these concerns. She said, “this could generate more anti-Hindu discrimination and could dissuade employers from hiring South Asians”.

Managing Director of the HAF, Samir Kalra, went one step further, saying, “When Seattle should be protecting the civil rights of all its residents, it is actually violating them by running roughshod over the most basic and fundamental rights in US law, all people being treated equally.”

However, this claim has been disputed by various parties, including the council members who participated in the vote. “That’s like saying gender discrimination laws single out all men,” said Council Member Lisa Herboldm, arguing that caste discrimination should be recognised even if it is experienced by “just a small population”.

Another criticism of the move has been regarding the research done before the law was passed. Shobha Swamy, a representative of the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), said that “Due diligence wasn’t done”, reported AP.

#Breaking: More than 100 South Asian organizations, businesses – including Dalit Bahujan groups, temples, cultural associations, and allies – urge @SeattleCouncil to vote NO on @cmkshama‘s proposed caste ordinance. https://t.co/DWUZ3qQwkq

— CoHNA (Coalition of Hindus of North America) (@CoHNAOfficial) February 21, 2023

CoHNA, which claims to want to “dissolve ‘caste’ consciousness, the colonial trope that has dominated discussions on Hinduism and India”, reportedly collected over 100 signatures opposing the move, including from Dalit Bahujan-led organisations in the US and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Why this move? Why now?

The US is the second most popular destination for Indians living abroad, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the US diaspora grew from about 206,000 in 1980 to about 2.7 million in 2021, reported AP. If one looks at the population of migrants from all of South Asia, the number stands at well over 5 million.

According to a 2016 survey by Equality Labs, the findings of which have been rejected by organisations such as HAF and CoHNA, “All of the inequalities associated with Caste status have become embedded in all of the major South Asian American institutions and they extend into mainstream American institutions which have significant South Asian immigrant populations.” Among other things, the survey found that two out of three Dalits reported being treated unfairly in their workplace and one in three Dalits reported discrimination during their education.

Since 2020, caste has made it to the public consciousness of America for multiple reasons.

First, in July 2020, California regulators sued tech giant Cisco Systems Inc, accusing the company of discriminating against an Indian-American employee and allowing caste-based harassment. This incident was among the first major reported instances of caste discrimination in the supposedly progressive environs of Silicon Valley and made headlines across the US.

Second, in the same year, journalist Isabel Wilkerson published a critically-acclaimed book called Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. In this bestselling book during the dog days of the pandemic, Wilkerson discussed various axes of discrimination and tried to find common bases for them. Her discussion on caste using the language of race and vice versa introduced many Americans to the otherwise foreign concept of caste.

In 2021, the Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha or BAPS was accused of human trafficking and wage law violations, in regard to the construction of the Swaminarayan Temple in New Jersey. Authorities alleged that BAPS had trafficked in Dalit workers for the temple’s construction.