"Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. But the movement has been getting pushback from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community."
"Dutt knew they weren't just pretending to be rich to show off. They were aiming to have an "upper caste aura" so no one would guess who they really were — Dalits."
"Ambedkar once quoted, 'If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem.' That is precisely what is happening now in the United States," Rama Krishna Bhupathi of the US-based civil rights group Ambedkar International Center told the BBC."
"Race" is often used as a fundamental way to understand American history. But what if "caste" is the more appropriate lens? In conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, we examine the hidden system that has shaped our country.
Meet a man refusing to fit in with an ancient class hierarchy. From the bottom of the caste system to fighting for a more equal society - Listen to Bollywood Star, Kalki, interview Dalit activist Rahul Sonpimple. (from September 2018.)
In 2023, California was poised to become the first state to outlaw discrimination based on a person’s caste. This podcast was recorded before Governor Newsom vetoed the legislation.
1. (noun) A stratified system of categorization based on a status conferred at birth (ascribed status) based on descent, in which individuals do not have mobility due to custom or law;
2. (noun) A group and the individual members of a group within a caste.
1. any of the fixed hereditary classes of the Hindu caste system, which are held to be distinguished by different levels of essential purity. The main classes are (in order of status) brahmins or priests, warriors, merchants, and laborers; outcasts or untouchables are people of no caste. Until recently, mobility or intermarriage between castes was exceptional.
2. any system of social stratification regarded as being comparably rigid.
3. any class of society distinguished by inherited privilege and exclusivity.
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