Students and alumni across the California State University system are responding to the change that went into effect on Jan. 1, to add caste protections to its nondiscrimination policy, affecting students, staff and faculty at all 23 campuses of the nation’s largest university system.
The updated policy is intended to protect caste-oppressed students, many of whom are of South Asian descent and may be subject to this rigid form of social stratification by other students, faculty or staff. The caste system has roots in the Hindu religion, and though it is officially outlawed in many countries, discrimination still persists.
For some current and former students who have suffered caste discrimination firsthand, these new protections provide an element of accountability.
“Society needs to understand the gravity of caste discrimination,” said Prem Pariyar, who received his master’s degree in social work from California State University East Bay in 2021, has been a leader in the fight for caste protections in the CSU system. “People are being killed. People are being raped in the name of caste.”
Pariyar said when he speaks about his own experiences with caste discrimination, many people don’t understand. He’s experienced discrimination as a Dalit — one of the most oppressed classes in the caste system sometimes referred to as “Untouchable” — after he introduced himself to a pair of students on campus speaking Nepali.
Pariyar said the students looked at him from top to bottom. “In the beginning, they talked to me in a nice way,” he said, “but after knowing my first and last name, they started to distance themselves.” Knowing his first and last name — for those who understand caste nuances — gave away Pariyar’s so-called lower caste.
Pariyar said that he quickly understood what the two men were thinking, apologized and walked away.
“Caste has thousands and thousands of years of history. Many generations spend their lives as ‘untouchables,'” Pariyar said.
According to a study conducted by Equality Labs, a Dalit civil rights organization, one in three American Dalit students reports being discriminated against during their education, and 25% said they had faced verbal or physical assault because of their caste.
“Race and caste are not the same system, but they are parallel oppressions that have the same logic,” wrote Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs in an opinion piece for Yes! magazine.