The activators of an ordinance in Seattle just highlighted a powerful path to expose Hindu supremacists worldwide, with the city becoming the first in the US to ban caste-based discrimination.
Oh, what a beautiful day.
This is a welcome move to blow the lid open on the privileged caste diaspora from the Indian subcontinent – the so-called “model minority” of the West. Hindu nationalists will cry foul. The rest of the world should tell them to shove it where the proverbial sun don’t shine. Just as it should with religious nationalists and feudal scum of any ilk.
But for this post, let’s stick with privileged caste Hindus, who overwhelmingly dominate the wealthy Indian diaspora worldwide (apart from dominating the most privileged socioeconomic strata in the subcontinent itself, regardless of religion).
Like any semi-feudal, historically oppressive social setup, those outside the goings-on rarely know how deep the rot is.
Ranks close very tight, you see.
Ask your average diasporic South Asian about caste, and I guarantee you that the level of defensiveness is directly proportional to their privilege in the caste pecking order. If they live in the wealthy western world, especially in a well-paying position, you can bet your bottom dollar they are almost certainly from one of the privileged castes (priestly, princely, business, or landed). You will see them flail around trying to deny caste oppression, minimize it, even defend it. Hell, recently it was discovered that there was deep rooted caste discrimination in companies and projects dominated by Indians…in Silicon friggin Valley. Imagine how bad it might be in the subcontinent?
As a member of one of these privileged castes, I know this only too well from the other side; Even when dealing with seemingly intelligent people. For example, the university I got my masters from had many Indian students who hailed from the vaunted Indian Institutes of Technology. I tried speaking to them about caste oppression and the reservation system that India implemented many decades prior to correct historical injustices. Their takes made me shudder. It was white fragility on steroids emerging from skinny-fat brown bodies who were good at math and, apparently, nothing else. It was so bad that it caused me to break up with someone I was dating at the time and distance myself from former friends. It’s also one of the principle reasons why I avoid the Hindu community here in America. Most of them are just too damn religious and casteist. (Come to think of it, I avoid insular people in general, so this is just par for the course.)
Now, if you happen to run into a Dalit within the diaspora, then you’re going to get the real picture. A picture that might provide a glimpse into the medieval, generational barbarism they are subjected to en masse; A system that Dr. Suraj Yengde, former Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, describes as the “prison of caste” – a prison that can’t be avoided overseas either.
Even liberal Hindus in the subcontinent or diaspora will balk at acknowledging caste oppression. Barring the odd rationalist or progressive, this is a community that is willfully ignorant, refusing any meaningful self-reflection around caste privileges. Those who rock the prevailing order are effectively banished, like yours truly.
Mind you, this is not too dissimilar from imbeciles clinging on to any form of religious nationalism or feudalism in other parts of the world. No one wants to highlight the crap they grew up with because it involves self-reflection. Humans seem fundamentally inclined to be defensive about the social norms they grew up with. This hinders social progress, because covertly or overtly, they ultimately end up defending misogyny, slavery, racism, and child abuse; All found in spades in the religious books that provide codified legitimacy for brutal oppression. From the Manusmriti and Bhagavad Gita to the Quran, Bible, and Torah – we find many modern day humans defending the indefensible in these barbaric books that were written to control feudal peasants.
It’s batshit insane and can’t stop fast enough.
love liberation struggle 