@article{c911bd1662f640b79fc5e06ae301979d,
title = "The Racial Paradigm and Dalit Anti-Caste Activism in the United States",
abstract = "Based on interviews, some field research, and an analysis of online material, this paper focuses on the rights struggles of diasporic Indian caste groups formerly considered {"}Untouchable{"}whose self-chosen descriptor is {"}Dalit.{"}It examines Dalit activism in the United States around caste discrimination in both India and the U.S. The goal of this study is to demonstrate how Dalit American leaders use racial analogies in their international activism, and why race is a contested frame within the community. It makes clear that {"}universalistic{"}frames can obscure crucial particularities, making it harder to address the issue at hand. But it also reveals that dogmatic, particularistic frames can compromise the unity and mission of transnational movements. A 2020 lawsuit against Cisco Systems alleging caste discrimination toward a Dalit employee by Brahmin supervisors has opened the opportunity for anti-caste activists to develop a global norm specifically around how to address caste-based discrimination.",
keywords = "anti-caste activism, Dalit, diasporic social movements, incommensurable frames",
author = "Kurien, {Prema A.}",
note = "Funding Information: Equality Lab{\textquoteright}s caste survey was referenced in the case filing and in the many subsequent newspaper articles, podcasts, and video programs on the case. After the lawsuit, Equality Labs launched a campaign directed at Dalit employees in Silicon Valley companies and received more than 300 further complaints about work-place caste discrimination in dozens of major Silicon Valley companies. U.S. Ambedkarite organizations came out in support of the Cisco employee and the Bay area-based Ambedkar-King Study Circle (AKSC) organized a signature campaign directed at Silicon Valley companies to “recognize caste as operating similarly to race and gender as a source of discrimination and harassment” (). Further extending its significance, the lawsuit was subsequently supported by the Alphabet Workers Union (Alphabet, Inc., is Google{\textquoteright}s parent company). In audio and video discussions, Soundararajan of Equality Labs asserted the goal of Ambedkarite groups to make caste a protected category in the United States If caste is made a protected category, people working in U.S. corporations, schools, and universities would have to get trained in the specific contours of caste practices to prevent caste harassment. Since Silicon Valley corporations have hundreds of thousands of employees in India, they would need monitoring protocols to prevent caste discrimination in their Indian offices (). The Hindu American Foundation reacted with alarm to the Cisco case, arguing that it “uniquely endangers Hindus and Indians” and that it “amplifies misleading claims of an anti-Hindu group” (i.e., Equality Labs). They subsequently filed a legal motion to intervene (). Funding Information: Research for this paper was made possible by a National Science Foundation grant (SES 1528344). Feedback from a colloquium in the sociology department at Northwestern University, at a panel at the 2019 annual conference of American Sociological Association, and the 2019 Conference on South Asia helped me focus the article and sharpen the arguments. I also thank Monica Prasad, Yasmin Ortiga, Suraj Yengde, Kristina Garalytė, Audie Klotz, Peter Kivisto, Jenna Sikka, Jinpu Wang, and Mauricio Torres for their insightful comments on earlier drafts and Kiyoteru Tsutsui for a helpful discussion on how to go about writing the paper. Any mistakes are my own. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. All rights reserved.",
year = "2023",
month = aug,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1093/socpro/spac035",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "70",
pages = "717--734",
journal = "Social Problems",
issn = "0037-7791",
publisher = "University of California Press",
number = "3",
}