Why Indian-Americans are against California’s anti-caste discrimination bill

California might become the first state to outlaw caste discrimination. The move will provide added protections to people from countries like Nepal, India and Bangladesh, who were not included in the pre-existing anti-discrimination law. The bill, which is the first of its kind in the country, must now be signed by California governor Gavin Newsom before it becomes law. Though a number of civil rights organisations, faith-based organisations, and progressive legal scholars supported the law, it was met with strong resistance from certain Indian-Americans and Hindu organisations, who claim it unfairly targets South Asians and Hindus. Indian-Americans held a peaceful protest rally in the state capital of Sacramento urging Newsom to veto the anti-caste discrimination bill. The legislation revises California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act by adding caste as a protected category under “ancestry”. “We ask Governor Newsom to Veto SB403 so history remembers that you said no to discrimination against Indian-Americans and said no to racially profiling our community!” Samir Kalra of the Hindu American Foundation told the gathering of Indian-Americans in front of the State Capitol in Sacramento on Saturday. Displaying posters and banners, the protestors, most of whom had gathered from various parts of the state, urged the governor not to sign the bill into law as this would end up in discrimination against the Hindu community. Much worse is that the bill amounts to racial profiling of the Hindu community, they argued. Hindu American Foundation has said that it is exploring every option to protect the rights of Hindu Californians and is planning to file a lawsuit against this. The bill was introduced by Senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan-American woman elected to the state legislature, in February. The California Senate overwhelmingly passed SB403 “Discrimination on the basis of ancestry” with 31-five votes last week. [caption id=“attachment_13109482” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] California senator Aisha Wahab, the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the state legislature, introduced the bill in March. AP[/caption] Anti-caste actions in California California has recently become a hotbed of anti-caste protests. State regulators sued Cisco, a technology company, in 2020, stating that two high-caste Indian executives had discriminated against a Dalit engineer by subjecting him to lower salary and poorer working conditions, reports The Guardian. In 2022, California State University added caste as a protected category in its anti-discrimination policy. Caste was also an issue of friction at Google last year, when the company cancelled a planned discussion on caste equity after several employees protested that it was upsetting to Hindus, reports CNN. Caste has also been at the centre of debates over how Hinduism is portrayed in California textbooks during the last two decades. Some Hindu organisations felt that the planned textbook wording fostered bias and stereotypes against Hindus and pushed to have particular references to the caste system removed or changed. With inputs from agencies