Caste? Case dismissed
On April 10, 2023, the California Civil Rights Department voluntarily dismissed its caste discrimination case against two Cisco Systems engineers Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella.
The CRD case filed nearly three years ago, made headlines in India and the U.S. Iyer and Kompella faced allegations of discrimination based upon caste, against an employee who identified as Dalit. The term Dalit refers to members of the lowest class in the traditional social hierarchy of the subcontinent. The lawsuit alleged that the Dalit engineer was paid less and offered fewer opportunities than his higher caste team members at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters.
Anti-caste movement
The lawsuit triggered an anti-caste discrimination movement led by advocacy groups such as California’s Equality Labs and fueled a debate within the South Asian diaspora about the interpretation of caste. Seattle City Council named the lawsuit in an ordinance passed last month to include caste in its anti-discrimination laws. As recently as last week, protestors gathered outside California State Senator Aisha Wahab’s Fremont legislative office to oppose the SB-403 Bill she proposed to add caste as a protected anti-discrimination category to California laws.
The Cisco lawsuit and its aftermath have caused deep divisions within the South Asian diaspora. Advocacy groups like Hindus for Human Rights and Hindus for Caste Equity say safeguards will protect vulnerable members of the community from caste-based discrimination in housing, education, and the tech sector.
But organizations like the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) and the Coalition of Hindus of North America oppose such policies which they claim could target Hindus and Indian Americans and lead to unfair ethnic profiling.
Cisco in the crosshairs
Suhag Shukla, Esq., Executive Director of HAF called the lawsuit a three-year nightmare of unending investigations and a brutal online witch hunt. The HAF tweeted that the dismissal of the case was a vindication “that the state has no right to attribute wrongdoing to Hindu and Indian Americans simply because of their religion or ethnicity.” HAF’s legal team suggests that the best avenue of remedy for allegations of caste or other intra-community discrimination is under existing law and categories such as national origin, ethnicity or ancestry.
The Cisco case was dismissed by an order of the Santa Clara Superior County Court. However, Cisco still faces a caste bias suit. In a statement to AP, CRD said, “We will continue to vigorously litigate the matter on behalf of the people of California,” adding that it remains committed to “securing relief and ensuring company-wide, corrective action.”
A mediation conference between Cisco and the CRD is still set for May 2.
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