influencing the education system
Education is a central value for a vast swath of the Hindu American community. A large number of second and third generation Hindu Americans are either in, or poised to enter universities in the coming years.
Most are unfamiliar with ‘caste’ identities and politics or its imprint on modern society both in the Indian subcontinent.
What does a selective and discriminatory reintroduction of similar ‘caste’ dynamics in American universities mean for them as Hindus? What can they do to stay informed, understand and navigate these attempts to saddle them with a personal identity that is essentially alien to them?
Real Life Examples
Repurposing Hate and Hinduphobia – The UC Davis “Caste” Resolution – CoHNA
Far from fighting discrimination, the ASUCD senate resolution...
CoHNA’s response to the Cal Poly resolution on “Caste.”
On April 10, the California State Student Association (CSSA), a body claiming to represent 482,000 students..
Harvard’s problematic announcement of “Caste” Bias Protections for Graduate Students
Harvard recently announced "Caste" Bias Protection for Graduate Students..
Constructing “Caste” in California – Best Indian American Magazine | San Jose CA | India Currents
Earlier this year, the California State University (CSU) System Board of Trustees voted...
The Invention of Caste: Civil Society in Colonial India
Nicholas B Dirks, 1998 Working Paper, University of Michigan
Is Caste System Intrinsic to Hinduism? Demolishing a Myth
M.V. Nadkarni, Economic and Political Weekly, 38(45), 4783-4793, 2003 JSTOR
Orientalist Constructions of India
Ronald Inden, Modern Asian Studies Vol. 20, No. 3 (1986), pp. 401-446, JSTOR
The Indian Caste System and The British
Ethnographic Mapping and the Construction of the British Census in India – Kevin Hobson, britishempire.co.uk
Is a Theory of Caste still Possible?
Declan Quigley, Social Evolution & History, Vol. 1 No. 1, July 2002 140–170, ‘Uchitel’ Publishing House
Caste(s): Through the Archetypal ‘Orientalist’ Predicament of Sociology on India
Bula Bhadra, University of Calcutta, Indian Sociological Society
Census in Colonial India and the Birth of Caste
Padmanabh Samarendra, Economic and Political Weekly, xlvi:33, August 13, 2011, pp. 51-58. Academia.edu
Ethnographic inquiry in colonial India: Herbert Risley, William Crooke, and the study of tribes and castes
C.J. Fuller, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
‘Untouchable’: What is in a Name?
Simon Charsley, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1996), pp. 1-23, JSTOR
The Silicon Valley Witch-Hunt: Caste And The New American Obsession
Kartik Mohan IndiaFacts November 23, 2021
SF Chronicle pushes bias against Hindus with its recent article on “Caste” and UC Davis
Nikunj Trivedi PGurus November 29, 2021
My child learned he was ‘low caste’ from a school textbook: An American Shudra story
Smitha Raj Religion News Service, June 24, 2021
Breaking down the Carnegie Endowment’s 2020 Indian American Survey
Pushpita Prasad and Nikunj Trivedi, June 15, 2021
Hindu priest carries ‘untouchable’ into temple to show ‘everyone is equal in the eyes of God’
Tom Emburry-Dennis, The Independent, April 20, 2018
Kerala Dalit priests: ‘Any Hindu can be a Brahmin’
Shaju Philip, The Indian Express, June 26, 2018
In Andhra Village, Ten Generations of Dalit Priests Offer a Lesson on Social Harmony
Gali Nagaraja, The Wire, August 20, 2019
I feel blessed, says first dalit priest after a year in service
T Sureesh, The Asian Age, October 4, 2018
Dalits, Kinnars find rightful place at Kumbh Mela
A follower has just entered the tent of Juna Akhara’s first..
Reclaiming Hindu identity, again: A Dalit journey in America
Pushpita Prasad, FirstPost, March 26, 2022
Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India
Nicholas B. Dirks, Princeton University Press, 2001
Cultural Terrorism – Conflicts and Debates On Cultural Pasts
B.S.Harishankar, Indus Scrolls Press, 2020
Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age
Susan Bayly, Cambridge University Press, 2001
Breaking India: Western Interventions In Dravidian And Dalit Faultlines
Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan Amaryllis, 2012
Western Foundations of the Caste System
Martin Fárek, Dunkin Jalki, Sufiya Pathan, Prakash Shah. Palgrave Macmillan, 2017