Distinguishing the Caste–Race Debate in the United States From South Asia

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were more than 6.5 million people of South Asian descent in the United States in 2022. Like all immigrants, they do not journey solely as biological entities but bring their socio-cultural understandings as well. Among those understandings are the ones associated with the caste system. Historically, those most victimized by caste are the Dalits, formerly known as “untouchables” or “outcasts,” who suffer from caste discrimination based on untouchability. As a result of South Asian immigration, American universities, employers, courts, and legislative bodies are increasingly encountering caste discrimination against Dalits in the United States. Caste discrimination on the Indian subcontinent has been used for nearly 200 years in the United States in both legal and political arguments to refer to discrimination against Black people, including during discussions regarding the origins of anti-discrimination law based on race. Abolitionists began to analogize the treatment of Black people to the South Asian caste system as early as the 1830s. The caste–race analogy has remained central to discussions about racial discrimination against Black people since then, including during debates surrounding the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Fourteenth Amendment, and, to a lesser extent, the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This history has raised the legal question of whether caste discrimination based on untouchability is a form of race discrimination currently covered under U.S. federal anti-discrimination laws.

This Article will discuss the legal arguments that justify the conclusion that caste discrimination, especially against Dalits, is a form of race discrimination under federal anti-discrimination law. In addressing this issue, U.S. courts may be tempted to look to how caste discrimination is understood in South Asia, or more particularly India, under its anti-discrimination law. While the history and operation of the caste system in South Asia will be of interest, it is the history of the caste–race analogy in the United States, not in South Asia, that is important. In other words, the complex treatment of the caste–race issue in South Asia is not relevant for its interpretation under federal anti-discrimination law; rather, only the understanding of caste developed in this country is. Simply put, the South Asian caste–race debate is a discussion that occurred at very different times, in very different places, and for very different purposes than did its American analogue. While caste is not a form of race under Indian anti-discrimination measure, it most likely is under federal anti- discrimination law. Thus, this Article will also point out why U.S. courts do not need to get too caught up on the conceptual difficulties of understanding caste in South Asia when it comes to adjudicating caste discrimination cases in the United States.