UK
wakes up to caste bias
Shalini Nair, Indian Express, London, Tue Mar 26 2013, 10:11 hrs
For a place that is only one-fifteenth the size of London, Coventry has
a large number of gurdwaras. Even that might not have seemed so incongruous
considering that Sikhs are the largest ethnic minority in this Midlands town —
but for the fact that caste-based, dividing lines are drawn within and among
these places of worship.
Earlier this month, Britain took the first step towards formally
acknowledging that caste-based discrimination exists, with the House of Lords
voting in favour of including the concept in the Equality Act of 2010. If it
gets the approval of the House of Commons, it will become unlawful to
discriminate on the basis of caste in areas of employment, education and the
provision of services.
"Caste will be added to the list of nine 'protected
characteristics' in the equality legislation which at present includes race,
sex and religion," said Lord Eric Avebury, a Liberal Democrat peer, who
was among those instrumental in moving the amendment. "The government's
inadequate proposals so far only advocate education as a means of eradicating
caste, without providing for legal safeguards."
The amendment has tread a protracted path due to the government's
reservations in the face of opposition from two influential Hindu
organisations, and denial among dominant Sikh groups about the prevalence of
casteism.
Discrimination in the UK is the result of tenaciously holding on to a
sense of caste-based identity in a new homeland, with the hostility continuing
from one generation to the next.
Ram Lakha, former mayor of Coventry, explains how since the
establishment of the town's oldest temple, the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Parkash, in
the '60s, there has been a gradual alienation of the lower castes who soon set
up their own temples. Thus emerged the two Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha temples and
Maharishi Valmiki temple besides several others.
Lakha himself battled caste prejudices when he was first elected a
councillor from an area with a sizeable South Asian population in 1989.
"When the local Brahmin leaders got to know that I am from a Dalit
community, they started lobbying against my candidature. The only option for me
was to contest the next election from the predominantly white neighbouring
constituency," said Lakha, a Labour councillor for 23 years now.
Besides Coventry, UK's estimated 480,000 Dalit population is mostly
concentrated across 22 areas including Birmingham, Leicester, Bedford, East
London and Southall.
At work and at school
As the House of Lords debated the amendment this month, scores from most
of these places gathered at Parliament Square to make their voices heard. Most
were first- or second-generation immigrants from Punjab with stories to tell —
about being denied the right to distribute prasad in a gurdwara or perform puja
in a temple in the UK, about children facing bullying in schools, about people
being singled out at the workplace despite having adopted caste-neutral last
names, about businessmen who found that their success couldn't protect them
from prejudices.
Legal recourse has not been an option, for local officials or office
managements often don't even understand the connotations of caste.
Anita Kaur, 40, of Leicester was born in Britain and raised with a
surname that doesn't reveal much about her ranking in the caste hierarchy. Nonetheless,
she faces brazen queries about her caste at community clubs and temples. Her
attempts at shielding her daughter from all this have not been impenetrable
either.
"Sikhism doesn't recognise caste. Page 349 of the Guru Granth Sahib
says, 'Do not enquire about one's caste'," says Kaur. "Still my
daughter gets asked about her caste at school by other children from the
community. And when she replies that she doesn't know, she is told, 'Go home
and ask your parents'."
The first case of alleged caste discrimination to be reported in UK
newspapers was in 2010, that of Vijay Begraj and his wife Amardeep, both 34. In
the absence of any legal framework on caste, they are still contesting their
case at a Birmingham employment tribunal. As a business and finance manager at
a law firm, he had worked his way up for six years, the same firm where she was
a solicitor. Born in Britain, they believed this alone was their identity until
it was redefined for them the day they decided to get married. Since then, he has
been a Hindu Dalit and she a Sikh Jat.
"Our parents had absolutely no problem with our alliance,"
says Vijay, whose father had emigrated from Punjab four decades ago and thought
the baggage of caste hierarchy was behind him. "But then my three bosses
found out that a girl from their community was planning to marry someone from a
'lower' caste." He says that from warning her that "these people are
different creatures" to sending him emails with excerpts from the
scriptures reminding him of his ascribed subordinate status, his superiors at
work did everything to dissuade them from marrying. Their detailed account —
harassment, snide remarks, denial of pay hikes and promotions, culminating in
his dismissal after seven years in service and her resignation — has been
placed before the tribunal.
Satpal Mumum of Caste Watch UK says a member of his group deposed as an
expert witness in Vijay's case to explain the connotations of caste to the
court. "In the evening when he returned home, the windows of his house were
smashed," he said.
Foreign concept
The government's reluctance over discrimination legislation for caste
was largely based on the uncertainty over its prevalence in the UK. The
Government Equalities Office commissioned a report to establish the extent of
such discrimination if any. The report, released in December 2010, was emphatic
in its finding that there is a need for both discrimination and criminal
legislation. It notes that while the caste system had its origins in Hinduism,
in the UK it is particularly entrenched in Sikh communities. It cites several
cases of alleged discrimination, overt and subtle, against Ravidassias and
Valmikis by Jat Sikhs.
A 2009 study by the Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance, with academics
from three British universities, found 58 per cent of the 300 people surveyed
confirming they had been discriminated against because of their caste, and 79
per cent pointing out that the UK police wouldn't have understood if they had
reported such discrimination as a 'hate crime'.
Another study, in 2006 by the UK Dalit Solidarity Network, went into
caste prejudices in temples, the workplace, politics, health care and
education. In a foreword to the report, Jeremy Corbyn, DSN chairman and MP,
notes that prejudice "has been exported to the UK through the Indian
diaspora. The same attitudes of superiority, pollution and separateness appear
to be present in South Asian communities now settled in the UK."
Corbyn told The Indian Express, "I represent a constituency in
Central London where this is much less prevalent unlike in many other places
outside where it is a serious human rights violation, one that is difficult to
prove unless the legislation is in place."
Caste
Discrimination Amongst South Asians Requires Legal Recognition In The UK
Sinthujan
Varatharajah, COLOMBO TELEGRAPH, March 07, 2013
In a landmark vote on Monday, the House of Lords voted to outlaw
caste-based discrimination amongst South Asian communities in the UK. The bill
was fiercely backed by peers from all parties and passed with a majority vote
of 225-153. Yesterday’s vote will bring the proposed bill to the House of
Commons, where it needs to be voted upon by the end of March to be passed into
law and become the first anti-caste legislative act outside of South Asia.
The bill in question, Clause 9(5)(a)of the 2010 Equality Act, has
previously been enshrined in the anti-discrimination act but has not been
activated yet. The current Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government
remains strongly opposed to the bill, having already announced its planned
opposition in a forthcoming vote set to take place in the House of Commons. In
the eyes of the government, anti-caste discrimination will do little to abolish
caste-discrimination amongst British Asians. Instead, the government relies on widespread educative measures to
eradicate caste-discrimination in the UK. However, with twenty-two Liberal
Democrat peers and nine Conservative peers voting against their own
government’s stance, opposition to the bill remains fractured.
For British Dalit advocacy groups and anti-caste campaigners, such as
Dalit Solidarity Network UK and Caste Watch UK, who have strongly
advocated the inclusion and enactment of legal protection against
caste-discrimination, Monday’s vote is a crucial victory in their struggle for
the recognition of caste discrimination outside of South Asia. They argue that
Dalits and other British Asians of so-called ‘low caste’ origin deserve similar
legal protection as to victims of racial discrimination.
Whilst there are no definitive figures on the number of Dalits or other
British Asians of ‘low caste’ origin in the UK, estimates vary with some activists citing around 50,000, and others, such as the
Bishop of Oxford Lord Harries of Pentregarth, estimating the number of British
Dalits to be at around
480,000.
According to several participatory studies conducted by anti-caste
activists and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, caste
discrimination, harassment and bullying occurs in employment, education and
social services in the UK. These reoccurring incidents demand for greater
social and political recognition as well legal protection for its victims.
However, the findings are highly contested by British Hindu advocacy
groups widely considered to be the stronghold of the so-called ‘upper caste’,
who continue to lobby against the activation of the anti-caste discrimination bill,
such as the Hindu Council UK and the Hindu Forum of Britain. Arguing that caste
discrimination has little relevance to communities removed from South Asia, such groups thus claim that legal protection is seemingly
unnecessary – and unwanted. Interestingly, this viewpoint has now been adopted
by the conservative-liberal government, thereby fostering a culture of negation
of Dalit and ‘low caste’ British Asian grievances.
Caste-discrimination affects British Asians of all origins, including British Tamils
as shown in a research study I conducted last year amongst the Tamil diaspora
globally. Contrary to popular belief, caste identites, caste based
differentiation and caste discrimination continue to mark social spaces and
relations even amongst diaspora Tamils. Despite these findings, or arguably
because of them, it was also noted that caste remains a highly contentious
topic amongst the highly upwards stratified British Tamil diaspora.
A similar trend can be observed within most other British Asian communities.
With a diktat of social silence imposed upon caste as a subject by largely
‘upper caste’ community members, caste-relations and caste discrimination as a
parameter for social interactions continue to be difficult to be uncovered,
problematised and tackled. Hence, for victims of caste discrimination, the lack
of recognition from within the community as well as the host society and its
institutions makes it deeply troubling, traumatizing and almost impossible to
demand legal protection and justice for cases of discrimination and harassment.
A survey published by the Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance in 2010,
which looked at British Asians in general, found similar views: 58 per cent of
those questioned had suffered caste based discrimination and 79 per cent of
those did not think the police would understand it if they reported a case of
caste based discrimination as a hate crime.
The first case of employment discrimination on the basis of caste
brought to a British court (Begraj v. Manak) serves as another example of how
the lack of legal, political and social recognition for caste discrimination in
the UK undermines the possibilities of achieving justice for victims. After two
years, the case Begraj v. Manak, in which an Asian employer was sued by a
former employee for charges of discrimination, humiliation, victimisation and
harassment, collapsed after the presiding judge was accused of bias herself. As a result,
justice was denied to the damaged party whose grievances remain uncompensated.
If a tough legal framework for caste-based discrimination had existed, outcomes
like that in the case of Begraj v. Manak may have been avoided.
The activation of Clause 9(5)(a) of the 2010 Equality Act in the UK
would set a precedent outside of South Asia to include caste to
anti-discrimination laws. Caste discrimination would for the first time receive
legal recognition as a migratory concept, one which travels with those who bear
caste ideologies and markers. As such, the Hindu caste system would for the
first time be legally recognized to exist out of the geographic context of
South Asia. It would equally serve as a model example for other states with
large South Asian communities, so that they too may adopt similar legal
frameworks to ensure protection from possible discrimination. Victims of caste
discrimination would furthermore be one step closer to achieving legal
recognition and protection; and caste would be put on the map of forms of racism
and xenophobia as demanded by the UNHRC.
*Sinthujan Varatharajah recently
graduatated from the London School of Economics and Political Science in Race,
Ethnicity and Postcolonial Studies. He is currently working as a research
intern at the Institute of Race Relations in London as well as a researcher on
Muslims in France and Belgium for Harvard University’s and CNRS France’s joint
academic research network Euro-Islam. The article was first published in the
Tamil Guardian. The author can be followed at twitter.com/varathas
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