- [Tinku] There are 2.5 million people of Indian origin
living in the United States.
Among them only about 2% are Dalits,
once known as Untouchables.
The stigma attached to caste is so deep that most Indians,
especially Dalits here in America, refuse to talk about it.
For Americans it's difficult to understand
that caste-based discrimination
and violence that is seen in other parts of the world
actually exist over here.
- [Prithy] Every time I speak to someone,
they have these deep personal and traumatic stories,
and actually have no way of telling them
because they're so scared.
- [Tinku] Prithy Maestrom is a Dalit woman
living here in the Northeast.
Her name and voice have been changed
so she can't be identified,
for fear of reprisal from upper caste communities.
Maestrom came to the United States
against her family's wishes, to do her PhD.
She thought life would be better here,
but not long after she joined college in New England,
she says she was raped by an upper-caste Brahmin student.
There was no doubt in her mind
that caste was the motivating reason for the assault.
- [Prithy] From the very first day,
how he behaved towards me was a kind of behavior
that you observe landlords behaving
towards the women who work on their fields,
the Dalit women especially who work on their fields,
which is an attitude of ownership and entitlement
over their bodies and their time and their labor.
- [Tinku] When Maestrom told her upper caste roommate
what had happened, she was scoffed at in disbelief.
Traumatized and with no support,
Maestrom did not report the assault,
and we can't independently verify her story.
But it isn't an isolated one.
According to a 2018 survey released in Cambridge
by the Dalit-led Equality Labs,
caste-based discrimination is very much alive
and kicking here in America.
Among the respondents,
26% said they had experienced a physical assault
because of their caste,
59% had caste-based derogatory jokes
or remarks directed at them,
and over half of them said they were afraid
of being found out as a Dalit.
There are stories of discrimination
and isolation at schools, workplaces, temples,
and within communities.
Thenmozhi Soundararajan is Executive Director
at Equality Labs and a Dalit activist.
- [Thenmozhi] For us, it was pretty startling,
because while we'd always had anecdotal information
from all of our caste depressed immigrant community members
that something was not right with the way
our communities were being treated,
when we finally got the numbers from our survey,
we were just utterly shocked.
- [Tinku] The online survey was anonymous,
and there are some who have criticized
how it was carried out and its results.
Among other criticisms,
Suhag Shukla from the Hindu American Foundation
says she believes the survey
didn't take generational differences into account.
- [Suhag] Were these people who had been in the country
for only five years,
meaning they had just recently come from India,
and may have carried over
some certain social stigmas or baggage,
and were continuing to live their lives through that lens,
or was it someone like me who was born and raised here
for whom caste is not relevant?
(people protesting)
- [Tinku] With the number of Dalit
and lower caste people growing
in the United States, and a movement to assert their rights,
there could be more protests, like this one
that took place at last year's
World Hindu Congress in Chicago.
(people protesting)
The small group of women was protesting
the presence of extremist Hindu leaders,
and what they saw as the Brahmin superiority of the event.
The activists were attacked, beaten,
and spat on by attendees at the session they had disrupted.
S.P Kothari, Chairman of the Congress and a professor
at MIT Sloan School of Management,
denies Hindus are socially or politically divisive
here in the United States,
- [S.P.] Is there an institutional,
or is then an organizational or religious way to try
and drive a wedge between the Dalits and the upper caste?
And the answer is categorically no.
There are laws against discrimination,
and those are important.
- [Kanishka] When I'm at Harvard,
I actually want to be recognized as Untouchable.
- [Tinku] Kanishka Alugula is an Indian Dalit studying
for his doctorate at Harvard.
- [Kanishka] My achievement is that I happen
to be somebody who was beaten up and abused,
and made to feel like crap, because I come from this caste.
So, the fact that I'm an Untouchable
and I'm here is what I want people to recognize.
- [Tinku] Despite how proud he is of his success,
Alugula still doesn't openly talk on campus about his caste.
- [Kanishka] Because I've seen so many times
when you talk about it and that's it,
the conversation usually ends there,
or then people start avoiding you,
or they see you as not reasonable,
like when you support the causes that you support.
- [Tinku] This internal conflict is not uncommon
among many Dalits living in America.
They are proud that despite generational discrimination
back in India, they have escaped to the U.S.
It's difficult for Americans or outsiders
to see the complex and often subtle ways
in which caste plays out within the Indian communities
on a day-to-day basis.
Most upper caste Hindus deny that caste plays any role
for them over here, except maybe in one very big part
of their lives, marriage.
Matrimonial websites and ads
all blatantly specify caste
as being one of the most important factors for a union,
perpetuating the caste-based system.
Tinku Ray, WGBH, Boston's Local NPR.