Caste out: blatant rather than latent, caste is still alive—and kicking—in the West. Nikki van der Gaag reports

New Internationalist, July, 2005 by Nikki van der Gaag

DAVINDER Prasad is very proud of his daughters. His oldest, Rena, works in the media; the second is doing a degree in fashion and the youngest, Indira, named after India's former Prime Minister, is still at school. Davinder works as a laboratory manager in an American aerospace company and his wife Vimla is a teacher in a primary school.

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They live in a detached bungalow with beautiful wooden floors. Goldfish swim in a tank in the living room and on the walls hang wooden artefacts from India and a large framed photograph of the family in front of the Taj Mahal.

They do not, however, live in India, but in Britain. And Davinder has another, more unusual, preoccupation. He is one of the founders of CasteWatch UK, an organization set up in 2003 to combat caste discrimination in Britain.

It was something he had not expected to encounter when he arrived in the country as a young man 26 years ago. When the Indian Diaspora first started settling in the West from the 1950s onwards, caste was not much of an issue. In any case, many immigrants were from the lower castes, perhaps because, technically, the ancient Laws of Manu, which many devout Hindus attempt to follow, prohibit the higher castes from living outside the land of their birth. But as Diaspora communities grew, so did caste distinctions. Sat Pal Muman reminisces at a Dalit conference: 'I remember 30 years ago, when the numbers were small, there was a sense of kinship amongst fellow compatriots. People were simply viewed as Indians or Pakistani first and language or culture was only of secondary importance. As their numbers increased they began to establish their own newspapers--some in English, others in their local vernacular. They have established temples, businesses, and now they run their own radio and television stations.' (1)

While 95 per cent of Hindus live in India and 98 per cent in South Asia, there are 4.5 million living in other parts of the world, including a million in the US. Dr Ambedkar, a Dalit leader and contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi, noted that 'wherever a Hindu goes, he [sic] will take his caste system with him.'

Davinder feels there is ample evidence for this. He shows me a British school textbook on Hinduism, which describes caste without challenging it in any way. 'If I were writing that book I would point out that caste was not a part of Hindu society to begin with. I would say that it was a form of racial discrimination and that it was not acceptable.' He also says that he was surprised to find caste discrimination among Sikhs who traditionally reject such distinctions.

He has a file bursting with details of incidents, radio programmes, newspaper cuttings and even a glossy leaflet from a Hindu temple in London, all evidence of caste prejudice or discrimination. There are as yet no statistics on this in the West. Stories remain anecdotal, like that of the man, recently arrived in Britain from India, who had a surname that belonged to a caste higher than his own. The people he was staying with offered him all the help they could give--found him a job, supported and encouraged him. A few months later, however, during conversation, it came out that he was actually of a lower caste than his name suggested and as soon as this was known he was given the cold shoulder. It was a complete rejection. All of a sudden, the support he had come to rely on was yanked away, he lost his job and ended up looking for another place to stay. (2)

Caste permeates the whole Diaspora community. Everywhere in the West, advertisements aiming to arrange marriages among the Hindu community will advertise caste as part of the package--age, height, caste, nationality, educational qualifications, profession, hobbies. Some will state 'caste no bar'; others, including those from so-called 'untouchable' castes, will make statements such as 'Prefers a Ravidassa girl, but will welcome other castes'; 'Khatri Family seeks'; 'Jat Sikh educated family seeks ...'

Marriage matters

In North America, large meetings are held with the purpose of getting young people from the same caste to get to know each other. In Atlanta, the Patidar Samaj meeting drew 4,000 people and resulted in 100 marriages. Many people return to South Asia to marry someone from their own caste. Parar Bagawar of the Suman Bureau, a matrimonial agency in Britain, says: 'People are still mentioning the issue of caste and bringing it up when it comes to marriage and generally ... people don't want to marry into a lower caste. We also find that those who originate from a lower caste prefer to meet someone of the same background because they know that they may be victimized because they are of a lower caste.' She says that only 25 per cent of marriages take place across caste barriers. (3)

But Balbir Grewal of the Sikh Guru Granth Sahib temple in London says: 'Everybody should be proud of whatever creed or caste they are and I think we should stick to it. It's like roots. How can you plant a tropical plant into a cold country? If this carries on, the time will come when nobody will know which background, religion or caste they come from'. (3)