Thread: Dalits in US tech companies say caste discrimination from upper castes at work is rampant. I explore the manifestation of India’s centuries-old caste system in US MNCs, in the wake of California’s historic lawsuit against Cisco. @thewire_in https://m.thewire.in/article/caste/cisco-caste-discrimination-silicon-valley-dalit-prejudice?utm=authorlistpage

Unlike race, caste is not obvious from a person’s face or skin colour, so Dalit techies say they are constantly subjected to inquisitions from fellow Indians to figure their caste. Like the casual, seemingly innocent pat on the back to see if they’re wearing a Janaeu

While in India, they were used to people directly asking them which caste they belonged to, in America, the questions are often less direct. Like asking a person if they are vegetarian. (Vegetarianism has long been associated with upper caste purity).

Dalits are outnumbered by upper castes at work. 90% of Indian immigrants to the US are upper caste. The complainant in the case against Cisco was the only Dalit in an upper caste team.

A Dalit techie who was a top performer in an America tech company once expressed his views on the Indian caste system and found his ratings at work dropped, he was increasingly isolated and finally transferred out of the country.

. @dalitdiva of @EqualityLabs tells me caste discrimination doesn’t comprise isolated cases of 1 employee being harassed by 1 supervisor. Dalits are up against an entire upper caste network spanning several companies. Complaining could severely affect a person’s career prospects.

Shailaja Paik, history prof at the University of Cincinnati likens the transnationalisation of caste to the mutation of a virus.

While America has no law against caste discrimination, the California Govt lawsuit against Cisco used a section of the historic Civil Rights Act, the outcome of African Americans’ struggle for equality in the 1960s. Dalits in the US owe a debt to African Americans says @dalitdiva

At the centre of the Cisco lawsuit are 2 men who were classmates at IIT-Bombay over 20 years ago. The upper caste student discovered his classmate was Dalit, and had made it to IIT via India’s affirmative action program, when he didn’t see his name on the “main merit list.”

He carried the knowledge of the other man’a caste with him & 20 years later, when both men were at Cisco’s Silicon Valley HQ, he even disclosed the other man’s caste to fellow upper caste Indians. When the Dalit complained of the other man outing his caste, he faced retribution.

The lawsuits says his lead was removed from two technologies that he was working on, and his team members were removed from a 3rd technology, reducing him to independent contributor.

Despite 2 HR investigations into the case, Cisco closed the investigations saying they had no evidence to prove caste discrimination, even after Iyer confessed to outing his colleague’s caste. The lawsuit calls Cisco’s actions fraudulent and malicious.

The lawsuit reminded a Dalit techie I spoke to, of all the cases of caste discrimination he had faced over 20 years in the US. “I never documented these instances, because I never thought caste discrimination would be taken seriously,” he says.