Ashish Ranjan
After Seattle, Washington, in the United States, the casted discrimination conflict has now reached Toronto, Canada, where two factions — one in favour of a ban on caste-based discrimination and the other opposed to such a move — have begun fighting in a public school.
Last month, Seattle became the first city in the United States to prohibit caste discrimination after its local council passed a resolution proposed by an Indian-American politician and economist to include caste in the city’s non-discrimination policy.
The resolution proposed by upper-caste Hindu Kshama Sawant was approved by the Seattle City Council by a vote of six to one. Vote outcomes could have far-reaching effects on the issue of caste discrimination in the United States.
Proponents of caste discrimination were effective in bringing the motion to the Toronto District School Board for consideration (TDSB). At its meeting on March 8, the board referred the issue to the Ontario Human Rights Commission as a neutral observer to investigate and evaluate. In doing so, the board acknowledged that it lacks sufficient expertise in this area.
The TDSB’s decision follows the Seattle City Council’s passage of an ordinance prohibiting caste-based discrimination on February 21. Seattle was the first city outside of India to do so.
“Voting “Yes” on this proposal is in the best interest of all Toronto public school pupils. In an educational setting, caste discrimination can manifest in numerous ways, including casteist remarks, discrimination in social and online settings, and exclusion from dominant-caste spaces “In a letter to TDSB members, Seattle City Councilwoman Sawant stated:
On the other hand, the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), which has been waging a campaign against it, stated that singling out one community on these otherwise broad markers resulted in significant opposition from South Asian expatriates in Canada.
CoHNA Canada assisted the community in sending over 21,000 emails and making numerous phone calls to trustees in an effort to have their voices heard. The TDSB office in North York also witnessed significant sit-in protests while voting was taking place, with community members braving freezing temperatures for hours to make their voices heard, according to a press release.
CoHNA stated that the demand by caste discrimination activists that South Asians be ascribed “collective guilt” based solely on unverifiable personal anecdotes would be deemed bigoted, xenophobic, and downright racist if it were applied to almost any other group.
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Nikunj Trivedi, the president of CoHNA, stated, “This is nothing more than a return to colonialism where lawmakers who are supposed to be impartial make casually Hinduphobic remarks and parrot the outrageous propaganda of hate organisations.” “Attempts to profile a vulnerable minority group should not be tolerated,” he said.
