Doctrine and discrimination: Is the California anti-'caste' bill unfair to Hindu believers?

QUESTION:

Is California’s anti-“caste” effort unfair to Hindus?

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

A bill sponsored by a Muslim legislator and passed by California’s Senate May 11 would make this the first U,S. state to add “caste” to the categories of illegal discrimination under civil rights laws.

The bill defines caste as “a system of social stratification on the basis of inherited status” that involves “socially enforced restrictions on marriage, private and public segregation” and “social exclusion on the basis of perceived status.” Action on the bill by California’s state Assembly is pending. Earlier this year, Seattle became the first U.S. city to enact a parallel statute.

As of 2022, the 23 campuses of the California State University system likewise banned caste discrimination. Other campuses with such policies include the University of California campus at Davis and California’s Claremont colleges as well as Brandeis University, Brown University, Carleton University, Colby College, Colorado College, and Harvard University, with others expected to join this new movement.

Caste is well-known for close association with Hinduism, whose billion followers make it the world’s third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam. California’s actions have roused intense divisions among immigrants from India, with some telling legislators about incidents when they suffered from caste bias. A 2018 report by the anti-caste Equality Labs found 67% of Indian-Americans from low-status groups felt they were treated unfairly at work.

But groups such as the Hindu American Foundation contend that the bill itself “will perpetuate racist European stereotypes and misconceptions” and rouse discrimination against Hindus. Some deny that caste is any core tenet of the Hindu religion, if properly understood, or say that British colonial rule exaggerated and exploited the system.

Each year, thousands upon thousands of religion scholars assemble during the days preceding Thanksgiving for simultaneous conventions of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the professional counterpart for Scripture specialists, the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). This year, the two organizations gather November 17-20, in Denver. Coverage this month, or planned for a year hence, is a good investment for forward-looking media with the cash and the interest.

The Religion Guy has attended several of these egghead extravaganzas and attests that it’s no simple task. The 300 pages of program listings accessible here (.pdf) and here (.pdf) offer many #MEGO (my eyes glaze over) sessions aimed at specialists. But you’ll discover journalistic wheat amid the hyper-technical chaff, usually concepts for future stories rather than breaking news (though one year The Guy scored a dandy AP spot story).

Equally important, you can prowl the exhibit hall and corridors to greet and collect contact info from a dizzying variety of expert sources. AAR’s communications director Amy Parker can facilitate coverage of both the AAR and SBL (phone 404-727-1401 or email via that website mentioned above).

The two conventions are such a magnet that several organizations schedule meetings in conjunction with the big show, as in the following examples.

Speakers at the Biblical Archaeology Review “fest” November 16-18 will range from star skeptic Bart Ehrman to evangelical exegete Ben Witherington. This magazine is in the business of translating historical disputes for non-specialists and it’s must reading for reporters who want to follow such developments.

Westar Institute, whose much-publicized “Jesus Seminar” strived to debunk New Testament authenticity, will meet November 16 on two follow-up projects, promoting varied movements that fought orthodoxy in Christianity’s early centuries, and pondering “post-theism,” including this: “Why should we talk about God at all?”