Caste Discrimination in US: Dalit Activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s Groundbreaking Survey and Advocacy
TNN | Nov 23, 2025, 11.10 PM IST
In 2015, Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a young activist, scholar, and co-founder of Equality Labs — a dalit civil rights organisation — spearheaded the first nationwide survey on caste discrimination in the US. The survey found that one in four dalits had faced physical or verbal assault, one in three reported discrimination in education, two in three encountered workplace bias, and more than half lived in fear of being ‘outed’. It emerged from repeated testimonies from dalit Americans even as dominant-caste South Asians insisted caste “was not an issue”.
“These numbers showed what many denied: caste isn’t confined to South Asia. It exists in 21st-century America,” says Thenmozhi, who was conferred the Vaikom Award last month, which recognises contributions to caste justice and dalit civil rights.
“Dalits faced slurs, physical threats and even organisational crises from those who didn’t want us to ask these questions,” says Thenmozhi, who wrote about it in ‘The trauma of caste’, published in 2022.
Born to parents from Coimbatore, who later migrated to the US, Thenmozhi says she was driven by the suffering she witnessed in her family and among caste-oppressed communities. “It wasn’t one moment. It was the weight of intergenerational trauma in our diaspora and the silence that allowed caste harassment to be recreated in our homes, schools and workplaces,” says the US-based activist, who also co-founded ‘Dalit History Month’, celebrated globally.
The ‘Lakireddy Bali Reddy’ case in the early 2000s in Berkeley shook her, she says. Reddy, a wealthy landlord, brought dalit women and girls from India on fake visas, exploited them for labour, and sexually abused minors. The crimes surfaced after a 13-year-old victim died in one of his buildings, leading to federal charges, a prison sentence and reforms in California’s anti-trafficking laws. “I recall letters from dominant-caste supporters asking for leniency. The impunity was devastating. We deserve a diaspora that heals together, stands with survivors, and refuses to repeat the injustices we inherited.”
| ‘We must de-brahminise technology and prevent a digital apartheid: Thenmozhi’ What were some of the other findings of your caste in the US report? We found 60% experienced caste-based slurs and derogatory comments; 40% felt unwelcome at their place of worship; 20% reported discrimination at a place of business. More than 40% said they had been rejected in a romantic partnership because of caste. In 2015, many US academics did not support this work. When working on the report, we were met with caste slurs. One organisation convened a board meeting to debate whether sharing our survey would “divide the community”. The truth is, the community was divided by caste; the survey revealed what had long been hidden. Your advocacy triggered support for anti-caste legislation across US cities. Our caste report, initially dismissed by many academics, mainly from dominant castes, became a foundational text for congressional briefings, institutional reforms and the legislative fight for SB 403, a bill in California to ban caste discrimination. In 2023, Senator Aisha Wahab championed SB 403, a bill that sought to add caste to California’s existing anti-discrimination laws, making it illegal to deny someone housing, employment or educational opportunities because of their caste. While SB 403 passed both houses, the governor, under pressure from dominant-caste Hindus, vetoed the bill. However, while vetoing the bill, the governor confirmed that caste discrimination is already against the law. In that sense, we still won: Californians who are denied housing, harassed at work, or subjected to physical or verbal abuse because of caste have clear pathways to redress, and our communities have stronger tools to live together with respect. Your work focuses on the tech industry. Tech companies are not neutral meritocracies; they are powerful corporate institutions that often protect dominant-caste networks. They benefit from public subsidies while funding anti-democratic political agendas. We must regulate tech, not worship it. Companies should explicitly include caste in anti-discrimination, vendor and harassment policies; provide caste-awareness training for HR, managers and staff; and audit datasets and algorithms to identify caste-coded biases. Just as earlier generations fought to de-brahminise access to public space, we must now de-brahminise technology and prevent a digital apartheid. Why must caste be considered in conversations about AI? If datasets, training corpora and annotation labour are marked by caste bias, and they often are, then AI will reproduce caste discrimination at scale. Caste must be included in algorithmic auditing, dataset review and ethical governance. The future must be built with caste-oppressed engineers, researchers, linguists and ethicists at the table. Where is the anti-caste movement today? Dalit art, literature, music, film, and political thought are shaping global culture. Our voices are visible. But visibility is not enough. This moment calls us to look to our ancestors such as Periyar, Iyothee Thass, Savitribai and Jyotiba Phule and Ambedkar. The next phase of our movement is about institution-building, not just reacting to harm, but designing the world that comes next. |
