An Angry Hindu American Mom’s Rant
A Californian mother’s questions on the SB-403 “caste discrimination” bill
Mother’s Day 2023 was a total downer for me. Instead of feeling grateful and proud of my motherhood, I was angry, anxious, and confused.
Unfortunately, this is the current state for many Californian Hindu moms ever since the SB-403 bill’s introduction. This bill would introduce caste among other protected categories like race and sex, thus seeking to update California’s existing civil rights law.
Externally, the bill seems fair- no human tolerates discrimination! Which mom doesn’t wish for her child’s equal and fair treatment? But wait, doesn’t caste get covered under existing categories like national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, and religious beliefs?
So precisely what protection does SB-403 aim to provide that is yet unavailable? Why are Californian Hindu families so distraught?
The pace at which lawmakers accelerated the bill through the legislature raised eyebrows. Many, like me, were in Sacramento downtown at the Judiciary Committee hearing, protesting against the bill.
Most of the Judiciary Committee voted yes, despite a majority of NO votes from the constituents. Next, the bill skipped the Appropriations Meeting without scrutiny of the cost to the state. It got introduced at the Senate without prior notice, weeks ahead of its stipulated date. The Senators pushed through the bill with 42–1 votes.
As I started digging more, I learned that the bill begins with a strong assumption of discrimination, insinuating that South Asians and South Americans, Japanese, and South Africans, by default, practice casteism.
The SB-403 is NOT a facially neutral bill, slapping on us a demeaning, divisive, and dangerous identity, limiting us to being oppressors or the oppressed. The bill further insinuates that we have a propensity to commit heinous crimes like human trafficking, workplace bullying/harassment, rape, and murder due to our caste identities.
Also, SB-403 does not apply to everyone in this state ( not every Californian has a caste), thus repeating the unacceptable crimes of the California Alien Land Law of 1913.
https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/may/3
This divisive bill would unleash widespread witch-hunting and scapegoating with the “knife of caste” hanging over our heads no matter what we do!
WHY. THIS. HATE?
The SB-403 feels like the final nail of a coffin we have been in for a long time. As a tiny minority in the U.S. ( less than 2%), Indian Americans are used to receiving a dichotomous perception of everything in South Asia/India/ Hinduism.
The West exhibits a clear adoration and adoption vs. distortion and malpractice of our ancient beliefs and traditions.
Yoga is a great example. While there is widespread and advanced learning, with its practitioners adopting it as a lifestyle, there is also beer and goat yoga!
And oh my! As a new immigrant, I found questions like, “Did your parents lock you up in a room with a snake to force you into an arranged marriage?”, hilarious, ignorant and frustrating!
Are we just a poor, ritualistic, merciless country of snake charmers?
Early on, I realized that the white man carries the unfortunate burden of always saving and educating the rest of the world, which works only on the assumption of demeaning, diluted narratives! Narratives that are mercilessly peddled by popular Western media, including major news channels like N.Y. Times, CNN, BBC till date.
They project rather than educate, conclude rather than be curious to prove their adopted moral high ground.
And this saga of constantly being scapegoated goes on to the next level with bills like SB-403.
Am I being over-dramatic as a mom? I wish, but unfortunately, this negative stereotyping of Hinduism and India starts at schools.
I was one of many who protested in 2017 in Sacramento for the removal of singular and offensive depictions of Hinduism in California middle school textbooks! All other faiths get justified, and due recognition of contributions to arts, sciences, and humanities. Conversely, Hinduism is only projected as the caste system with NO mention of the classical performing arts, literature, the zillion languages, food, temple architecture, astronomy, and Ayurveda.
It doesn’t just stop there. Sometime back, my daughter’s friend, a private schooler, shared her history class doing “role play” of the caste system, by dividing the classroom into four groups. The class becomes rowdy; the teacher shuts down the practical project, and kids turn in reports on their assigned caste. My daughter returned home feeling shame and hurt.
I was enraged as a mom!
What’s the idea here? To enable kids to play out/ understand social inequities and how to solve them? If so, then why not for all other major faiths and cultures?
Would we be ok if classrooms enacted the divide and animosity between Shia and Sunni Muslims, a cause of widespread human rights violations in the Islamic world?
https://www.history.com/news/sunni-shia-divide-islam-muslim
How about the Protestant-Catholic divide or the gazillion denominations that discriminate against each other in the Christian world?
Did we forget that this country was founded on Christians seeking religious freedom, which led to the genocide of an entire Native American race?
How about a practical lesson on these gruesome aspects of U.S. history?
Of course, two wrongs don’t make a right! But when dirt-hunting and maligning my ancient, incredible culture is in the cards, it’s justified that I ask for accountability?
Also, will we ever pass on the ancestral burden of the Catholic-Protestant divide to the young practitioners of Christianity? Or constantly rile Muslim kids for the current radicalized, brutal regime of the Taliban in Afghanistan? Never! Families of different faiths co-exist peacefully in our communities. We don’t look at them through a biased lens based on their history or current events.
Why are our Hindu kids required to carry ancestral burdens when their friends don’t?
Through middle school history textbooks or SB-403, state-sponsored hate and scapegoating intended to strike the Hindu population seem the new normal in California.
Why only us?
Is schooling meant to: Empower or destroy? Educate or bias? Unite or divide?
We will never DARE to make any singular misrepresentation of any other faith or culture. Cause Racism and Islamophobia have their corners covered.
But the Hindus? They are one of a kind with a laser-sharp focus on getting good grades, building a fulfilling career, and a prosperous life.
The default message in Hindu parenting and psyche is:
- Ignore the bullshit and focus on yourself.
- Develop, not dismantle.
- Connect, not complain.
That’s why large-scale online or offline Hindu-led protests are rare.
But change is coming; how long is a Hindu meant to keep quiet?
Hindu Lives Matter!
Amazon, for example, has repeatedly irked Hindus for selling merchandise with unacceptable printing of our sacred symbols and images!
Petition launched against Amazon for selling toilet mats depicting Hindu Gods
Had Amazon done this with other faiths and their symbols, Jeff Bezos would have been deep in the ground with a magnificent grave on top that says “Do.Not.Mess.With.Us.”
Remember Charlie Hebdo, the Parisian cartoonist?
EDUCATION. IS. KEY
My life as an immigrant in the States has convinced me of the importance of advocating for my faith. Does anyone have any original idea of Hinduism?
Is being a Hindu only about curry, cow, caste, and karma? Do we do anything beyond wearing colorful clothes, dancing to groovy Bollywood numbers, and eating spicy food?
Want to know more? Well, here is a quick rundown.
- Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma ( sun-aa-tha-na-dhur-maa), or Eternal Truth, is a pluralistic, all-inclusive, and dynamic faith that millions worldwide practice.
2. At its root is realizing one’s Indwelling Divinity by exploring one’s place on earth, purpose, relationship with self, surroundings, and the Creator.
3. The bindi/tilak/red mark worn by Hindu men and women between their eyebrows signifies the worship of the intellect. Debates, discussions, challenging the dominant opinion, and choosing one’s path of worship are all absolutely encouraged.
4. Hinduism does not separate the divine from the mundane. Living in itself is a form of devotion. Thus our ancestors produced cutting-edge research and specialization in arts & literature, science & politics, religion & philosophy, or psychology & environmental studies.
SAY. NO. TO. SB-403
But no, none of the above will be the allowed narrative of Hinduism once SB-403 passes. Hindus will be vilified, questioned, probed, and avoided as oppressors or the oppressed on an official note in California.
And what about bullying in schools? Would any kid want to be friends with another whose families they learned in school are the “bad guys”? Imagine being scapegoated in your formative middle school years, internalizing shame and guilt!
The SB-403 will institutionalize implicit bias across schools and colleges. Our kids would go through their education and begin their careers with legal liability and negative bias attached. Why would anyone want to hire them? And what happens to their careers, if they have to constantly face the fear of being dog-whistled?
Look no further than the Cisco vs CRD case, where the accused Sundar Iyer a self-proclaimed atheist, was slapped with caste discrimination, hounded, and witch-hunted. His family had to go into hiding!
https://californiaforjustice.com/
Lastly, this bill will only further nudge my kids away from their faith and cultural heritage. After all, no kid wants to suffer despite being like every other American kid. Which Indian American kid even knows about their caste, never mind practicing it?
What enrages me the most is that in all my 20 years of living in the U.S., in three different states and multiple towns in California, I have never been asked about my caste. Never.
My kids and I have been members of multiple languages, religious and cultural organizations and have always seen 100% acceptance of everyone, including non-Indian origin folks.
Samskrita Bharati, for example, encourages everyone to learn the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit. Never encountered anyone being asked about their caste, national origin, ancestry, religious beliefs, or ethnicity?
https://samskritabharatiusa.org/
In our celebrations, get-togethers, temples, travels, and workplaces, we mingle and bond as Indian Americans or Indian-origin diaspora. We have friends across all religions and countries, including atheists, and never ponder on “caste.”
Like most other immigrant parents, Hindu parents strive to imbibe our mother tongue, cultural practices, and American ideals into our first-generation kids, not associate them with a caste! Our parenting challenges are similar to other American parents’ — do your chores, do well in school, focus, be kind, share, and of course, “ no boyfriends ”! ;)
With SB-403, our kids will be taught to identify with a “caste,” an irrelevant and unacceptable imposition that will only augment discrimination. Most lawmakers tout “ serving families first.” What about our Hindu families?
Lawmakers: How are my Hindu kids different from yours?
FOLLOW. THE. MONEY
As a parent, I can’t help but wonder if this is a calculated effort to dismantle Hinduism. Do the lawmakers truly understand anything about South Asia, forget caste? Follow the money, and it is apparent that dubious, divisive, anti-Hindu hate-spewing groups like Equality Labs are this bill’s biggest supporters. Folks like me have been equated to Nazis, and every scripture of Hinduism has been claimed to inflict pain and violence!
Really Nazis? ENOUGH!!
These groups are also the self-proclaimed experts in DEI training who will now be in every nook and corner, educating everyone about “caste” through their bigoted lens. Is this an inside nexus at the cost of a peace-loving, hard-working community that has contributed tremendously to California? What is going on?
NEVER. GIVE. UP
Some days none of this makes sense. As a mother, I want to be left alone to parent and bond with my children. I feel confused, helpless, angry, and anxious. I want to whine and complain non-stop! But no, that won’t do. For the Bhagwad Gita, the sacred text of the Hindus, behooves one to get up and fight.
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७
You have the right to work only but never to its fruits.
Let not the fruits of action be your motive, nor let your attachment be to inaction. 2–47
What can I do? Tons!
Mobilize my Hindu communities, including my kids, to advocate for themselves. Encourage the youth to understand the law, verbalize confidently about their faith and practices, and communicate through conflict with dignity, compassion, and respect. Spelling Bees and mastering Math alone won’t do anymore! ;)
I am a seeker first; every experience is but a step in the ladder of my spirituality. All I need to do is make an effort, and the rest will be taken care of.
I won’t give up in my fight to protect my kids and my Hindu communities.
HINDU LIVES MATTER
Stop SB-403. Stop racial profiling.
Stop weaponizing caste.
Stop the damn witch-hunt.
