A Comparative Inquiry into Caste in India and Race in the United States
By Yasha Singh and Nitin Ranjan
Executive Summary
This report examines the intertwined histories and structures of caste-based oppression in India and race-based discrimination in the United States, drawing legal, cultural, and religious parallels and lessons. Both systems are revealed as deeply entrenched hierarchies enforced through law, social customs, and theology – yet each also carries a legacy of resistance and solidarity.
Section I: Legal Analogies and Lessons compares India’s anti-caste legal framework (e.g. the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, constitutional abolitions of “untouchability,” and affirmative measures) with U.S. civil rights laws (e.g. the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and anti-lynching efforts). It highlights how a groundbreaking California lawsuit against Cisco Systems in 2020 extended U.S. employment law to caste discrimination[1] and how cities like Seattle have begun explicitly banning caste bias[2]. This section also notes the historical dialogue between these legal systems and international human rights norms that recognize caste discrimination as akin to racial discrimination[3].
Section II: Cultural Parallels and Divergences explores how both caste and race hierarchies are socially enforced. It underscores parallels like strict endogamy and violent “honor” codes: for example, the honor killing of a Dalit engineer, Kavin Selvaganesh, by an upper-caste family in Tamil Nadu in 2025 for loving outside his caste closely mirrors Jim Crow-era lynchings of Black men accused of relationships with white women in the U.S[4]. Both caste and race systems rely on terrorizing those who defy social boundaries, yet differences exist – caste stratification involves numerous gradations and ritual purity concepts, whereas U.S. racial ideology historically insisted on a binary “color line” backed by pseudoscientific racism. Despite these differences, each culture developed rationales (from “merit” in caste discourse to “separate but equal” in race discourse) to normalize inequality, and each saw counternarratives emerge from marginalized communities.
Section III: Religious Dimensions and Comparative Theologies analyzes how religion has both sustained and challenged caste and race hierarchies. In South Asia, the Hindu varna system and texts like Manusmriti sacralized caste divisions for millennia, portraying Dalits as inherently impure – a doctrine directly challenged by B.R. Ambedkar’s Navayana Buddhist movement, which saw mass Dalit conversions in 1956 to reject Hindu casteism[5]. In the United States, Christian scriptures were cynically cited to justify slavery and segregation, yet the Black Church and liberation theology transformed Christianity into a source of resistance. The section draws comparisons between Dalit theologians and Black liberation theologians, noting that both interpret faith through the lens of an oppressed people seeking dignity. It also highlights how contemporary interfaith initiatives question caste and race supremacy, such as Dalit-Christian theologies that equate Dalits with “God’s people” in Exodus and the long tradition of African-American spirituals and sermons framing Black suffering in biblical terms. These comparative theologies illustrate a shared message: systems of human hierarchy violate fundamental religious ideals of equality and justice.
Section IV: Afro-Dalit Solidarity as a Transnational Framework traces 140 years of mutual inspiration and alliance-building between African American and Dalit leaders. From the late 19th century onward, Dalits looked to Black emancipation as a beacon – Dalit Panthers in 1970s India named themselves after the Black Panthers[6], and correspondence occurred between Dalit icon Dr. Ambedkar and African-American intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois in the 1940s. Today, scholars like Suraj Yengde – a W.E.B. Du Bois Fellow at Harvard – carry this legacy, convening Dalit-Black symposiums and co-founding the “Dalit-Black Lives Matter” movement[7]. Harvard Kennedy School has hosted Dalit-Black dialogues that facilitate joint strategy sessions for students and activists from both communities. This section emphasizes concrete outcomes of such solidarity: for instance, the first-of-its-kind Cisco caste discrimination lawsuit in California was supported by U.S. Dalit-rights groups (like Equality Labs) with strong allyship from Black civil rights advocates, illustrating how transnational solidarity yields legal victories. The framework of “Afro-Dalit” solidarity reframes caste and race not as isolated national issues but as interconnected struggles against structural oppression globally.
Section V: Implications for U.S. Advocacy and Civil Rights Strategy discusses how these insights can inform contemporary policy and activism in the United States. It suggests that U.S. civil rights organizations broaden their platform to include caste discrimination – particularly given growing South Asian diaspora communities – by advocating for recognition of caste as a protected category in anti-discrimination policies. It notes precedent-setting developments like Seattle’s ordinance banning caste bias in employment, housing, and education[8] and the inclusion of caste in university non-discrimination codes (e.g. Brandeis University in 2019, California State University, and Harvard’s 2021 student union contract)[9]. The section also recommends that U.S. advocates draw lessons from India’s strong legal measures (such as the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act which criminalizes caste-based violence[10]) to craft more robust hate-crime and affirmative action policies. Finally, it argues that an Afro-Dalit transnational outlook can revitalize U.S. racial justice work – situating domestic struggles in a global human rights context and forging alliances with marginalized groups worldwide for collective impact.
In conclusion, the report finds that caste and race are “sibling systems” of injustice sustained by analogous tools of dominance, and that the fight against them is fundamentally linked. It urges Professor Cornell William Brooks and fellow civil rights scholars to adopt an indivisibility-of-justice approach: progress against caste hierarchy strengthens the battle against racial hierarchy, and vice versa. By learning from each other’s legal victories, cultural resilience, and spiritual resistance, advocates in India and the U.S. can jointly bend the arc of history toward justice.
This op-ed draws from a comprehensive research report published by Inside Jharkhand. The full report, titled CASTE AND RACE:SHARED STRCUTURE OF INJUSTICE by Nitin Ranjan and Yasha Singh, is available for download here. This document is shared for public awareness and academic engagement only. Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, or commercial use of any part of the report without prior written consent from the author is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.
[1] https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/2020/06/30/dfeh-sues-cisco-systems-inc-and-former-managers-for-caste-based-discrimination/
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/21/seattle-ban-caste-based-discrimination
[3] https://minorityrights.org/mrg-welcomes-historic-united-nations-decisions-to-address-global-caste-based-discrimination/
[4] https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/history-lynching-america
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Buddhist_movement
[6] https://hir.harvard.edu/dalit-and-black-solidarity-interview-with-suraj-yengde/
[7] https://hir.harvard.edu/dalit-and-black-solidarity-interview-with-suraj-yengde/
[8] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/21/seattle-ban-caste-based-discrimination
[9] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/21/seattle-ban-caste-based-discrimination
[10]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheduled_Caste_and_Scheduled_Tribe_(Prevention_of_Atrocities)_Act,_1989
