If we are not at the table,
we will be on the menu.

This is not like India's reservation system. In India, caste classification comes with government benefits — reserved seats in jobs and education. In America, there are no such benefits. None. Caste is being added purely as a discrimination category — meaning any Hindu or Indian employee can be accused of caste bias by a colleague, triggering an HR investigation, with no offsetting advantage whatsoever. Vague definitions make it easier to file complaints, not harder. You do not need to know someone's actual caste to accuse them.

California's SB403 was authored by Aisha Wahab — an Afghan-American Muslim state senator — and co-authored by Ash Kalra, an Indian-American Hindu assemblyman. The organization behind it, Equality Labs, ran over 700 lobbying meetings in a single legislative cycle. Governor Newsom vetoed it in 2023. They have publicly stated they will bring it back.

Meanwhile, Cisco, Brandeis, Brown, and multiple UC campuses have already embedded caste policies into HR and student conduct frameworks — no legislation needed.

At Michigan, Harvard, and Columbia, mandatory diversity training frames Hindu practice as a social hierarchy to be dismantled. Your child is navigating a campus where their identity is a liability. State legislatures control what is taught in K–12 classrooms. PAC funding of the right candidates is how that changes.

A Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 6th grade textbook submitted for California state adoption described the Vedas as "spells and charms" and "secret rituals," ignored the Upanishads entirely, and misquoted the Bhagavad Gita. The same books depicted ancient India through images of slums, poverty, and cows eating trash — while Greek philosophers and Hebrew heroes were celebrated. The word "Hinduism" itself was separately proposed to be replaced with "ancient Indian religion" in state curriculum guidelines. The California State Board rejected the HMH textbook in 2017 after sustained Hindu American advocacy — but the underlying curriculum framework that shapes what all publishers submit remains contested.

Meanwhile the Bhagavad Gita was described as a character in "an adventure story — like action movies of today." The Mahabharata was introduced as thrilling fiction. Biblical accounts were treated as history. Hindu scripture was treated as mythology.

This is not ancient history. The Hindu American Foundation confirmed in 2021 that colonial-era misconceptions have still not been fully removed from educational materials. The battle over what your child's teacher reads aloud in class is ongoing — and for most of the past two decades, we were not in the room where the curriculum was approved.

The consequence is not abstract. When a child hears their religion described as primitive in front of their classmates, they do not argue back. They go quiet. They stop bringing their tiffin to school. They shorten their name. They say "I'm not really religious." They trade their identity for social survival — one small concession at a time — until the teenager who emerges has learned to be ashamed of everything their grandparents held sacred. We sent them to school to get ahead. The curriculum taught them to disappear.

→ Hinduism Today — CA Board Proceedings 2017   → CDE Instructional Materials (official)

Our sacred swastika — used in rangoli, temples, and weddings for 5,000 years — is being equated to the Nazi Hakenkreuz in state legislation. These are two different symbols with different names, origins, and meanings. Without our voice in the drafting room, these bills will never make that distinction.

Virginia HB-2783 (2025) is the counter-example: it explicitly protected the Hindu swastika while classifying the Nazi hakenkreuz as a Class 6 felony. That passed because Hindu Americans organized and showed up. It is proof the model works.

Political attention follows political organization. When other communities face attacks on their places of worship, organized lobbying infrastructure ensures swift legislative response. We have no equivalent. Every attack trends on WhatsApp for 48 hours and then disappears with zero political consequence for anyone.

In California, anti-Hindu hate ranked second only to antisemitism for four consecutive years — including six temples vandalized in a single two-week span, with no arrests.

The next crisis will not announce itself. Without pre-built legislative relationships and rapid-response capacity, we will react the same way we always have — too late and too scattered to make any politician pay a price. A4H is building that infrastructure now, before the next crisis hits.

A federal lawsuit revealed Cisco discriminated against a Dalit engineer — and internal HR policy treated caste as a protected category, effectively placing Hindu and Indian employees under a presumption of guilt. This policy is already in place and has set a national template now replicated across Silicon Valley.

→ Original DFEH Filing (California CRD)

Seattle became the first U.S. city to add caste as a protected category in anti-discrimination law in 2023. The ordinance passed with no meaningful Hindu voice in the room — because we had no political relationships with the council. More cities are watching.

Brandeis has added caste as a protected category in its official non-discrimination and harassment policies. The standard used is based on activist frameworks that treat Hindu identity as inherently connected to caste oppression.

Brown has implemented caste protections. The standard used is based on activist frameworks that treat Hindu identity as inherently connected to caste oppression. Hindu students had no representation when these policies were adopted.

Virginia HB-2783 passed in 2025, explicitly distinguishing the Hindu swastika from the Nazi hakenkreuz in state law. This bill passed because Hindu Americans organized, showed up, and had relationships with legislators in advance. It is direct proof that the model works — and that the same model is needed everywhere else.

→ Read the enacted law (Virginia Legislature)

SB403 would have added caste discrimination to California state law. Vetoed by Governor Newsom in 2023 after sustained advocacy — and its architects have stated publicly they will reintroduce it. → Read the bill (CA Legislature)

The organization behind SB403 is Equality Labs — funded through the Ford Foundation, the Omidyar Network, and Open Society-linked grant channels. Their full-time staff conducted over 700 advocacy meetings across California in a single legislative cycle. The lobbying infrastructure they built remains fully intact and active.

New York A6920/S6531 would add caste to state employment and housing anti-discrimination law. As of the close of the 2025–26 session, it carried 22 Assembly and 11 Senate co-sponsors and an endorsement from the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues. CoHNA and HAF filed formal opposition. It returns in January 2027.

→ Assembly Bill A6920 (NY Legislature)  ·  → Senate Bill S6531 (NY Legislature)

Advocacy groups have pushed U of M to adopt caste discrimination policies. Michigan is where A4H's chapter is most active — and this is exactly why local organization matters. We need to be at the table before this vote happens, not after.

Faculty and student groups have pushed to add caste to Harvard's non-discrimination policy. The campaign is ongoing — and the framework being used is identical to what passed in Seattle.

Separately, a 2026 Columbia Law Review article proposes adding caste to federal employment law under Title VII. If adopted as an academic precedent, it sets the stage for federal litigation and eventual rulemaking — making caste discrimination a nationwide federal employment law issue affecting every Hindu American professional in the country.