CASTE DISCRIMINATION HERE IN CANADA?

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

I was flabbergasted recently when I started seeing news reports about South Asian children and youth having to deal with caste discrimination here in Canada.

In all my years as a school principal, school superintendent and college vice-president I had never had to deal with a case of caste prejudice.

This is Canada! Why do our students have to deal with these verbal hurts and why would those bigots bring their dark prejudice here? 

Like all other bigotry such as race prejudice, religious superiority, physical and verbal abuse against the LGBTQ community, ageism, sexism, online hatred, and threats of abominable violence flung at journalists and minorities, this caste discrimination adds to that fearful place created by prejudiced people. But bringing that hatred here and using it against children is unforgivably low. 

On March 8, 2023, the Toronto District School Board passed a motion to tackle caste-based discrimination. This type of prejudice is so new here in Canada that our Human Rights Codes do not have a name for it in its legislative framework or lexicon. The TDSB has formally requested that the Ontario Human Rights Commission revise its framework to include this prejudice and make it illegal the same way that other prejudices such as racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia are not allowed. The Board now requires that caste-based discrimination as a system of oppression be included in the Board’s strategic plan, thus embedding and recognizing that it must be dealt with just as seriously as all other code-defined oppressions.

Even institutions like Carleton University in Ottawa and the California State University this year included caste discrimination in their list of violations of rights, so caste oppression has made its way into many levels of schooling. At the university level, reported cases allege that students ask one another for last names and if a name is associated with the so-called lower castes that student becomes the butt of taunts, slurs and ostracization (see here).

According to the United Nations’ Rita Izsak-Ndiaye (see newcanadianmedia.ca) 250 million people around the world are oppressed by caste. Even though India banned caste discrimination in 1948 and in 1951 enshrined that ban into its constitution, the discrimination has continued. This social hierarchy defines people as upper caste or lower caste, and people are stratified into high privileges for high caste then dropping people lower and lower on the rung as the ladder works its way down. When one looks at the actual nomenclature of caste, one sees how old and outdated a system it is.

Most of the recorded complaints in school boards and universities are being lodged by people who were relegated to the Dalit caste by birth. They report facing oppression here in their neighbourhoods, schools, and other social settings. (see here). Imagine in your mind’s eye a child, a toddler, a grade school student with their innocent faces and eagerness to play being ostracised by parents of other children who have taught their offsprings to stay away from Dalit kids. This bigotry is taught and parents who are perpetrating these shameful prejudices need to consider the harm they are doing not only to the victims but also to their own children whom they are training to be bigots. 

However, not all South Asians can be tainted with the same brush of prejudice. According to the Pew Research Centre: 

“…most Indians do not feel there is a lot of caste discrimination in the country, and two-thirds of those who identify with scheduled castes (Dalits) or tribes say there is not widespread discrimination against their respective groups.”

But they go on to say:

“Caste segregation remains prevalent in India…Indians conduct their social lives largely within caste hierarchies. A majority of Indians say that their close friends are mostly members of their own caste, including roughly one-quarter (24 per cent) who say all their close friends are from their caste. And most people say it is very important to stop both men and women in their community from marrying into other castes, although this view varies widely by region. For example, roughly eight-in-ten Indians in the Central region (82 per cent) say it is very important to stop inter-caste marriages for men, compared with just 35 per cent in the South who feel strongly about stopping such marriages.” See here.

Looking at the situation from these lenses then, one begins to see that those few families who are in fact practising this form of prejudice here in Canada learned this behaviour over generations and thousands of years of history, so it is deep-rooted and internalized into their psyches. So, while they cannot be condoned for their bigotry, they can certainly be taught about respecting human rights in a democracy; and if they are unwilling to accept democratic principles in a democracy then the school boards and universities are on the right track to teach them with measures that will force them to curtail their bigotry. For example, as reported by New Canadian Media:

“In a recent ruling, the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ordered two B.C. residents to pay $9,755 in compensation for using casteist slurs during altercations.”  

It must be noted that The Canadian Organization for Hindu Heritage Education (COHHE) based in Toronto publicly opposes the TDSB motion. They work to “educate, promote and celebrate Hindu heritage,” and say that this kind of motion paints Hindus in a poor light.

“We all understand there is no place for the caste system in society today; there is no caste in Canada. This is all being brought in as Hinduphobia,” said Dr. Ragini Sharma, president of COHHE. “It is a political movement, and, has nothing to do with the upliftment of Dalits here.” 

See New Canadian Media story here.

They maintain that caste-based discrimination is not widespread in Canada and that Canada already has sophisticated legal systems to deal with discrimination through existing human rights codes. They fear that this focus will increase prejudice against South Asians in general and paint South Asians as being bigoted people. These views need to be respected and considered by the committees set up to enshrine caste-based discrimination into policies, codes, and legislation here in Canada.

Note: While this article deals with the issue of caste as raised recently by educational organizations in Canada, it must be acknowledged that sectarian discrimination exists in many religions in many countries around the world including Canada.