Supporters and opponents of a proposed ordinance to add caste to Seattle’s anti-discrimination laws gather at City Hall on Feb. 21, 2023.
(AP Photo/John Froschauer)
Casteism is commonly seen as a form of discrimination limited to South Asia. However, diaspora communities in Canada are also grappling with issues of caste.
Skin-lightening creams for sale in a shop in New Delhi, India, in 2020.
Sajjad Hussain / Getty Images
Fair skin as a beauty ideal underpins the global bleach cream industry – valued at $8.6 billion. There is a nascent backlash against the practice, which endangers health and can perpetuate racism.
Indian Matchmaking’s Sima Aunty.
Yash Ruparelia/Netflix
While a lighthearted dating show, can Indian matchmaking get away with not exploring the turbulent politics of caste oppression and violence against Muslims in India?
A Black Lives Matter protester in Senegal.
JOHN WESSELS/AFP via Getty Images
A leading sociologist explains how different dimensions of humanity produce different kinds of inequality - and what that does to the least equal in society.
Indian activists hold candles and portraits of 20th century Indian social reformer B. R. Ambedkar as they take part in a protest against a Supreme Court order that allegedly diluted the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in Kolkata on April 4, 2018.
AFP
The second part of this series from The Anthill podcast looks at the trajectories of Hindu nationalism in India.
Many Americans would be appalled to think that caste might exist in the supposedly meritocratic U.S. But is the country’s persistent, entrenched inequality really so different?
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India is not able to do away with its caste politics. It has been apparent in the dramatic turn of Narendra Modi’s regime to woo lower castes through multiple policy measures.
Narendra Modi’s government is drumming up war hysteria on the eve of crucial state elections. The gathering storm threatens India’s increasingly beleaguered democracy.
A Hindu devotee prepares to participate in a fire-walking ceremony to honour the goddess Draupadi in Durban, 2011.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
Religious conversion sometimes has the added bonus of upward social mobility. But for many in South Africa’s Indian community it had the opposite effect.
Given the conservative stand of the Catholic Church on gays and lesbians, Pope Francis had a wonderful opportunity to extend his message of tolerance to both the religious and social realms.
Systems of oppression have much in common.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade