CasteFiles, a Hindu-American advocacy and academic group, filed a civil rights criticism towards New Jersey’s Rutgers College and Professor Audrey Truschke, the group introduced Tuesday. CasteFiles claimed that the college doesn’t shield college students from discrimination as required by Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Rutgers College had been suggested so as to add “caste” as a protected group within the college’s Policy Prohibiting Discrimination and Harassment after the establishment’s caste activity power, co-chaired by South Asian historical past professor Truschke, launched a report entitled ‘Caste Primarily based Discrimination in U.S. Greater Training at Rutgers’ in August 2024. The report consisted of testimonies detailing caste discrimination confronted by college students and college.
Since 2019, universities throughout the US have moved to prohibit caste discrimination, with Brandeis College being the primary to amend its faculty coverage to incorporate caste bias.
Founding father of CasteFiles Richa Gautam mentioned that there was weak proof within the report and that there isn’t any systematic information that proves Hindu Individuals expertise discrimination primarily based on caste. Gautum additionally pointed in the direction of a petition written by Hindu college students in 2021, the place college students claimed they have been involved for his or her security and feared assaults, bullying and backlash, condemning Truschke for alleged Hinduphobia. Director of CasteFiles Abhijit Bagal famous Rutgers College’s earlier failures to guard its college students, together with lawsuits by Jewish college students in addition to alleged discrimination in the direction of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim college students. Bagal mentioned CasteFiles would revoke the Title VI criticism if the caste activity power agreed to take away mentions that could possibly be linked to the caste system, stating that the caste system could possibly be included right into a impartial time period akin to “class or social standing” which can be related to all Individuals.
Truschke was named a defendant in 2021 after the Hindu American Basis (HAF) filed a lawsuit within the US District Courtroom. Nonetheless, this transfer was criticised by the group Hindus for Human Rights as being a strategic lawsuit to get rid of criticism of Hindutva, a right-wing political and ethno-nationalist ideology. That very same 12 months, Rutgers provided its support to Professor Truschke, citing her tutorial freedom and condemned the “vile messages and threats” directed at her. Help had additionally come from Hindu college members at Rutgers.
Source / Picture: jurist.org
