USA, September 15, 2002: Rajiv Malhotra, prolific contributor to www.sulekha.com, gives a provocative look at castism in America. Malhotra’s very long article concludes with the belief that American society has its own caste system. A key difference, he says, is that in India, castism is explicitly codified; whereas in America, social structure by ethnicity or family lineage remains uncodified and subliminal. He concludes with a discussion on Hindu identity. “Media, education and public images of Hinduism are often dominated by negative stereotypes. Hence, most Indians have multiple identities, bringing out the one that works best in a given situation. Post-colonialists have written about a phenomenon called ‘brown shame’ that was encouraged amongst Indians by the British as a way to dominate Indians. But nobody has brought out the more recent phenomenon that I call ‘Hindu shame.’ To be openly Hindu is often seen as a matter of shame…. This new Hindu American caste needs to learn from the successes of other American castes (Jewish, Irish, Italian). This is especially important as the population of Indians in America is projected to increase to ten million by 2050, and there shall also be many non-Indians who continue to adopt Hinduism.”
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