Moving Towards Abolishing Caste in North American Universities: A Roundtable with the University of California Collective for Caste Abolition

For many years now, campuses across North America have organized to fight for anti-caste protections. In 2019, Brandeis University was the first to add caste to its non-discrimination and harassment policy. In November 2021, UC Davis became the first public university in the US to add caste as a protected category. California State University, spanning 23 campuses, was the first to make caste a protected category within its anti-discrimination policy in 2022. And in 2024, the University of Toronto added caste as a protected category. While fighting for anti-caste protections is important, it is only the first step that opens the door towards building caste competencies within North American academia, heavily entrenched in its anti-Black and white settler colonial foundations. Beyond the multicultural model, which seeks to incorporate caste as a measure of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the University of California Collective for Caste Abolition is invested in organizing for material and structural change within the UC system and beyond. In this roundtable, the UC Collective for Caste Abolition will share the history of its formation, and its current work and visions to illustrate how institutions across North America may heed the call and participate in the movement for caste abolition. might continue their activism toward caste abolition. The University of California Collective for Caste Abolition was officially formalized in April 2023. An intercaste, interracial, and intergenerational collective of students, staff, and faculty from across the University of California (UC) system, they have been organizing for years across different campuses pushing the UC system to address caste and caste violence. In addition to advocating for caste to be included as a protected category within the UC-wide anti-discrimination policy, the Collective is identifying additional ways that North American universities should address caste-based discrimination and violence. From hiring to mentorship, this is a critical moment for savarna and non-South Asian academics to step up to take on the labor of doing anti-caste work in academia. In this roundtable, members of the collective will discuss the following: - How to add caste as a protected category? - Why is adding caste as a protected category not enough? - Why does South Asian solidarity with movements for abolition and decolonization need to begin with anti-caste politics? - How must savarna academics step up? And when must they step down? - How can savarna and non-South Asian academics do anti-caste work ethically without being extractive? - How does caste abolition align with other social justice movements on North American campuses?