are from the middle and upper castes.ĭalits are relatively small in number in the U.S., but they're increasingly vocal. In their book, The Other One Percent: Indians in America, authors Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh report that the vast majority of Indian migrants to the U.S. 'Their caste position was used by the employer, and the entities affiliated with the employer, as a way to keep them subjugated or keep them constrained and feeling like they didn't have any options,' says Patricia Kakalec, one of the lawyers representing the six named plaintiffs in a civil case filed in May.Īccording to the Pew Research Center, about 0.7% of the U.S. on R-1 visas as religious volunteers.īut their lawyers filed court papers saying they were really held against their will, forced to work 13-hour shifts for weeks on end with no time off and paid just a little more than $1 an hour. So say leading advocates for the rights of Dalits, who were once known as 'untouchables.'Ī class action lawsuit recently filed in federal court in New Jersey alleges that a massive Hindu temple in the city of Robbinsville brought some 200 workers to the U.S. Software engineers and stone masons might not have much in common professionally, but both kinds of workers can face discrimination, if they're members of the Dalit caste in Hindu society - whether in South Asia or the United States. The lawsuit alleges that the temple actually held them against their will and paid illegally low wages. A class action lawsuit recently filed in federal court in New Jersey alleges that the BAPS Hindu temple in Robbinsville brought some 200 workers to the U.S.

Coming out as dalit