The British Government has decided not to recognise caste as an aspect of race in anti-discrimination legislation- a step that has been condemned by the Dalit organisations but welcomed by many. However, a group of British Hindus have alleged that this whole consultation has been engineered to 'falsely denigrate and divide the Hindu community.'
On Monday, the government released conclusions of a public consultation that was launched in March 2017 for six months. The Equalities Office said that they have finally concluded that UK does not need a separate law against caste discrimination for Indian diaspora and the emerging case law is sufficient to provide that necessary protection.
In the conclusion the report said, “We feel this is the more proportionate approach given the extremely low numbers of cases involved and the clearly controversial nature of introducing 'caste', as a self-standing element, into British domestic law.”
“Having given careful and detailed consideration to the findings of the consultation, the government believes that the best way to provide the necessary protection against unlawful discrimination because of caste is by relying on emerging case law as developed by courts and tribunals,” the government said.
It further added, “We were not persuaded by the argument that introducing explicit legislation into domestic law was the most appropriate and proportionate way to provide the necessary legal protection against discrimination because of caste.”
In 2013, House of Lords voted in favour of outlawing caste discrimination after the UK based Dalit groups campaigned for long, especially as the matter deeply divided the Indian community.
Penny Mordaunt, the Minister for Women and Equalities publishing the response told the Parliament, “No one should suffer prejudice or discrimination on any grounds, including any perception of their caste...
“The consultation considered different ways of protecting people from caste discrimination. The first option was to implement a duty, which was introduced by Parliament in 2013, to make caste an aspect of race discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. The second was to rely on emerging case law which, in the view of Government, shows that a statutory remedy against caste discrimination is available through existing provisions in the Equality Act, and to invite Parliament to repeal the duty on that basis.
“The consultation received over 16,000 responses, showing the importance of this issue for many people in particular communities. About 53% of respondents wanted to rely on the existing statutory remedy and repeal the duty, 22% rejected both options (mainly because they wished the Government to proscribe the concept of caste in British law altogether) and about 18% of respondents wanted the duty to be implemented. The arguments put forward for these different views are set out in the Government’s response and in more detail in the analysis.
“The Government’s primary concern is to ensure that legal protection against caste discrimination is sufficient, appropriate and proportionate. After careful consideration of all the points raised in the consultation, we have decided to invite Parliament to repeal the duty because it is now sufficiently clear that the Equality Act provides this protection...
"In light of changed circumstances since 2013, we intend to legislate to repeal the duty for a specific reference to caste as an aspect of race discrimination in the Equality Act once a suitable legislative vehicle becomes available. We recognise that this is an area of domestic law which may develop further, and have carefully considered the full terms of the Tirkey judgment. We will monitor emerging case law in the years ahead..
"In order to ensure that people know their rights and what sort of conduct could be unlawful under the Equality Act, we also intend to produce short guidance before the repeal legislation is introduced. We want this to be of particular use to any individual who feels they may have suffered discrimination on grounds of caste. It should also help employers, service providers and public authorities who are outside those groups most concerned with caste and who may have little awareness of caste divisions.”
What campaigners have to say
A disheartened Sat Pal Muman, the Chair of CasteWatch UK, who ran this campaign for years, told Asian Voice exclusively, “CasteWatchUK's 15 year active campaign has been nullified at a stroke of the pen by a government that caved into pressure from the opposing side who demanded the repeal of the Caste provision.
“Government says that a separate Caste provision is not required and suggest caste could be covered by an existing ethnic origins provision. This means reliance is placed on case law to develop. This clearly means the victims will not have any legal protection and have to go through expensive long drawn legal battle to get justice. This alone is a massive deterrent for victims to seek justice to the delight of offenders who can continue to abuse and harass people on the basis of caste with impunity.
“Government has not lived up to its bold commitment 'that no one should suffer prejudice or discrimination on any grounds, including any perception of their caste' and sold out to the opposing side, no doubt for political reasons with an eye on Hindu and Sikh votes, a section amongst them were the main antagonists. No doubt Government also had an eye on trade and commercial overseas interests.”
He added, “We had explained to the British Government, recently that Caste and Ethnicity Caste does not fall into distinct ethnic group as per definition in Mandla v Dowell-Lee [1983]. Caste groups share the same ancestry e.g. country of origin, language , culture food and often be of the same religion. Despite this commonality, castes discriminate against each other. Caste groups are not ethnic groups.
“A perceived lower caste (group) is capable of discriminating against another so called higher caste (group) and vice-a-versa. Some caste groups also have sub-castes that are capable of discrimination within a Caste Group on the basis of their sub-caste.
“We don't believe ethnic origins will cover caste based discrimination because many people who have arrived and settled in Britain come from the same geographical region e.g. Punjab, Gujarat etc India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan etc. These groups have common language (e.g. Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati , Urdu etc); belong to a common religion; have similar eating habits; share in common source of entertainment e.g. enjoy ethnic music as distinct from western music; have common dress and similar colour of skin e.g. are both racially and culturally identical but still face discrimination on the basis of caste.”
The Anti-Caste Discrimination Alliance reportedly said that it was outraged by decision to repeal a law that had been agreed by Parliament and endorsed by the UN and is also supported by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.
Dawn Butler, the Labour party's spokesperson for equality issues reportedly said, “It is very disappointing that the Government has performed a U-turn on the decision to bring caste discrimination under equality law. Caste-based prejudice and discrimination is a gross violation of human rights and must not be tolerated.”
In 2010, when the House of Lords had voted to outlaw caste discrimination through the Equality Act by calling it an aspect of “race”, just like colour, nationality, and ethnic origin, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn, then a backbencher, had led a parliamentary ‘early day motion’ to push for the House of Commons to implement the legislation.
Ramesh Pattni, Vice President of the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB), the largest umbrella body for 320 British Hindu organisations told the newsweekly, “Over the years the Hindu Forum of Britain has made tremendous efforts to bring awareness and the complexities of caste legislation to the Hindu community in the UK. Since the beginning of the promotion of this legislation, it has vehemently opposed it arguing against it on several grounds including those mentioned above and in the Government’s response itself. It held several events, under the able leadership of Trupti Patel and her team including meetings with key Parliamentarians.
“A key meeting which took place in the House of Commons in July 2017 which brought together leaders from diverse organisations including NCHT(UK), BAPS Neasden Mandir, VHP UK, the Met Police Hindu Association and Maa Charity. At this event President of HFB Trupti Patel, highlighted the history of the legislation from 2007, ever since the term Caste entered the legal jargon in the UK. In her opening words, she added: 'we went to temples and community centres around the country, discussed the matter and found no evidence of caste discrimination. Working with major Hindu organisations, the steering group was created to deal with this consultation and have produced the guidance notes for businesses, individuals, temples and also simplified the forms for people to understand the questions'.
“The phenomenal effort put in by the HFB through member organisations in the matter of Caste legislation has finally resulted in an outcome which will have beneficial effect on the Hindu community for generations to come, eliminating the great problem of a ‘caste consciousness’ developing in the community with highly adverse consequences. The HFB will produce a joint review with the NCHT(UK) in near future.”
Satish Sharma, Secretary General from National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) told AV, “The Government report states that 'at the beginning of the consultation the Government made it clear that it had no preferred or expected outcome.' The British Hindu community has every reason to be grateful to the Government for being resolutely neutral but open.
“The NCHT(UK) produced their seminal Caste report available free for download from our website, and published multiple detailed videos on the issue. We established links with the Sikh and Jain communities and working very closely with the HFB, amongst other groups and together managed to encourage over 8,000 British Hindus to respond...
“The continuing use of the term 'Caste' with reference to the Hindu community, is a perpetuation of the colonial use of this term to falsely denigrate and divide the Hindu community in order to facilitate the evangelical conversion activities of the Anglican Church. We have provided extensive evidence of this in our submission to Parliamentarians and this is available in our publication 'Caste, Conversion and a thoroughly Colonial Conspiracy'.
“The British Hindu community will now need to take stock of the fact that in the Britain of the 21st century, they had been targeted by institutionally sanctioned hate speech, they were found guilty without evidence in a manner reminiscent of colonial times and required to expend 5.5 years of valuable volunteer time in order to prove their innocence.
“The NCHT(UK) and HFB will be publishing their report on the events of the last few years in a few weeks but would like to place on record their appreciation for the clear and reliable legal advice provided by Bernardine Adkins and her team at Gowlings and express our warm affection and gratitude to every Hindu who studied the legalities and still stepped forward to complete the consultation forms in the recommended manner.”
He also thanked Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Sajid Javid for early publication of this report and Bob Blackman MP for all the support.
Commenting on the announcement Bob Blackman MP said, "I welcome the announcement by the government that they intend to repeal the duty for a specific reference to caste as an aspect of race discrimination in the Equality Act.
"There can be no doubt that the inclusion of caste as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010 was divisive, ill thought out and unnecessary. I am delighted the government will now take action to remove it from the statute book.
"This has been a long campaign and one which has required considerable time and effort from Nitin Palan MBE, Lakshmi Kaul, the Hindu Forum of Britain, the National Council of Hindu Temples, and the Anti-Caste Legislation Committee.
"Thanks also to Penny Mordaunt for her time, consideration and actions to date in implementing the work began by her predecessors."
