The California Civil Rights Department has voluntarily dismissed its case alleging caste discrimination against two Cisco engineers, while still keeping alive its litigation against the Silicon Valley tech giant.
The two Cisco supervisors, Sundar Iyer and Ramana Kompella, were accused in the department’s lawsuit of discriminating and harassing an employee on the basis of caste — a division of people based on birth or descent. That case was dismissed by an order of the Santa Clara Superior County Court last week. The employee belonged to the Dalit community, a group that is at the bottom rung of the caste system which took root and evolved in India and elsewhere in the subcontinent.
The Civil Rights Department sent a statement to The Associated Press on Monday saying the case against Cisco “remains ongoing.”
“We will continue to vigorously litigate the matter on behalf of the people of California,” it said, adding that it remains committed to “securing relief and ensuring company wide, corrective action.”
A Cisco spokesperson declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.
California’s lawsuit against Cisco, filed in July 2020, alleges that the Dalit engineer received less pay and fewer opportunities and that the defendants retaliated against him when he opposed “unlawful practices, contrary to the traditional order between the Dalit and higher castes.” The engineer worked on a team at Cisco’s San Jose headquarters with Indians who all immigrated to the U.S. as adults, and all of whom were of high caste, the lawsuit stated.
The caste system in India and other South Asian countries, as well as the diaspora, places Dalits at the bottom of a social hierarchy. In 1948, a year after independence from British rule, India banned discrimination on the basis of caste, a law that became enshrined in the nation’s constitution in 1950.
The lawsuit against Cisco and its engineers fueled a movement against caste discrimination led by groups such as…
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