Nirmal Singh, 42, has been on a hunger strike for 18 days. Only drinking liquids, he says he can’t run with his children anymore; even climbing stairs is hard. But as an Indian American who identifies as caste-oppressed, he says the cause he’s fighting for is worth it.
In an effort to make California the first state in the United States to ban caste discrimination, a group of South Asian activists has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks outside Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.
They say they will not eat solid foods until Newsom signs Senate Bill 403, which would explicitly clarify that caste is among the protected category of ancestry in California’s civil rights law.
The bill, which cleared both houses of the state Legislature earlier this month, has signaled a large step forward for caste oppressed Americans, leaders said. To make one last push to get it signed by the governor before his deadline of Oct. 14, they say they’re turning to a quintessentially South Asian practice.
“Fasting has a very sacred purpose in multiple religious traditions in our community,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a caste equity activist and founder of the civil rights organization Equality Labs, told NBC News. “And there’s nothing more sacred than the pursuit of dignity and freedom and healing.
Newsom’s office told NBC News that the governor doesn’t comment on pending legislation.
The caste system, a social hierarchy most prominent in South Asian communities, relegates some into lower classes where they face violence, slurs, social isolation and a lack of mobility. Caste oppressed people, sometimes called Dalits, say those barriers have followed them even after immigration to the U.S.
Three core strikers have been fasting for the past 18 days, with dozens of others joining them for different stretches of time. Their numbers vary between a dozen and 250 depending on the day, Soundararajan said.
Singh is one of the protesters who has been fasting for the…
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