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Gopalan said that after the provision was approved, Dalit students began to come forward with their own experiences of discrimination, including by South Asian supervisors and instructors who would give their work less attention than that of upper caste students. Slurs and microaggressions from other students were also common.
“We need for every student covered under this contract to be aware that this is even in there,” Gopalan said. “No one can come forward if they aren’t explicitly aware that this is protected.”
Slurs are just the beginning of what Dalit students across the country have experienced on campus, said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs. The longtime Dalit rights activist has advocated for young people facing sexual harassment, housing discrimination, diminished opportunities and physical assaults.
"This important step recognizes first that we, too, exist at Harvard and that our experiences matter," said Raj Muthu, a Dalit Harvard alum and a member of Equality Labs' coalition. "As an alumni, I have certainly witnessed expressions of disdain and hostility directed towards members of oppressed castes, students and faculty."
Dalits on campus might also feel like they don't belong in South Asian circles that are heavily pervaded with casteism or dominated by upper caste students.
"Overall as a student from a caste-oppressed community, there is a deep sense of alienation and not belonging in South Asian settings," he said. "It’s a very isolating experience because as immigrants we try to seek refuge in our own ethnic communities."
But progress may be on the horizon. Through Equality Labs, Soundararajan has supported student bodies as they push their administrations to protect the caste-oppressed among them. Harvard is only the latest to add a measure, with the University of California, Davis, and Colby College both taking similar steps in the last few months.
“These aren’t overnight wins,” she said. “These are the results of many leaders going through the administrative process and building power toward caste equity.”
She’s sure that there are more to come.
“I see the change,” she said. “There hasn’t been a university that hasn’t wanted to do this.”
After Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, Soundararajan said schools became much more open to inclusive language. With high profile institutions beginning to adopt caste protection into official documents, she thinks others will soon follow suit.
For Gopalan, Harvard’s new contract with the union is the beginning of change, not the end.
“This is just the Grad Student Union,” she said. “We would like every union to have it at Harvard. We would like the university itself, outside of just workers, to put it in their handbooks.”
Those affected by caste oppression know it’s a struggle that has long been invisible to non-South Asians in the U.S. Soundararajan hopes these university-level changes can be the first steps in a broader conversation.
“It makes sure that our civil rights are being respected,” she said.