What is pushing SB 403?
Shifting-Blame game and propaganda are at the center of efforts pushing the SB403. The California bill known as SB 403 was put forth by California state representative Ayesha Wahab, an Afghani-American. The fact that this bill passed the state legislature even though with a small majority shows the lingering colonialist vestiges of social theories defining Indian society, in addition to propaganda. They have defined hard-working Hindus as discriminating folks under this Bill, SB403.
The colonialist and divisive understanding of Indian Americans became glaringly obvious in the cartoon published in some media articles when Parag Agarwal became the CEO of Twitter. He was represented in the cartoon as sitting on a sedan being carried by many people. This is a common image used to depict colonialist exploitation of the British Queen. Cartoons representing colonialist exploitation of the British empire frequently depicted the Queen sitting on a sedan being carried by her colonial subjects. Since when did hardworking Indians become oppressors from oppressed? It was an unfair blame game imposed on India by the colonialists. This is a vestige of the colonialist theory of Aryan invasions, which depicts higher caste populations of India as not belonging to India, but as initial invader-colonizers of India. This theory has been disproven due to a lack of evidence but continues to dominate popular propaganda on India and Indians. Depicting Indian Americans as similar to a colonizer rather than the oppressed people of India, which they were since historically large sections of Indians lived under colonial regimes. Almost all Indians, especially those in Silicon Valley who worked hard to accomplish something in their lives have come to America as graduate students. they worked hard despite the lack of any support structures to achieve something in life. Most of the Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs credit their success to grit and hard work. The case of hit and run accident case in Seattle that came to light recently is emblematic of the life of Indian students and indicates the precariousness of their life. Their belonging to a caste did not matter; bringing up caste in this atmosphere only shows the colonialist shifting of blame seen in Wilkerson's book, Caste. This shows a modern American's search for shifting the blame elsewhere for the social evils of American society. Stereotypes and parallels have been used to equate the American social system to that of Indian social practices, which is not based on evidence. Indian social system of complex, diverse, and completely different from the American experience.
Another reason that is pushing the SB 403 is the AntiIndia geo-political strategy of some South Asian groups. The AntiIndia activities frequently take the shape of AntiHindu activities outside of India pushed by groups that oppose rising India. These can be broadly categorized as Deep-state Pakistani elements and groups that are aligned with it covertly such as Khalistani groups, and the Marxist-Left-leaning political activists that oppose the rise of BJP in India and support its Opposition in India. These groups have been working covertly for a number of years opposing Indians, especially Hindus in America. At this juncture we can recollect a few examples such as the California textbook controversy, and more recently opposition to the celebration of Hindu festivals on American university campuses. Anti-India and anti-Hindu purposes of this legislation are clear due to lack of evidence.
The lack of ground evidence for the bill SB 403 within the Indian American community also demonstrates the false pretext with which this bill was brought forward. What is the point of passing this bill aiming at regulating Hindus with a law when there is no evidence of any discrimination reported from this community? The only legal case that was frequently shown as evidence warranting this bill in California was the now-dismissed CISCO case brought forward by CRD, which makes it inconsequential as the CISCO case was dismissed by CRD for lack of evidence. This case was brought by Equality Labs which was known to spread propaganda against Hindus. Another case that was shown was a case brought about by a left-leaning group about BAPS workers. This case was also dismissed as it was shown that these contract workers were tricked with promising benefits such as providing them immigration to America to complain about their employers. This leaves the tiny minority of Indians as the peace-loving, law-abiding, hardworking community in America.
Another source that was frequently cited in support of this legislation was a survey conducted by Equality Labs. Their methodology for the survey was not transparent and has been criticized for its methodological issues. However, there is another and much more comprehensive survey conducted by Carnegie Mellon University, which used a strong methodological and theoretical basis for its survey. The Carnegie survey is much more representative of the common attitudes and practices among Indians and showed the absence of discrimination as proposed by the previous Equality Labs survey. This leaves the proposal for SB403 with no factual evidence for its proposal and passage firmly places it in the category of discriminatory laws unfairly targeting a small minority of the population with the goal of hounding Indian Americans, especially Hindus for their lifestyle and practices.
The passage of SB403 unfairly targets Hindus. This will isolate Hindus through profiling. If passed this bill will subject Indians/Hindus to extra checks and make it difficult for them to obtain employment or founding a business for lack of raising funds. This will close all opportunities available to Hindus in any field for fear of being dragged to courts under SB 403. It is time for anyone who supports equality under the law to oppose this bill. Isolating and subjecting a small community of the population with a special law directed at them has historically proven to be counterproductive to any progressive society.
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