NEW DELHI: The British parliament's decision to recognize the existence of caste alongside race as a form of discrimination could hurt India's long-held argument that the two sources of bias could not be equated.
Follow up:
Worse, it may give a strong push to portray caste as a global phenomenon like race, undercutting India's claim that caste prejudice was indigenous to Indian society and it could not be a subject of policy at international fora like the UN.
As the law in the UK became a reality earlier this week, experts said it would trigger lobbying for similar legal protection in the US, Canada, South Africa and Australia - countries that have a strong presence of Indian diaspora, but have little awareness of caste.
