Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture
Apr 14, 2023 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
People in California need to keep pushing back against the casteist attacks on #SB403 by forwarding the text of #Article15 of the Indian constitution. And point out that the bill is just adding this to the California statutes.

Plain and simple.

Nothing to protest here. Image
Oh for sure, but then let's have them make it explicit, in the United States, especially California, that they are the side in this debate that pines for a theocratic state as an ideal.

Right now they pretend as if the bill is an attack on Hindus. #SB403

These HAF suhag Shukla types are just pouring a lot of heat into the discourse and very little light.

While it is important to combat their misinformation, we should also be putting them on the defensive by asking if they are also opposed to the Indian constitution. 🤷 Image
This is #SB403.

Literally just adds 1 word, one more category, very properly defined, to 15 other protected categories.

Only someone dedicated to preserving and defending casteism would have any objection to this bill.

Do read the blue text for sure. ImageImageImage
Also random Desi uncles who deal only in rhetorical questions asking "how do they even define caste", read a little.

It's great that they added endogamy as one of the identifying factors of the phenomenon. Caste endogamy is widely prevalent in the South Asian American popn. Image
Indian Constitution #SB403 ImageImage
Note the following in #SB403

- total lack of the words Hindu or Hinduism
- listing India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South America, Japan, and Africa, NOT singling out Indians

The debate from the sanghi & centrist side has been so dishonest! Image
Of course that's just the intro section with declarations.

The actual change to the law is literally just adding the word caste with 15 other protected categories. And the definition of caste.

#SB403 Image
In a way, I'm glad that sanghis are making such a big hue & cry every time a jurisdiction adds caste to its protected categories.

Cos they rehash the same old jaded arguments black folks, Jews, Muslims, Catholics, queer folks remember being at the receiving end of in the past.
And by repeating the same old Jim Crow era arguments against the civil rights act, but in the caste setting, they just end up convincing Americans, both liberals as well as pro civil rights conservatives, that yeah, caste definitely should be added to discrimination statutes!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Gaurav Sabnis

Gaurav Sabnis Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @gauravsabnis

Jul 18
Doing lecture prep for Fall & adding this new story in the product development strategy session. Thought it would make a nice 🧵

Did you know that a lot of calculators & music equipment we have is the result of cigarettes not having filters during world war 2?

Fun story! Image
Cigarettes back then came like this. A fully white paper tube filled with tobacco that you lit at one end and smoked from the other.

This inevitably meant that you "wasted" some tobacco at the mouth end while throwing it away.

Tadao Kashiyo in WW2 Japan saw an opportunity! Image
During WW2, cigarettes that mostly came from Allied countries became very expensive in Japan. Especially American & British brands which were sold at a premium on the black market.

Tadao Kashiyo was an engineer who was into fabrication. He created a new product that sold itself.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 4
One thing Rajnath Singh said in LS that stuck with me

"Such schemes are there even in US and they don't complain so why do you complain?"

That made me sit up.

What?

Surely someone would fact check this cos what is he even talking about?

US military agnipath?

So I checked.
There is NOTHING in US military remotely resembling Agnipath!

At the 18-22 age, the US military actually wants you to enlist for life if possible. And will happily keep you on for life if you serve honorably.

The short term stints are like Indian Short Service Commission.
So yeah, there exist options in the US military where you sign on for a short stint. And can be deployed. But they'll also send you to college for free.

My brother in law got an engineering degree from UC Riverside by enlisting in the Air Force for a few years. Then left.
Read 7 tweets
Feb 21
Very interesting conversation with a gujarati bodega owner nearby.

"I support Modi but something is wrong in gujarat. There are more gujaratis taking the risky border routes in the last 2 years than the 20 years before, from my observation. And they all say, no jobs in gujarat"
"Until recent years, gujaratis wanting to move either came through family visa or arranged marriage or student visa or at the most, overstay tourist visa. But risking life and limb like this in such big numbers? Modi needs to pay attention to gujarat. It's in trouble."
"the family that froze to death on the Canadian border. They didn't have a bad life in gujarat by any means. So why risk your entire existence? Something is wrong, brother, something is very wrong."
Read 6 tweets
Dec 20, 2023
"Wherever you go in this world, you will find a t̶e̶a̶ s̶t̶a̶l̶l̶ great school founded by a Malayalee."

K.T. Behanan was a brilliant Yale educated social scientist & Indian bureaucrat who landed in NYC with his doctor wife & 5 year old son.

Ran straight into systemic racism./1
The year was 1947 & Behanan, a Syrian Christian from Kerala's influential Kovoor clan was a 45 year old superstar in the Babu circles of the brand new India.

He accepted a position for India at the brand new UN, working on education policy with the Trustee Council.

Ironic.
He landed in a New York that was very different from now. "Separate but equal" was still the law.

Schools were openly & emphatically segregated. Brown v BoE was some years away.

By putting idealistic UN in Manhattan, America's mouth had written a check its ass couldn't cash.
Read 10 tweets
Nov 29, 2023
I'm at that age where a lot of my friends are starting to send their kids to college. So getting a lot of queries on US college as an option.

So I'm going to do this reference 🧵 with the basics to avoid repetition. And send it to them before further more specific questions. Image
I'll start off by saying that if you have ₹3 crore that you can spare, it is a nice lifelong gift for your child.

An undergrad education in the US is an amazing enriching experience beyond just the academics & the jobs after. I envy my students a little they get to live it.
I start off mentioning the cost cos I want to be absolutely clear that as awesome as such a college education will be for your kid, it is not going to be cheap.

Unless you have a Sheldon Cooper type kid, there is no free ride for international students in undergrad. That's Grad.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 18, 2023
India & China are almost half of humanity, 2 of the oldest cultures, sharing one of the longest and most iconic borders on the planet.

But how little we really know each other!

Recently, a Chinese grad student shared her love story with me. I repeat it here with her permission.
She grew up the only child of two people who were only children of parents who were also only children, in the South of China.

He grew up in a similar configuration, in the northeast of China.

They both followed the well set academic excellence route to US grad school.
They met in grad school in the NYC area. In a larger Chinese grad student universe, they found each other. And fell in love. And started planning a life together.

And both realized how they had to think about parents and grandparents in China just by themselves!
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(