Equality Labs and Neelam join hands for concert against casteism in big tech

Featuring a line-up of prominent Dalit artistes and speakers like Isaivani, Pa Ranjith, Thenmozhi Soundararajan among others, virtual concert Radical Rhythms is scheduled to be held on August 10.
Singer Isaivani (L), filmmaker Pa Ranjith, and Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan (R)
Singer Isaivani (L), filmmaker Pa Ranjith, and Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan (R)
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A virtual concert which is scheduled to be held on August 10, aims to bring Dalit artistes, leaders and tech workers together to create awareness and demand big tech companies to protect their caste-oppressed workers by making caste, a protected category in all the countries in which they do business.

The line-up includes eminent anti-caste voices from India and North America such as Casteless collective fame Isaivani, a Gaana artist from Tamil Nadu, Oppari artistes Seyilrani and Lalitha from Gangai Konda Cholapuram, writer and anti-caste rapper Sumeet Samos from Odisha (currently located in Oxford, UK), anti-caste rapper Mahi G from Maharashtra, Chennai-based filmmaker Abisha, rapper Vipin Tatad from Delhi and folk musician Ginni Mahi from Punjab.

Filmmaker and founder of Neelam Cultural Center Pa Ranjith, executive director of Equality Labs Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Azad Samaj Party and Bhim Party’s Chandra Shekar Azad, president of Ambedkarites Association of North America ( AANA) Maya Kamble, Nepali Dalit rights activist Prem Pariyar, Will Wiltschko from California Trade Justice Association, and tech workers from Alphabet Workers Union and the broader tech sector have been roped in as the speakers at the event.

Nearly five months ago, US-based Dalit activist and executive director of Equality Labs, Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s scheduled talk was cancelled by Google after the tech company allegedly buckled under pressure from employees who called the speaker “Hindu phobic” and “anti-Hindu.” Soon after the presentation – which was part of the company’s Diversity Equity Inclusivity (DEI) program for employee sensitisation – was cancelled, Tanuja Gupta, the former senior manager at Google who had invited Thenmozhi, had quit the company in protest. This, coupled with an expose published by the Washington Post, gained traction at a global level.

It was not seen as a standalone instance, but many observed that it rather fits into a familiar pattern of big tech companies subjecting its caste-oppressed workers to discriminatory practices and failing to promote diversity and inclusion. An example of this would be DEI programs held by multinational firms being restricted to issues of race, gender and sexuality.

How should tech giants evolve to provide safer workplaces for their caste-oppressed workers? What can be done to create awareness around holding companies accountable for its discriminatory practices? How can Dalit artistes engage in this dialogue? Thenmozhi Soundararajan tells TNM that these were few among the many pertinent questions surrounding the issue that inspired Equality Labs (the non-profit organisation that has several anti-caste campaigns in the South Asian Diaspora to its credit) to join hands with AANA, Alphabet Workers Union, and Pa Ranjith’s Neelam to come up with a first-of-its-kind virtual concert called Radical Rhythms.

Explaining how the event was conceptualised, Thenmozhi states, “The origins of this concert were in the traumatic casteism of Google and corporations around the world that have denied Dalits safe workplaces and our human rights. After I was de-platformed and Tanuja faced retaliation, Alphabet workers’ union and other tech workers began to strategise on how we should keep building this dialogue, turn our pain into power, and make sure this never happens again. Equality Labs (EL) then reached out to Neelam and AANA and we began to create a program that could help inspire and educate through Dalit art and testimonies from artistes and labour leaders. The power of Dalit art has transcended the violence of caste discrimination and this concert is a chance for workers and Dalits around the world to revel in joy, resilience and futures where all of us are free.”

Speaking on similar lines, Maya Kamble from AANA remarked in a press statement, “There is a blatant lack of competency that corporate America has in recognising and providing redressal for employee grievances related to caste. We hope through Radical Rhythms and other initiatives, we can create change and protect the interests of caste-oppressed workers across the sector.”

Filmmaker Pa Ranjith observes that when we look at this in the Indian context, having a dialogue around discriminatory practices against caste-oppressed employees in IT companies comes with its own set of complexities. “I have spoken personally to Indian IT employees who have faced casteism, but the discrimination is in the form of micro-aggressions that are discreetly practised. Many of these MNC’s are headed by Indians who are from oppressor-caste identities. Employees from caste-oppressed communities lose out on being recruited, or if recruited, they are not allowed to move up the ladder within the organisation. With initiatives such as Radical Rhythms, we are trying to create a space for discussion and awareness at a global stage,” Ranjith tells TNM.

Priyanka Ulaganathan, who is the operations manager at Neelam Social shares that they were particular about bringing in artistes from different parts of the country. “The connecting thread might be caste, but the lived experiences of these artistes are different because the politics in each region varies. So, we wanted to put together a line-up of artistes who come from different parts of the country and who will be performing in different languages. As one can imagine, all the songs will be political. The event is designed to address how caste has emerged in the regional context, and also how it has travelled across the board,” she says.

Speaking further about the road ahead, Thenmozhi identifies that initiatives like Radical Rhythms will push tech companies to conduct caste equity trainings, host talks from Dalit and Adivasi speakers on the issue of caste to create awareness, conduct employee surveys to help set KPI (performance indicators) goals for diversity, and demand more transparency by welcoming measures such as conducting external audits to evaluate their caste equity competency, and compliance with civil and labour laws.

“From the ‘Justice for Jayashre’ campaign and the win for safer workplaces for textile workers to the BAPS temple case to the Cisco case, we see that caste is in supply chains and in the tech sector. No industry is free from caste because wherever South Asians go, we bring caste. That is why Dalits from across South Asia are linking hands with kin in the diaspora to break the silence and the culture of impunity of caste,” Thenmozhi says.

She also adds, “Many unions are mobilising watch parties and discussion groups so that after the concert, they can discuss what they have learned and also how to apply this while organising for caste equity.”

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