Dalit History Month| Caste Discrimination Register- How Will It Help Dalits Fight Casteism in Australia?

Sydney/Melbourne – During Dalit History Month, a significant new initiative has been launched to address caste-based discrimination in Australia. The Ambedkarite Global Federation (AGF) has introduced the Caste Discrimination Register Australia, a safe and community-informed platform designed to record lived experiences of caste discrimination faced by caste-oppressed communities across the country.

The initiative aims to build a strong evidence base through real personal accounts, which will support research, advocacy, public education, and policy reforms to combat caste discrimination. A one-page consent form released by AGF clearly explains that participation is completely voluntary. Individuals may choose to remain fully anonymous and can skip any question. The form covers personal or demographic details, descriptions of discrimination experiences, the settings where incidents occurred, and any supporting documents.

Information collected will primarily be used in de-identified and aggregated form for research, advocacy submissions, education, and efforts to push for formal recognition of caste as a protected attribute under Australian anti-discrimination and human rights laws. AGF has assured that identifiable information will not be shared without explicit consent. All data will be stored securely and handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.

Caste discrimination remains a pertinent and often overlooked issue in Australia’s multicultural society. Periyar Ambedkar Thoughts Circle of Australia (PATCA) has played a central role in the NSW Committee on Law and Safety's inquiry into measures to combat right-wing extremism, providing detailed evidence of caste-based discrimination and far-right Hindu extremism within the Indian Australian diaspora.

PATCA lodged a submission on 22 January, arguing that far-right Hindu extremism, rooted in Hindutva ideology and Brahminism, operates as a distinct form of right-wing extremism in New South Wales. The submission describes this extremism as manifesting through diaspora networks, cultural organisations, religious education programs, youth initiatives, and publicly funded institutions rather than overt violence. It states that caste-based supremacist ideology justifies dehumanisation, exclusion, and hostility toward Dalit, Bahujan, Adivasi, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Tamil, South Indian, and other marginalised communities.

Some examples of caste based harassments include:

Mockery and exclusion of caste-oppressed individuals as “lesser” in community settings.

Social boycotts, intimidation, and silencing through denial and gaslighting, government-funded venues serving only vegetarian food (e.g., Karma Kitchen), effectively excluding communities associated with meat-eating and reinforcing notions of impurity.

Public Diwali events burning effigies of Ravana, a deity revered by some caste-oppressed and indigenous groups, causing distress and exclusion.

Filmmaker and academic Dr. Vikrant Kishore, whose powerful documentary Resisting Cast(e)ism in Australia expose caste discrimination in the South Asian diaspora, has shared his own painful encounters with caste bias. “My encounter with caste is at a very different level,” he reveals. “People ask, ‘What is your last name? Kishore. Okay, Kishore what? And what is your caste?’ Because from the surname ‘Kishore’ alone, they cannot guess my caste.” He recounts an incident where someone remarked, “You walk like a Rajput… Are you a Rajput?”

In another incident in 2006 while teaching in Australia, an Indian visitor repeatedly probed his full identity after learning his name was Vikrant Kishore. Later, his Australian colleague asked if this was the first time he had faced casteism. Kishore explained that this is exactly how caste operates in the diaspora, through constant questioning of one’s name and identity, creating doubt and mental torture. “People from Bahujan Samaj know this pain well,” he says. “If they cannot beat you physically, they torture you mentally by putting a permanent question mark on your identity.”