The recognition of caste and the “Caste in Canada” project

This panel examines the experience and address of caste in Canada, featuring the Chetna Association and UBC's "Caste in Canada" project.

What is the experience of caste in Canada, and how does it need to be addressed? This presentation presents the work of the Chetna Association of Canada, an anti-caste organization based in British Columbia, Canada, and the “Caste in Canada” project at the University of British Columbia, an oral history project that documents the history and experience of caste in Canada.

Speakers

Jai Birdi is the executive director of the Chetna Association. Jai's initiatives that have established memorials for Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, created an annual lecture series, and secured government proclamations to advance awareness of Ambedkar's philosophy. 

Santosh Dass MBE, a former civil servant, is a human rights and equality campaigner, fighting for caste-based discrimination to be outlawed in the UK. She is Chair of the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, and President of the Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhist Organisations UK.

Anne Murphy teaches in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia and is Chair in Punjabi Language, Literature and Sikh Studies.  Committed to interdisciplinary and community-engaged research, Murphy was founder and founding Lead of the UBC Interdisciplinary Histories Research Cluster at UBC (Lead 2019-2021; Associate Lead 2021-22) and has also recently engaged in two major oral history projects: the “Punjabi in BC” research project with collaborators Sukhwant Hundal and Lovneet Aujla, which involved numerous UBC undergraduates and recent graduates in hands-on research, and the “Caste in Canada” project with co-Primary Investigator Dr. Suraj Yengde and the Chetna Association of Canada, an anti-caste community organization.

Murali Shanmugavelan's academic research is concerned with the disavowal of protected categories, such as caste, race, gender and sexual orientation in media and communication studies and digital cultures. His research at Fairwork builds on this academic training and activism to scrutinise and mitigate re-manifestations of digital inequalities in the platform economies.

Photo credit: Mahila Samaj honoured Dr Ambedkar (Wikimedia commons)