Caste across the kalapani

Migration has always been a social enterprise, fundamentally tied to socio-economic networks that define individuals' opportunities and mobility. Immigration to Britain from the Subcontinent reached its peak in the decades following Partition, bringing with it Southasian cultural beliefs and modes of social organisation. Since the majority of the new Southasian diaspora were of 'high' caste origin, and since their numerical superiority generated a commanding preponderance in terms of community representation and leadership, the social milieu they created on British soil resembled the one they had left behind, which had traditionally and historically excluded most Dalits and other 'low' castes. Those Southasians who had hoped to escape the prejudices that had defined and restricted their lives in the Subcontinent found that caste-based discrimination had followed them to their new homes.

As the Southasian community established itself, growing in both size and prosperity, stories surfaced of harassment and discrimination in schools and at work, in public and in private life. Some Southasian restaurants recruited along caste lines; 'upper caste' healthcare workers refused to treat Dalits; 'upper caste' employees resisted the promotion of 'low-caste' colleagues; inter-caste marriages led to feuds and harassment; Dalit students were bullied at school by other Southasian children. Far from dying out, such incidents continue to be reported to this day. Today, among the UK's 3.7 million British Asians – British citizens of Southasian descent – the country's National Institute of Economic and Social Research estimates there to be between 50,000 and 200,000 Dalits, though other estimates place the numbers even higher. These numbers do not include the tens of thousands of other members of 'lower castes', who are also subject to discriminatory behaviour, though not necessarily to the same degree.