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CoHNA hails defeat of New York caste bills
The legislations sparked a debate over whether caste discrimination requires explicit legal protections beyond existing civil rights laws.
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Malvika Choudhary - Fri, 05, Jun 2026
- 16:29 EDT
- 108
Official logo / CoHNA
The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) hailed the failure of two New York caste-discrimination bills, saying the measures would have unfairly targeted Hindu, Indian and South Asian communities.
In a statement released June 5, CoHNA said Senate Bill S.6531 and Assembly Bill A.6920 would have institutionalized bias by creating what it described as a "religiously-coded ethnic classification" that would disproportionately affect Hindus, Indians and South Asians.
Also Read: CoHNA to host Dalit-Bahujan dialogue amid NY caste bill debate
The organization argued that caste-based mistreatment is already prohibited under existing anti-discrimination laws and that additional legislation was unnecessary.
"This is a win for advocacy and civil rights in the face of immense pressure from elite academics and activists with access to powerful media and political players," said Sudha Jagannathan, CoHNA's director of government relations.
Jagannathan, who identified herself as a Bahujan Hindu, said she had spent the past two years meeting with New York lawmakers to share her experiences and educate them about the issue.
"I find it offensive that New York State would try to weaponize my identity against my own culture and traditions that provide me solace and strength," she said.
CoHNA said it launched a grassroots campaign after the bills were introduced in 2025, holding dozens of meetings with state legislators, including the sponsors of the legislation, and mobilizing community members to contact their elected representatives.
The organization distributed a memorandum outlining legal and constitutional concerns to all 213 members of the New York State Assembly and Senate.
The group also said members of its Dalit-Bahujan leadership team opposed what they described as efforts by caste-bill advocates to portray Hindu temples as sites of discrimination and exclusion.
"This was yet another attempt to misuse a noble desire for social justice and subvert it to drive hate against a minority, like we saw in California in 2023," said CoHNA president Nikunj Trivedi.
Trivedi argued that caste is not a neutral term in public discourse and is commonly associated with Hindu and Indian communities. He said such legislation risks reinforcing perceptions that members of those communities are more likely to discriminate or maintain hierarchical social structures than others.
CoHNA also pointed to a 2024 study conducted by researchers at Rutgers University's Social Perception Lab and the Network Contagion Research Institute, which the organization said found that discussions and institutional training related to caste could contribute to negative stereotypes about Hindus and Indian Americans.
The organization further cited the California Civil Rights Department's caste discrimination lawsuit against Cisco Systems, which was later withdrawn with prejudice, as well as a 2021 lawsuit filed against Sundar Iyer.
CoHNA argued that those cases demonstrated the risks of government agencies assigning caste or religious identities to individuals based on their background.
The legislation at the center of the debate, Senate Bill S.6531 and Assembly Bill A.6920, would have added caste to New York's Human Rights Law as a protected category and prohibited caste-based discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
Sponsored by state Sen. James Sanders Jr. and Assemblymember Steven Raga, the bills defined caste as a system of social stratification based on inherited status, social rank, occupation, ancestry and related characteristics.
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