Sundar Pichai, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur has been the CEO of Google since 2015 and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. since December 2019. Sundar Pichai is a known liberal, yet, he is now being accused of harbouring ‘Brahminical’ ideologies while also engaging in caste bias, particularly against Dalits. The claims are being made by Dalit activists in the United States of America and their allies. A Dalit civil rights organisation based in California, Equality Labs, has accused tech giant Google of allowing “caste bigotry and harassment to run rampant in the company”.
The allegation, made by Thenmozhi Soundararajan, came after Google did not allow her to go ahead with a scheduled talk to Google News employees in April as part of the “Dalit History Month”. The said activist even roped in the Washington Post to spread canards against India in general, and Brahmins in particular. The Washington Post article suggested that the decision by Google was a manifestation of India’s rising ‘Hindu nationalist movement’.
The article made repeated references to the ‘upper caste’ lineage of Google CEO Sundar Pichai to insinuate that his ‘dominant’ caste played a big role in his actions against a Dalit activist.
Meanwhile, the anti-Brahmin activist was quoted by the Washington Post as saying, “There is no way you grow up in Tamil Nadu and not know about caste because of how caste politics shaped the conversation. If he can make passionate statements about Google’s commitments in the wake of George Floyd, he absolutely should be making those same commitments to the context he comes from where he is someone of privilege.”
The Dalit Activist’s Past
In April, the said Dalit activist was scheduled to deliver a talk among Google’s employees. However, her track record is rather sketchy and riddled with anti-Hindu hatred. Remember the “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy” poster held by Jack Dorsey once? That was designed by Thenmozhi Soundararajan.
When Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal took over the reins of the micro-blogging platform from Jack Dorsey, Soundararajan lost her mind. She falsely assumed him to be a Brahmin. The alleged activist also said, “In the grand Silicon Valley tradition of white cismen passing the torch to Brahmin cismen, Jack Dorsey is stepping down and Parag Agarwal is the new CEO of Twitter. Will he also remain silent about Caste?”
The Sequence of Events at Google
Upon hearing that the anti-Hindu activist would be delivering a talk at Google, many employees of the firm rose in revolt. In emails to the company’s bosses, such employees called Soundararajan “Hindu-phobic” and “anti-Hindu”. The activist even published a petition which would allow close to 8,000 South Asians to voice their anger in her support.
However, the respondents lambasted her for sowing societal division and promoting reverse discrimination in the United States.
Earlier, the activist had directly appealed Sundar Pichai to allow her to speak. However, her request was rightfully ignored. As a result of the cancelled talk, Tanuja Gupta, a senior manager at Google News who had invited the activist to speak, submitted her resignation. In her resignation letter, Gupta said, “Retaliation is a normalized Google practice to handle internal criticism, and women take the hit.”
Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson was quoted by the Free Press Journal as saying, “Caste discrimination has no place in our workplace. We also have a very clear, publicly shared policy against retaliation and discrimination in our workplace.” The company’s spokesperson also said they decided to cancel Soundararajan’s talk as it “was creating division and rancour” rather than “bringing our community together and raising awareness”.
How the Tables Have Turned
Big Tech platforms have taken systemic steps to empower the voices of anti-Hindu bigots who have nothing but spurious venom to contribute to society. Especially in the United States, such groups have been weaponised by liberals to lead the battle against supposed “high caste” Hindus, against whom a campaign is now being waged in order to correct supposed historical wrongs.
Whether it be Google, Twitter, Facebook or any other Big Tech platform – liberals have been given undue protection and empowerment. Now, they are coming back to bite the hands that fed them. Rancid Dalit activists not being allowed to speak to Google employees are now waging a campaign against big tech firms themselves, accusing them of toeing the line of Brahmins in particular, and Hindus in general.
In fact, as long as someone appears to be Hindu in the United States, he/she is automatically considered to be a Brahmin who has committed atrocities against Dalits. This was the case with Parag Agrawal being accused of Brahminism, even though he is a Baniya. That really tells you how criminal it is considered to be a Hindu in the United States these days, at least in the eyes of liberals.