In April this year, tech giant Google canceled a talk by an alleged anti-Brahmin activist named Thenmozhi Soundararajan, owing to the fear that it might create ‘division and rancour’ in the workplace.
Thenmozhi, who serves as the Executive Director of Equality Labs, was invited to speak to Google News employees by its senior manager Tanuja Gupta. Her talk was supposedly aimed at raising awareness about ‘caste bias’ and ‘caste discrimination’ in tech companies on the occasion of ‘Dalit History Month.’
Google was ready to host a talk about caste bias in tech. Then a handful of employees claimed @dalitdiva–a leading advocate on this issue-was Hinduphobic for talking about Dalit civil rights and dominant caste privilege. So Google cancelled her talkhttps://t.co/eKF7tFdGzE
— Nitasha Tiku (@nitashatiku) June 2, 2022
However, Google decided to not go forward with the scheduled talk. While speaking about the matter, Google spokesperson Shannon Newberry clarified, “Caste discrimination has no place in our workplace. We also have a very clear, publicly shared policy against retaliation and discrimination in our workplace.”
She emphasised, “We also made the decision to not move forward with the proposed talk which — rather than bringing our community together and raising awareness — was creating division and rancour.”
Resignation of Google employee Tanuja Gupta
Following the cancellation of Thenmozhi’s talk, Google News senior manager Tanuja Gupta tendered her resignation from the tech company. She claimed that her decision to invite the anti-Brahmin activist was influenced by the testimony of two co-workers in September last year, who allegedly experienced caste discrimination in the workplace.
Gupta further stated that the invite was extended to Thenmozhi as part of Google’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programme. She blamed the tech firm for allegedly retaliating against its employees, especially women, over internal criticism.
“Retaliation is a normalized Google practice to handle internal criticism, and women take the hit,” she suggested. Tanuja Gupta pinned the blame on her boss Cathy Edwards, who serves as the Vice-President of engineering at Google, for being oblivious about ‘caste’ and vetting the talk by Thenmozhi.
Back by popular demand – now with a twist – join me for a very timely conversation with @dalitdiva from @EqualityLabs on caste equity in US workplaces, big tech and news media TODAY at 1:30pm pst / 4:30pm EST. #dalitlivesmatter #casteequity pic.twitter.com/RBlRzAvnAW
— Tanuja Gupta (@tanuja822) May 3, 2022
After her request was turned down by Google, Gupta conducted an interview with the anti-Brahmin activist on Youtube on May 4 this year.
Allegations levelled by Thenmozhi Soundararajan
The Executive Director of Equality Labs alleged that a disinformation campaign was led against her by Google employees to prevent her from speaking on caste bias. She claimed that the employees labelled her ‘Hinduphobic’ and ‘anti-Hindu’ to bolster their allegations.
After being de-platformed by the tech giant for causing divisions at the workplace, Thenmozhi Soundararajan compared herself to an ‘abuse survivor’ who is not being allowed to speak on the #MeToo movement. Reportedly, the anti-Brahmin activist wanted to talk to 60 odd Google employees about ‘caste equity’ in Newsrooms.
“She planned to explain the makeup of mainstream Indian publications and the importance of highlighting Dalit journalists when reporting on issues such as climate change or elections, because of the insight they could bring from the perspective of the most vulnerable,” reported The Washington Post.
If you want to take action and let @google and @sundarpichai know they must end caste discrimination and worker retalation at the company please sign and forward this form: https://t.co/hsWuW5HB0J #Casteatgoogle #CasteintheUs
— Dalit Diva (@dalitdiva) June 2, 2022
Thenmozhi Soundararajan alleged that 7 Google employees wrote to the management against allowing the anti-Brahmin activist to conduct her talk. She alleged that they used ‘inflammatory language’ to claim they would be harmed by her discussion.
After being vetted by Google, her aide Tanuja Gupta tried to make a pitch again for the anti-Brahmin activist. Gupta posted a link to a petition in an email group with 8,000 South Asian employees, hoping that she could coerce the tech firm into submission.
To her surprise, the respondents lambasted her for sowing societal division and promoting reverse discrimination in the United States. “Most institutions wouldn’t do what Google did. It’s absurd. The bigoted don’t get to set the pace of conversations about civil rights,” Thenmozhi Soundararajan claimed in her defence.
Caste baiting, Anti-Brahmin and anti-India motives of Equality Labs & its Executive Director
In February last year, Opindia reported how the Equality Labs is a prominent anti-Brahmin Caste activism group in the United States. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had once stoked a massive controversy when he held an anti-Brahmin placard that said ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’, a poster designed by Thenmozhi Soundararajan.
Equality Labs had collaborated with the Organisation for Minorities in India (OFMI), among other organisations, for a report titled ‘Caste in the United States: A Survey Of Caste Among South Asian Americans’.
The OFMI was founded by Bhajan Singh Bhinder, a known ISI operative, and his puppet Pieter Friedrich was part of the organisation too. Equality Labs also campaigned hard against Amit Jani, who had worked in the Joe Biden campaign, accusing him of supporting ‘Hindu Fascism’.
The Caste Activist organisation had also inserted a ‘Dalit’ angle to the anti-farm law protests even though the demonstrations were clearly an attempt by the dominant caste groups in Punjab and Haryana to preserve their privilege.
In November 2021, Thenmozhi Soundararajan joined white supremacists in targeting Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal over his caste. They falsely assumed him to be a Brahmin and targeted him over the same. Thenmozhi went to the extent of claiming that it was a tradition for “White cis-men” to transfer power to “Brahmin cis-men” in Silicon Valley.
She said on Twitter, “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 Washington Post and its obsession with Sundar Pichai’s caste
After the controversy surrounding the cancellation of Thenmozhi Soundararajan’s talk settled down, The Washington Post raked up the issue in an article titled ‘Google’s plan to talk about caste bias led to division and rancour’.
The article, written by Nitasha Tiku, was published on Thursday (June 2). Tiku suggested that the decision by Google was a manifestation of India’s rising ‘Hindu nationalist movement’, which has somehow gained momentum in the United States through its diaspora.
She tried to trick the Hindus into guilt over a decision made by a private tech giant, which it felt was in the best interest of the company. The writer repeatedly made references to the ‘upper caste’ lineage of Google CEO Sundar Pichai to insinuate that his ‘dominant’ caste must have been a contributing factor.
“Soundararajan appealed directly to Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who comes from an upper-caste family in India, to allow her presentation to go forward. But the talk was cancelled, leading some employees to conclude that Google was willfully ignoring caste bias,” the article in The Washington Post claimed.
By citing Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Tiku highlighted how the Google CEO hailed from a Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu. She cast aspersions on his claims about Google’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and pontificated how his upper-caste credentials are barring him to allow a talk on ‘caste equity’.
“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 Washington Post quoted the Anti-Brahmin activist as saying.
