FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                           PRESS CONTACT

January 18, 2023                                                     info@castefiles.com

In a swift response to the controversy and complaint generated by Ankita Mikalje's controversial caste survey that supported Palestine, promoted anti Hindu hate, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee seems to have closed the survey until further notice. Castefiles has filed a formal complaint with University of Wisconsin over a dubious caste survey being carried out by one of its faculty members. Condemning the survey for its unprofessional design in its complaint filed on January 13th 2024, Castefiles has raised questions about its intent, given that the outcome of the survey is pre-determined in the survey's framework.

Besides its several flaws that would not pass muster in a serious academic environment, the survey highlights that it intends to fund the cause of Palestinians, which is a lightning rod to attract responders of a certain political leaning and skew its findings with selectivity of respondents and in-built bias.

The survey erroneously presupposes what caste as a social category is, and predetermines it on information like a person's last name, ancestral village, dietary preference, celebration of festivals, and skin color, which are not pointers of caste.

Castefiles has noted with serious concern that while the survey purports to cover all South Asians, it only includes terminology associated with Hindu social groups in its questionnaire. Moreover, its implicit bias is clear in questions like temple visits, something exclusive to Hindus, not other prominent South Asian faiths like Christianity, Islam, Sikhism or Buddhism.

"We have asserted in our complaint, filed on January 13, 2023, that such a survey is in violation of Title VI and can result in a Federal complaint against a publicly funded university. Castefiles believes that the survey violates the civil rights of Indian Americans, a micro-minority that is already subject to an increasing number of hate crimes in the US. Our hard-hitting complaint has demanded of the UWSA to revoke the survey," says Abhijit Bagal, director at Castefiles.

"Castefiles has pursued similar complaints against other universities for policy bias. Our complaint against discriminatory admission policy resulted in a Department of Education (DOE) inquiry against certain universities in California," says Richa Gautam, founding director at Castefiles. 

"Castefiles had earlier conducted a detailed analysis of a similarly unscientific and biased survey by a private firm- Equality Labs - and successfully debunked its findings and selective outcome as erroneous. The survey at University of Wisconsin is doubly troubling because it is being conducted at an academic institution," says Gautam

Research by Castefiles team has found anti-Indian and anti-Semitic agenda being pushed by a determined set of actors who are driven by prejudice and bias.

If you are interested in understanding the truth about caste and race, please visit the Caste Files website at http://www.castefiles.com and become part of the conversation.

For more information, contact info@castefiles.com

####