Cisco Indian Engineer Subjected to Caste Bias, State Agency Says

California regulators filed suit in federal court against Cisco Systems Inc. Tuesday, saying an engineer was subjected to discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on his membership in the lowest caste of India’s hierarchical social structure.

The worker, identified only as John Doe, is a Dalit, a disadvantaged population under India’s centuries-old caste system, the suit filed in the Northern District of California says.

Although segregation based on castes theoretically has ended in India, lower caste persons like the Dalits still face segregation and discrimination in all spheres of life, and that treatment was applied at Cisco’s headquarters in San ...