I hope that you will support H Res 158, a resolution calling on South
Asian governments and peoples to end all practice of untouchability and
birth-descent discrmination against Dalit people.  As an alumnus of the
Fulbright-Nehru scholarship scheme in India, I have witnessed the very
damaging societal effects of such caste discrimination which not only
remains widely practised not in rural areas but, disturbingly, has become
socioeconomically institutionalised within India's growing middle-class
enclaves.  This issue is exacerbated by India's recent shift to a government
of Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party which wilfully mixes political
and religious institutions and thus makes for an environment more tolerant
of religious and caste-based intolerance.  Mr Modi - once denied a United
States visa because of his links to the 2002 religious pogrom in Gujarat -
is seeking stronger ties with the United States and in particular with the
United States' large Indian community; this ambition of his ought to be
used as an opportunity to engage with India, the world's largest democracy,
and to spur it to uphold the ideals of equality enshrined in its constitution.