Human Trafficking Allegations Thrust Caste Into Spotlight For American Hindus By at 2:00 am NPR Software engineers and stone masons might not have much in common professionally, but both kinds of workers can face discrimination, if they're members of the Dalit caste in Hindu society â whether in South Asia or the United States. So say leading advocates for the rights of Dalits, who were once known as "Untouchables." A class-action lawsuit recently filed in federal court in New Jersey alleges that a massive Hindu temple in the city of Robbinsville brought some 200 workers to the U.S. on R-1 visas as religious volunteers. But their lawyers filed court papers saying they were really held against their will, forced to work 13-hour shifts for weeks on end with no time off and paid just a little more than one dollar an hour.