How To Be An Anti-Casteist • Hacker News Board

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#191

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 5:49 AM UTC

john_max_1 wrote: post #85

thewarrior wrote: post #24

There has been a lot of outrage over the past week in India over the rape of a lower caste woman by upper castes. The police sided with the culprits and forced the family to cremate the victim to destroy evidence. This is a common tactic by upper castes to spread terror and keep the lower castes in line. Goes to show how entrenched the system is especially outside the big cities.

FWIW, There were thee more incidents and in all the cases lower caste girl was raped by Muslim guys. So, much for unnecessary giving caste/communal angle to a case of corruption and power.

[deleted]

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#192

Post by pavanky » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 5:53 AM UTC

newacct583 wrote: post #65

pavanky wrote: post #49

One anecdote that struck me was that a cousin, someone a couple of decades older than I am and spent time in US since 1990s, openly admit to me that he was more open minded in India and became more caste conscious once he moved to the US. I am not sure if he sounded regretful or just was sharing a fact of his life, but that really was weird.

What caste is your cousin? One possibility is that in India his status was more secure, while in the US as an immigrant it was not and he found he needed to exploit leverage like this over other people that was implicit back home.

He is not from a disadvantaged caste.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#193

Post by imheretolearn » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:11 AM UTC

I am an Indian and I genuinely don't know exactly where I stand in the cast hierarchy. In India it was pretty common for people to ask me my caste. However, what struck me the most was, that during my Master's in the US, other Indians who I was attending university with, would ask me the same question. When I would tell them that I genuinely don't know the answer, they would mock and imperceptibly laugh at me. I felt like an outcast because this seemed to be a common question shared by all the regional Indian groups(yes, mostly people from the same region will hang out with each other and refrain from hanging out with people from other regions). I was raised in a metropolitan Indian city where this isn't an issue and I had not met many Indians from other parts of India. So this was a shocker to me. Having not faced discrimination in India, I faced discrimination in an entirely different country, just because I was unaware of my "social status". Wow!

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#194

Post by 082349872349872 » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:17 AM UTC

tt433 wrote: post #56

canistel wrote: post #48

See, you can have discourses on caste, you can deliberate as you will, but endogamy - marrying within your caste - is still the norm across India, even in the states where people are not that finicky about caste. Until this chain is broken, the shadow boxing on the sidelines will continue. Interestingly the Caribbean communities have somehow managed to shed caste, while retaining the Hindu identity.

And the stateside anglo version of this: how many white college grads marry other white college grads? Worth reflection

After one of my school friends remarked that his mother only watched movies with two people who love each other but can't marry because they have the wrong colour dots, I began to notice all the Hollywood wrong-colour-dot storylines.

Bonus clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF6W1XD25Dc

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#195

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:18 AM UTC

imheretolearn wrote: post #193

I am an Indian and I genuinely don't know exactly where I stand in the cast hierarchy. In India it was pretty common for people to ask me my caste. However, what struck me the most was, that during my Master's in the US, other Indians who I was attending university with, would ask me the same question. When I would tell them that I genuinely don't know the answer, they would mock and imperceptibly laugh at me. I felt…

Perhaps you should mock them for asking about such a thing.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#196

Post by tdeck » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:19 AM UTC

lowercasteguy wrote: post #116

throwawaywg wrote: post #77

The strict social hierarchical dynamics of Indian culture is damaging to a lot of workplaces. 2nd generation Indians are great. The Indians that are from lower casts or from oppressed groups like Christians or Muslims are really great. But the higher castes are extremely insular, and treat anyone of any race poorly. This might be taboo, but every time I see a situation where there are multiple Indians in a reporting…

The solution to the caste system in India is actually very simple. Religious conversion. Ambedkar was a visionary who himself converted out of Hindu religion and gave up his 'caste'. Caste is essentially the same as feudalism, but unlike other regions of the world where feudalism was a societal concept, it became a religious one in India. Buddhism for example is an Indian religion but Buddha was explicitly against th…

From what I've read people will still try to figure out your native cast even if you convert, but by converting you lose the official status and lose access to India's government programs intended to help members of disadvantaged castes. I'm not Indian and have never been to India, but this exact concept has come up in multiple unrelated things I've read so I'm inclined to believe that "convert and your caste association disappears" is not so simple.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#197

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:23 AM UTC

crossroadsguy wrote: post #185

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I don’t speak much Hindi. Are there terms in English I should look out for? Ones that are meant to be subtle.

I think that term previous person used is Marathi (I am not a Marathi speaker though). > Are there terms in English I should look out for? Not really. But you have more of contexts and where the questioning is going whether it's in a professional or personal setting - the line of inquiry. If the person is taking a very shallow interest (or a misplaced interest) in knowing where your roots are, who your ancestors were…

In Hindi I think the term is "jaati" (with the question being the same).

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#198

Post by saagarjha » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:28 AM UTC

skissane wrote: post #102

> They patted his shoulders to see if he was wearing a white thread that only Brahmins wear. If Brahmins can be identified by wearing a white-thread – do any non-Brahmins ever try to pass as Brahmin by donning a white thread for themselves?

Note: not all Brahmins choose to wear the thread.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#199

Post by 082349872349872 » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:31 AM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #195

imheretolearn wrote: post #193

I am an Indian and I genuinely don't know exactly where I stand in the cast hierarchy. In India it was pretty common for people to ask me my caste. However, what struck me the most was, that during my Master's in the US, other Indians who I was attending university with, would ask me the same question. When I would tell them that I genuinely don't know the answer, they would mock and imperceptibly laugh at me. I felt…

Perhaps you should mock them for asking about such a thing.

When filling out forms in the US that asked for race, I entered "mutt" but admittedly I could afford to mock.

Re: How To Be An Anti-Casteist

#200

Post by hirsin » Fri, Oct 02, 2020, 6:33 AM UTC

aatharuv wrote: post #189

talmr wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm Indian and I've heard things like "koncha jaticha" said casually in a professional setting... Meaning which caste are you? I was born in India and moved here when I was in school. It was shocking to me as well when I heard stuff like this.

2nd gen Indian American here. I've been working in Silicon Valley since 2004, and have never been quizzed about my caste. And my last name isn't a caste name or even caste associated name. And somewhere between a plurality or majority of my coworkers have been Indian born.

Same deal here (half), but my last name is noticeably associated (apparently - took me 27 years to learn that). I get someone bringing it up about twice a year I'd say.