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Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

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Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#161

Post by nandhinianand »

eqtn wrote: post #144
mrweasel wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity: Could an Indian of a lower caste change their name, or be named differently at birth, as to "fake" their way into a different caste?

During the previous discussions some has mentioned that they converted to a different religion

I have a friend whose parents converted to christianity, and so my friend grew up christian. But guess what, the first time I met my friends' mom(at his wedding), the first question she asked after verifying native state(TamilNadu) was which caste I belonged to. (And yeah just to be clear, she asked which caste I'm from, and she/they're from xxx caste). So no caste is not something people escape from converting religion.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#162

Post by thor24 »

DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #15
thor24 wrote: post #11

It boils my blood reading something like this. A man who worked has worked for 20 yrs, paid taxes, provided for his family (in US and back home) has to suffer this much humiliation. Compound this with the fact the person must be (most likely) on his H1B so can't leave his job and prepare for another one in peace because 2 month window is a short one to find a job. If there is some karma in this world I hope Iyer/othe…

> 2 month window As a former H1-B myself, I thought the "2 month window" was a very unofficial grace-period and actually, de-jure, you're ostensibly meant to leave the US immediately (literally, the same day) and only return when a new sponsor agrees to take you on.

for L1 it's one week so practically instantaneous.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#163

Post by mrweasel »

nandhinianand wrote: post #161
eqtn wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the previous discussions some has mentioned that they converted to a different religion

I have a friend whose parents converted to christianity, and so my friend grew up christian. But guess what, the first time I met my friends' mom(at his wedding), the first question she asked after verifying native state(TamilNadu) was which caste I belonged to. (And yeah just to be clear, she asked which caste I'm from, and she/they're from xxx caste). So no caste is not something people escape from converting relig…

I’m sorry but I’m completely facinated. What do you suppose would happen if your answer was something like: “Oh, we don’t believe in castes” or “I’m not in any caste”. I assume they’d just assume the “worst”.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#164

Post by thor24 »

focus2020 wrote: post #98
thor24 wrote: post #11

It boils my blood reading something like this. A man who worked has worked for 20 yrs, paid taxes, provided for his family (in US and back home) has to suffer this much humiliation. Compound this with the fact the person must be (most likely) on his H1B so can't leave his job and prepare for another one in peace because 2 month window is a short one to find a job. If there is some karma in this world I hope Iyer/othe…

> A man who worked has worked for 20 yrs, paid taxes, provided for his family (in US and back home) ... You don't understand what you have taken for granted. In the name of hindu religion, citing the vedas education has been denied to all non-brahmins(other than priestly caste) until Britishers arrived. This is the reason majority of the indians are first college goers in their family. For us what you described is th…

I totally understand this. I am not saying we (as Indians of xyz caste) haven't done anything wrong in the past.

It's like all the education was only for earning $$ not expanding the mindset (realising your privilege, giving back and at the very least be nice to people agnostic of their race/gender/nationality etc).

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#165

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

mrweasel wrote: post #142
_jgdh wrote: post #80

For people who discuss this with Indian co-workers - don't be surprised if they find this bizarre or far fetched. For most upper caste folks, it appears as if the caste system doesn't exist because they've never been at the receiving end of it. Most people (me included) would be tempted to say - I've never discriminated, I've never seen it happen in front of me, I'm confident none of my friends would do it so therefo…

Out of curiosity: Could an Indian of a lower caste change their name, or be named differently at birth, as to "fake" their way into a different caste?

This is why Sikhs are supposed to all have the same surname (Singh for men, Kaur for women). Sikhism has always been strongly opposed to the caste system- see, for instance, their tradition of offering free food to anyone who wants it as long as they will eat with everyone else there.

According to a Sikh friend, in practice, Sikhs are still aware of caste- in fact, Sikhs from a high-caste background are more likely to keep their family's original surname and add Singh/Kaur as a middle name.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#166

Post by golergka »

brazzy wrote: post #124
golergka wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that almost looks a classic conflict of interests of a society versus interests of an individual, but only at the first glance. Because when you dig in, you realise that it's the most successful and capable individuals that are most interested in building something for their children and next generations of their family — and that's the most marginalised and useless ones that have to get the most by redistribut…

And if you dig in a little deeper, you realize that that's a bunch of social Darwinist bullshit perpetrated by those already rich who stand to gain the most from inequality - No different from the concept of nobility in centuries past. Very telling are those "ands" and what's left out: "successful and capable (implied: rich)". "marginalised and useless (implied: poor)". Those traits don't go together automatically at…

> that's a bunch of social Darwinist bullshit

I perfectly understand why this stance makes people angry, but you haven't provided a single argument on why is it false.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#167

Post by Ichthypresbyter »

barry-cotter wrote: post #116
teekert wrote: post #58

So... They nicely fit in with the upper-caste Americans. As long as you have a system where you make some "upper-caste" universities so expensive that only upper-caste people can attend them, you will keep the caste system alive. This is why education should not be privatized, there are no equal opportunities within the US as well as in India. It's all about what family you are born into. The whole caste system is al…

Class isn’t caste though they overlap. Caste is unique to the Indian subcontinent as far as I’m aware. It is utterly unremarkable for there to be people of different castes living in the same village whose ancestors have lived in the same area for generations who are as genetically distinct as Swedes and Sardinians. The only thing remotely similar I’m aware of was the Manchu in China. Caste is about maintaining endog…

There have been other cases of an 'untouchable' caste who are discriminated against, like burakumin in Japan or Cagots in France.

The Cagots are particularly weird, as nobody knows why they were treated like that.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#168

Post by strikelaserclaw »

nandhinianand wrote: post #161
eqtn wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During the previous discussions some has mentioned that they converted to a different religion

I have a friend whose parents converted to christianity, and so my friend grew up christian. But guess what, the first time I met my friends' mom(at his wedding), the first question she asked after verifying native state(TamilNadu) was which caste I belonged to. (And yeah just to be clear, she asked which caste I'm from, and she/they're from xxx caste). So no caste is not something people escape from converting relig…

All upper caste Indians who convert to Christianity still keep something in their name to signal their caste. So much for egalitarianism

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#169

Post by strikelaserclaw »

mrweasel wrote: post #163
nandhinianand wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend whose parents converted to christianity, and so my friend grew up christian. But guess what, the first time I met my friends' mom(at his wedding), the first question she asked after verifying native state(TamilNadu) was which caste I belonged to. (And yeah just to be clear, she asked which caste I'm from, and she/they're from xxx caste). So no caste is not something people escape from converting relig…

I’m sorry but I’m completely facinated. What do you suppose would happen if your answer was something like: “Oh, we don’t believe in castes” or “I’m not in any caste”. I assume they’d just assume the “worst”.

yes, basically they would assume you converted from lower caste.

Re: Over 90% of Indian techies in the US are upper-caste Indians

#170

Post by signal11 »

_jgdh wrote: post #80

For people who discuss this with Indian co-workers - don't be surprised if they find this bizarre or far fetched. For most upper caste folks, it appears as if the caste system doesn't exist because they've never been at the receiving end of it. Most people (me included) would be tempted to say - I've never discriminated, I've never seen it happen in front of me, I'm confident none of my friends would do it so therefo…

It’s not bizarre or far-fetched at all.

Just a couple weeks ago (!) a woman named Rashmi Agochiya posted some astonishingly vile rants about Dalits on Facebook.

Here’s a tweet with some of the comments she posted: https://twitter.com/ahariharan/status/1304042539238846464?s=...

This lady has now deleted or hidden her social media accounts, but she seems to lives and work in the Midwest.

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