71–80 of 86 posts
If some Indian tells you that they are progressive and caste is not followed these days, ask them which caste their spouse belongs to. And that will answer how progressive they are.
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You’ll be a foreigner forever. Your kids will be foreigners too, regardless of how long they live there.
So being a no caste foreigner is better or worse than a low caste? :S I guess it depends on a lot of factors but...
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Having to send your kids to Umass.
Old money vs new money, Harvard vs others, Boston Irish vs Others. The cultural divides are subtle. They are like glass ceiling. You will realize how big a deal it is when you enter to their priorities. For getting most of the jobs, no one could care less. Try housing - You will not get housing in certain areas unless you project a certain class.
This was true at one time, but that time was the better part of a century and a half ago. The last vestiges of that were removed when Kennedy became president. If you show up to buy a house on Louisburg Square on Beacon Hill, or a mansion on Tory Row in Cambridge, and you're willing to pay ${millions} cash on the nail, nobody is going to check your ancestry or your place in the social register before selling to you.
I won't read it because caste is a trauma-inducing subject to me. I'll just leave my comment here so that the truth is available for anyone who cares. I'm a member of the so-called "upper castes", but not a Brahmin. Parents were very bohemian, never taught me anything about caste. Go to college in India. My best friend in college is a Brahmin. I knew that Brahmins were priests, didn't really know anything else about…
> 3) I now live and work in the U.S. A new hire, Indian, joins. Visits my office one day. Tells me he left India because he hates the caste system. I start warming to him. A little while later informs me that he's a very high Brahmin. Not an ordinary Brahmin, mind you, a high Brahmin. All the super-progressive Indians I know in the U.S. are Brahmins. What's up with that?
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From the (quick) search I did following your un-sourced claim : the Hindu castes system existed centuries before the arrival of the British in India. And are you claiming one could have been born a Dalit and become a Brahmin (or whatever the "non-british" castes names you want to give them) during his lifetime? I highly doubt it ever was as casual as you make it sound... It seems this claim is somewhat popular in som…
Reference Bhagvad Gita 4-13 . It talks about 4 varnas based on Guna & karmas. The famous sage Valmiki was a Shudra who became a Brahmin by composing the epic Ramayana.
What I was asking you was more straight forward : can you show me that farmers son could marry priests daughters (or whatever "caste" combination you want) before the British colonization of India? I don't think so.
I won't read it because caste is a trauma-inducing subject to me. I'll just leave my comment here so that the truth is available for anyone who cares. I'm a member of the so-called "upper castes", but not a Brahmin. Parents were very bohemian, never taught me anything about caste. Go to college in India. My best friend in college is a Brahmin. I knew that Brahmins were priests, didn't really know anything else about…
It was written 1,000 years ago, but could have been written 75 years ago. It reads that fresh.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/cul/text...
The level of oppression of lower castes (described in this book) is unbelievable, and remains partly practiced even today. The biggest problem was that you couldn't escape your caste ("caste" is derived from "cast", something you were locked, or cast, into).
Caste comes from the Portuguese word "Castus". There is no literal translation found for this word in ancient Hindu Sanskrit texts. The quoted article comes written from a time under British Raj where peoples backgrounds were used to further divide society so that they would not rise up against the British. Caste in the same sense of occupational background exists in all cultures but was never used in such a divisive…
Caste endogamy in India is well established and it shows that inter-marriage etc between castes basically stopped around 1800+ years ago.. which is clearly well before the British, Portuguese or whoever else came to India. And also saying that the Portuguese/British invented the caste system because "caste" is a Portuguese system makes no sense because: a) Indians don't speak Portuguese and the words Jati and Varna h…
I won't read it because caste is a trauma-inducing subject to me. I'll just leave my comment here so that the truth is available for anyone who cares. I'm a member of the so-called "upper castes", but not a Brahmin. Parents were very bohemian, never taught me anything about caste. Go to college in India. My best friend in college is a Brahmin. I knew that Brahmins were priests, didn't really know anything else about…
Update: 2 more anecdotes 4) Brahmin friend of mine at work. Brilliant fellow. Solid decent chap overall. I tell him about this article I read about how in some city, a non-Brahmin girl wasn't allowed to do Bharat Natyam (a classical Indian dance form that is widely taught) on some stage because she wasn't a Brahmin. I guess traditionally only Brahmin girls were allowed to perform it. Turns out he agrees with this dec…
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Caste endogamy in India is well established and it shows that inter-marriage etc between castes basically stopped around 1800+ years ago.. which is clearly well before the British, Portuguese or whoever else came to India. And also saying that the Portuguese/British invented the caste system because "caste" is a Portuguese system makes no sense because: a) Indians don't speak Portuguese and the words Jati and Varna h…
Jati and Varna are completely different things to Caste. Castus is a Latin word meaning clean and pure, which is where Caste comes from. Varna is occupational work. Inter marriage was allowed in Hindu scriptures, if they stopped for whatever reason, does not take away from the fact that the British (especially Christian aspect) used it to divide people in India. What you are talking about specifically is the discrimi…