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Did you usually ask your Indian clasmates' caste? Or did they volunteer that information themselves?
by praneshp 9y ago
Did you usually ask your Indian clasmates' caste? Or did they volunteer that information themselves?
- yardie 9y agoIf you're familiar with Indian culture you can kind of tell the caste from the surname.
- 13of40 9y agoDon't know how contemporary this advice is, but this seems to be the guidance: http://www.hindubooks.org/scriptures/manusmriti/ch2/ch2_31_40.html http://www.hindubooks.org/scriptures/manusmriti/ch2/ch2_31_4...
- praneshp 9y agoIn many parts of India, in most cases, Mr Foo Bar's kid will be called Baz Foo. So as people start calling their kids more modern names not derived from Sanskrit, the text you linked starts getting outdated.
- praneshp 9y agoI'm a little bit familiar with Indian culture; I think it's not that easy to tell the caste from the surname. It's probably easier to figure out if someone is Brahmin I guess.
- nirav72 9y agoNot really. Sure you can most likely tell a Brahmin by their surname. But anything below that in the caste hierarchy and hard to tell. For example in Gujarat, many lower caste people have last names that are same as Rajputs. They changed their names to avoid discrimination.
- yardie 9y agoOh definitely agree their. I've met a quite a few Indians (I assume some were Brahmin) in university. They all shared the same surnames like Chakrabati, Mithra, Gupta, etc. Yet, none of them were even remotely related. I was told the names were derived from castes. In the west we still have nobel names like "de la", von, etc. as indicators that this person is of royal decent.
- frandroid 9y agoMany Brahmins I know can't help themselves but tell others about it, unlike people from other castes.
- jstewartmobile 9y agoWhenever we'd talk girls, if I suggested someone who wasn't a Brahmin, first they'd look at me as if I were asking them to date livestock, then they'd tell me they only date Brahmin girls.