6 ms·
I find myself wondering why someone from one of the lowest castes does not simply claim to not be that when they are halfway across the world from the society t
by egypturnash 6y ago
I find myself wondering why someone from one of the lowest castes does not simply claim to not be that when they are halfway across the world from the society that has a tradition of maintaining this?
I can assume there’s a bunch of subtle class signaling that people do reflexively (speech patterns, dress preferences, whatever, I mean I live in a city with like five different distinct dialects that immediately tell a local what social stratum someone is from), as well as maybe an element of defiant “fuck you I am proud to be someone from the lowest caste who can run rings around your Useless Aristocrat caste ass”. Possibly some distinctive physical features due to centuries of it being forbidden to marry across caste lines?
I apologize if any of these questions are offensive, I know fuck-all about this. I also know it ain’t your job to explain all of this to my white American ass, a quick link to a good Caste 101 For Stupid Americans would be fine :)
- notsureaboutpg 6y agoAll of what you said is a tell plus often names are a tell.
- bolasanibk 6y agoAt least for Indians, names can be an effective signal for caste.
- l8again 6y agoFair question. Your last name is a clear give away of your caste in most cases. There may be others, but I am not sure of what they may be.
- compsciphd 6y agois it difficult for it to be changed when you immigrate to the US? As a simple example: look at people from eastern europe that "americanized" their names when they came over from the old country at the end of the 19th/beginning of the 20th century.
- Bodhisattya 6y agoPart of the reason people fly away to "greener pastures" is that they think that the new country will be more accepting of who they are. Yes, they can. No, they didn't think it would be an issue, and now it is kinda late.