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There's a long Wikipedia article that covers this topic entirely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_syste

There's a long Wikipedia article that covers this topic entirely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India Some strange observations for me from the article: - There's 200M people in the world born into a life where they are/were considered physically untouchable by other "higher-ranked" people around them - The usage of the label "backwards" in “other backwards classes,” or OBCs. I'll chalk it down to English not being the native language, but "disadvantaged" is more appropriate as "backwards" has a negative meaning. I wonder if a better solution for the mental health of these people at the IITs is to simply have their own IIT where they make up the bulk of the student population. Then again, they might face discrimination by "upper-caste" professors refusing to work there or being "that" IIT that tech companies shouldn't hire from. To the Americans on HN: is this type of discrimination comparable to being born as an African American in a city like Baltimore?

lazyninja987 6y ago
how is it different from segregation ? personally, i am against it. we already have schools which only accept specific religion (muslims, christians) and cross religion interaction is sorely missing and causing a rift right from childhood. I have much easier solution which can eliminate caste altogether. When british was signing up Indians for indentured labor in Caribbean, British offered to give fresh set of identity (like witness protection in US) to anyone who agreed to go to Caribbean. every one chose brahmin surnames. When Indians finally arrived at Caribbean, all Indians were brahmins. when all are brahmins, being a brahmin stopped being special. Indian government should 1. give an option to change surnames. OR 2. stop recording first name/last name/family name in all official documents. 3. stop recording caste as part of aadhar/official census/all governement documents. if goal is to have a society with out discrimination, lets start doing it. that should push us towards a caste free society.

lazyninja987 6y ago

how is it different from segregation ? personally, i am against it. we already have schools which only accept specific religion (muslims, christians) and cross religion interaction is sorely missing and causing a rift right from childhood. I have much easier solution which can eliminate caste altogether. When british was signing up Indians for indentured labor in Caribbean, British offered to give fresh set of identity (like witness protection in US) to anyone who agreed to go to Caribbean. every one chose brahmin surnames. When Indians finally arrived at Caribbean, all Indians were brahmins. when all are brahmins, being a brahmin stopped being special. Indian government should 1. give an option to change surnames. OR 2. stop recording first name/last name/family name in all official documents. 3. stop recording caste as part of aadhar/official census/all governement documents. if goal is to have a society with out discrimination, lets start doing it. that should push us towards a caste free society.