4 ms·

In 2012 at one local tech event in Vancouver, I've overheard a whole lot of white suit donning guys sitting behind me playing the classic South Asian "guess a c

In 2012 at one local tech event in Vancouver, I've overheard a whole lot of white suit donning guys sitting behind me playing the classic South Asian "guess a caste" game — "Arora, Sharma, Verma... we wanted a Marwari connection on the board... this guy must be a Jat? Remind what varna they were" Sometimes, I'm not sure myself who is more caste obsessed out there these days, Indians, or the India obsessed Western people. How to call it? Inverse casteism?

postsantum 5y ago
>India obsessed Western people What? Is it a thing in Canada? I am sure almost nobody in Europe ever heard of castes you mentioned
- baybal2 5y ago
  It's a thing with the new generation suave hipster frat boys apparently.
- urjika 5y ago
  Its not. They are just spreading propaganda. Act as if caste doesn't exist and make others responsible.
urjika 5y ago
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  Please leave such inflammatory comments off HN. See the rules here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html That aside, from what I can tell, you are pointing out that Indian people have caste preferences on matrimony sites. That doesn’t strike me as particularly offensive. Why is it any different from the general, and very widespread desire to marry someone who shares your culture? I don’t view that as an “obsession” as much as an important part of sharing a common experience with a life partner. The parent comment you’re replying to on the other hand, is making the point that there is an unexpected and disproportionate negative focus on caste from Western people, who have little familiarity with the language, culture, history, and experiences that they are critiquing. The West had a long history of being unreasonably judgmental of other cultures despite shallow familiarity and understanding. That’s probably true of humans in general as well.
  - yyyhthrowaywa 5y ago
jeroenhd 5y ago
I don't think Canadians give a shit about castes and I don't think most white people will be able to name even a single caste. Maybe the asses you overheard work with a lot of Indians and were trying to make some kind of diversity quota within their workforce originating from India, but castes are not something the western world knows about, let alone cares about. If people know about it, they probably know about it as "some kind of class system they do in India" like they were told in school once. The complexities and ancient history of the caste system simply don't exist in the same way in modern western society. Europe was once ruled by nobility in a system not dissimilar of the caste system, but compared to the ancient history of the Indian subcontinent even those bloodlines seem like a temporary thing. I'd say the modern west has a much more overt system of racism based on skin colour, accents, facial features and looks alone, rather than the long lines of family history and customs that castes seem to revolve around. A dumber, simpler, more primitive and arbitrary system of classism (or even racism) if you will. I'm not sure if a sophisticated class system is better or worse than a crude one, but they're different enough to make them difficult to compare.

postsantum 5y ago

>India obsessed Western people What? Is it a thing in Canada? I am sure almost nobody in Europe ever heard of castes you mentioned

baybal2 5y ago
It's a thing with the new generation suave hipster frat boys apparently.
urjika 5y ago
Its not. They are just spreading propaganda. Act as if caste doesn't exist and make others responsible.

urjika 5y ago

throwawaysea 5y ago
Please leave such inflammatory comments off HN. See the rules here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html That aside, from what I can tell, you are pointing out that Indian people have caste preferences on matrimony sites. That doesn’t strike me as particularly offensive. Why is it any different from the general, and very widespread desire to marry someone who shares your culture? I don’t view that as an “obsession” as much as an important part of sharing a common experience with a life partner. The parent comment you’re replying to on the other hand, is making the point that there is an unexpected and disproportionate negative focus on caste from Western people, who have little familiarity with the language, culture, history, and experiences that they are critiquing. The West had a long history of being unreasonably judgmental of other cultures despite shallow familiarity and understanding. That’s probably true of humans in general as well.
- yyyhthrowaywa 5y ago

jeroenhd 5y ago

I don't think Canadians give a shit about castes and I don't think most white people will be able to name even a single caste. Maybe the asses you overheard work with a lot of Indians and were trying to make some kind of diversity quota within their workforce originating from India, but castes are not something the western world knows about, let alone cares about. If people know about it, they probably know about it as "some kind of class system they do in India" like they were told in school once. The complexities and ancient history of the caste system simply don't exist in the same way in modern western society. Europe was once ruled by nobility in a system not dissimilar of the caste system, but compared to the ancient history of the Indian subcontinent even those bloodlines seem like a temporary thing. I'd say the modern west has a much more overt system of racism based on skin colour, accents, facial features and looks alone, rather than the long lines of family history and customs that castes seem to revolve around. A dumber, simpler, more primitive and arbitrary system of classism (or even racism) if you will. I'm not sure if a sophisticated class system is better or worse than a crude one, but they're different enough to make them difficult to compare.