> Edit: Curiously, based on the last name of the person (Soundarajan) whose talk got cancelled, I would actually have guessed that they were upper caste (Brahmi

> Edit: Curiously, based on the last name of the person (Soundarajan) whose talk got cancelled, I would actually have guessed that they were upper caste (Brahmin - the highest). This is most likely because her parents/grandparents changed to using patronymical last names, precisely to avoid this problem. There was a very popular movement in South India (particularly the state of TamilNadu), called the self-respect movement, which a large part of society (except for the upper castes - who had a lot to lose), adopted. This is why my own name does not give away my caste. Because my grandfather switched to patronymics from the existing caste based last names. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Respect_Movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Respect_Movement