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Honest question - once immigrated to the US or other places, what makes ones caste obvious? Is it found out by surname? Can it be faked (not saying that's a acc
by fargle 4y ago
Honest question - once immigrated to the US or other places, what makes ones caste obvious? Is it found out by surname? Can it be faked (not saying that's a acceptable solution, but it obviously doesn't seem work).
- 29athrowaway 4y agoIn the US you can legally change your name to whatever you want.
- bodhiandpysics1 4y agoWhile last name is the big giveaway for caste, there's another issue that effects tech workers in the us, the IITs. These are the creme de la creme of indian educational istitutions (and to be honest, the single smartest group of people i've ever met). A certain percentage of seats in the IITs are reserved for people from low castes, and the IITs are tiny, so the graduates tend to know each other. Thus the reputation that you got in in the reservation can follow you.
- hiyer 4y agoHow would the reputation follow you unless you were working with someone who knew you personally from IIT? And that person would have to be in the same or a closely associated team for there to be any interaction. Those seem to be really long odds, given that, as you said, IITs are tiny. They would be long odds for any college, tbh, and not just IITs.
- bodhiandpysics1 4y agoPeople know people who know people... the IITs are a really small world, and a lot of the graduates end up working in american tech companies.
- j45 4y agoSurname is one for sure. I think HN has articles about people changing their names. Also, people who are anti-caste are quite open about it. The rest probably not so much, or will say it's not so bad, or it's been mis-understood, or that the root of it was better than the practice, or the practice of it now is much better than the root was. It's difficult to reconcile and self-examine the blurring of socio/cultural/political/religious division among a billion people to keep them focused on pinning each other down, instead of building each other up. Caste also works in the shadows, like every downvote I'm grateful to pay for with not having that kind of karma. Nothing personal, I just think every human life is equal in potential and things like caste (like education) limit access to opportunity to uplift your own life and the generations after you.
- okaram 4y agoI'm not from India, but ... Think about how easy it is to identify race, or region, or social class in the USA. It's probably the same thing.