I guess the difference is social mobility in the US exists, a lot of successful founders in the US come from poor beginnings. In India you cannot legally change your caste for your entire life, if I’m not mistaken.

Seems like it isn’t a system worth defending. China has so many issues, it also blows my mind that people around here defend and praise China like they’re doing good things. They aren’t.

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__rito__ 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Caste is mostly irrelevant in India outside of liberal arts department of so-called elite universities.

There are some pockets where this is not true, but they are exceptions.

And those comments aren't defending it.

Upward mobility is available in India, too. But remember that to have "upward mobility", there needs to be place at the top. For a country which has been under hundreds of years of regressive colonial rulers, there is not much place at the top.

Global wealth is much more in the US than in India right now, so it is not wise to compare rags-to-riches of the US with those of India.

India's government jobs, elite engineering and medical seats have a legal 50%+ quota for "lower" castes people. Did you know that? So, I am saying, 50%+ students graduating ALL elite engineering and law and medical and nursing schools, etc. are from these "lower" castes. Did you know that?

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irishcoffee 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

An yet legally, you are born and die in a bucket you have no say in whatsoever. From the outside looking in, seems wrong. Not dissimilar to Brave New World in some aspects.

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__rito__ 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What if it becomes irrelevant?

I have always been taught that greatness is in work (karma), and not in birth (janma), and honestly I have seen it practiced.

A "lower" caste High School teacher gets visibly much more respect in our society than a random priest from "higher" caste.

	▲	irishcoffee 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Your counterpoint is “what if” ? What if a caste system didn’t exist?

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shash 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Actually, legally, caste doesn’t exist. It’s been abolished, except for schemes for socially eradicating it (which are controversial but conceptually no different from any other affirmative action).

Not to say it isn’t a problem. But race is still a problem elsewhere too.

	▲	dd8601fn 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Racial discrimination is bad and we should say that out loud, too.

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anon291 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There is no bucket. There is affirmative action. If you can prove you're a part of a group for which affirmative action has been granted they'll give you a certificate saying you're part of that group. This is in no way tying you to that group. It's just a scheme to give affirmative action.

This is like saying America's racial quotas (or former ones) put you in a 'bucket'. Caste is essentially race / genetics. You are not bucketed, it is simply a reality of your ancestry. Of course you can't change it.. you cannot change your genetics. This is a ridiculous goal post.

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eldaisfish 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is complete and utter horseshit.

Caste is very much alive in India and this sort of blanket denialism reeks of upper caste privilege.

If caste is all that irrelevant, please go ahead with changing your surname to an obviously lower caste one. We will see how quickly you come crawling back to your so called “irrelevant” caste privilege.

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__rito__ 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Why do you assume I am so called higher caste? My caste is under a bucket in India called "Other Backward Classes".

Honestly the caste never comes up. In almost any conversation. And I also grew up far away from megacities.

I only heard a couple of priests blabber about the glory of their caste, but they were piss poor and had nothing else to be proud of. And they were bad as priests as well. That is, you wouldn't call them if you care about pure Sanskrit pronunciation, carefulness and seriousness during rituals, etc.

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conmod278 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Reservation in education institutions and government job which is used to solve caste system are just doing Eugenics in disguise. Only gene pool of rich lower caste people benefit.

The people who suffered are dead. The people who committed discrimination are dead. Yet the whole nation has to accomodate. Reservation must be done on Pro-Rata basis. If one state like Kerela is advanced, doesn't do caste discrimination and another like Bihar is very much into it. Then only Bihar state should reservation, not whole of India.

	▲	anukin 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Reservation is one of the easiest way to play vote bank politics. It does not benefit anyone other than the politicians and the rich lower caste people.

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malshe 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If Indians could change their caste officially, everybody would be lower caste. In fact there are often protests and agitations by members of certain upper castes to label them lower caste. See this for an example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_reservation_agitation

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anon291 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It's a catch 22. India tracks caste because they're trying to get rid of it. America doesn't track race or social status or whatever. Legal status means nothing really. Especially in urban India, it's becoming very irrelevant what your background is. Are there bigoted regressive people? Yeah of course, but I mean... Those are everywhere. Are there more in India than elsewhere? Probably, compared to urban western nations. But India is like a century behind on social progress id estimate. Still ahead of China where your status is literally tied to your place of birth though.

As for changing caste... You only need to reference it if you're seeking government benefit. If you don't care about it, stop keeping track, and don't share it with your kids... They'll never know and just get assigned general or whatever they call it. Of course, since caste is literally genetic, anyone doing a genetic test will quickly figure it out. However a gene test is not enough for seeking caste benefit status if I understand correctly, so this is as erased as you can get