Caste violence erupts in India over 200-year-old faultline

Indian-American born and brought up in the States.

We never discussed caste. It was a non-issue.

Prime Minister Modi is also Low Caste. That didn't stop him from being elected.

I doubt Indians in the US, especially the ones who grew up here would be participating in any type of caste "system", but people in the lower or lowest castes wouldn't be in the US in the first place due to lack of resources.

It's more about your education level and how useful you are than who your ancestors were, but that is many times intertwined.

Edit: India, like most places, is in the middle of re-drawing it's caste system along socioeconomic lines. Of course, the lower castes will still be on the bottom and possibly discriminated against due to being behind on resources being passed down to them.

Most modern Indians don't have such a strong affinity to their caste but it still plays a role in their lives. Indians who moved to the US don't usually group based on their caste but in India it is still the case, especially in rural areas. Politics in India are divided along caste lines and you see all sorts of things like these, which are usually politically motivated. I can't comment on whether this particular incident is politically motivated as well.

Selection bias, because of the cultural, educational, and or financial resources required to come to the US, they are far more likely to come from the mid to upper echelons of the social structure in India. They are also more likely to be upper socioeconomic class in the US, so less incentive to act on caste identity.

Most of the violent aspects of caste discrimination occur at lower socioeconomic levels, where the intensity of the tribalism is exacerbated by poverty.

However, many middle class Indians in the US still follow traditional caste rules in aspects of their personal lives, particularly in marriage, and sometimes in other social associations.

There is also some selection bias among many Indian immigrants towards egalitarianism, leaving behind stifling aspects of the old culture.

The horrible acts of discrimination described in the article are a product of both the Indian social structure and the local communal conflicts.

Practice of caste system is negligent among the educated, especially folks who come to US and in Indian metros (millions live) and most of the towns. It is still followed to some extent in 'redneck' villages in interior parts of India where one knows the other by name and caste. As far as entry into temples, all major hindu temples dont follow it or just dont care. Millions visit these temples each day. But, most of the incidents of late are more politically motivated than caste related. Current PM Modi himself is of lower caste. Also India and Hinduism is not uniform. Lower castes (designated as shudra in caste heirarchy) are called upper castes in south and hold political power. Its complicated.

Indian who was born and grew up there. Caste was never a thing outside of arranged marriages. The only time I hear about it is from news when there were protests from certain castes recently demanding reservation or from places like reddit and hn where someone would post about casteism in India.

Interestingly, caste in India is a lot like race in America - becoming less of an issue with each passing generation. There are occasional flare-ups especially in the impoverished regions.

Nepotism also runs strong in India. Nearly 85% of the country’s businesses are family-run, and Bollywood is dominated by just a few families. Even job-seekers with impressive resumes have to fall back on personal connections to find work http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/world/asia/12iht-letter12....

> It's not all black and white, oppressed against the oppressor.

How's it not so? (Asking, not flaming. I know this is a complex topic and invariably leads to shouting matches.)

The idea of caste being used as a means and justification for oppression, violence etc is just plain wrong. I don't think it could be more black and white - to borrow another loaded figure of speech.

Here’s my simple mental model: People use bullshit reasons to be dicks to each other. Sometimes people are legit trashy, so fuck them, but other times trashy people are nice and it’s the elitists who are assholes. The bullshit reasons originate from religious mythology (read: made up fiction that conveniently excludes scumbags born into shit, fucking them for life, and leaving their children to inherit the same mistreatment), but the crux of the matter is who gets to fuck bitches and why. Arranged marriages and dowry compensation come bundled with what amounts to a regional, cultural and thus religious form of brand recognition. Slutty girls get sold to scummy dudes on the cheap, but sometimes a scummy dude has the money, and still can’t buy his way into the game. Compound this over generations and people get angry and stay angry when they die feeling jilted by the assholes they share daily life with. It gets worse when they watch it happen to their kids who are probably accidents anyway.