Hacker News Reader

Comment by moab | Hacker News Reader

The claims made in this post are in dire need of citations, and don't strike me as believable. And just FWIW, most first-generation Indians in America couldn't give two shits about the caste system.

View on HN

COunterpoint: TFA. Indians at Google definitely gave at least one shit about caste, probably more.

Highly agree on your second point, many first generation born south Asians I work for or work with that grew up within the suburbs couldn’t care less caste and simply don’t relate or identify with their parent’s generation and caste affiliation, they just want to be seen as American and are treated as such.

Only older heads who immigrated here are the lions share of individuals perpetuating this caste based discrimination. Please state your sources if you disagree with my assessment of first generation born Americans of South Asian descent working in big tech and Silicon Valley.

In my admittedly limited experience, people born to Indian parents in the US don't care about caste unless they are Brahmin, in which case, they'll be taught their caste rituals. Indians recently arrived from India care a lot more because reservation (think affirmative action by caste) and Hindu nationalism have become a big deal in Indian politics.

Only Brahmins are authorized to carry out certain religious activities in Hinduism. So if a Hindu wants to conduct those activities at their house in the US, they ought to fetch a Brahmin. That could be the reason why some Brahmins still stick to their identity.

Hindu nationalism has the most support from Upper castes. The majority of Hindus in the west anyway support RSS and in the west they become champions of minority rights and anti-discrimination. A majority of Indians who come to the west are also mostly Upper castes because unlike the gulf which give the job to all strata of people, only high profile people are given visas which happen to be high castes because generationally they hold the majority of the country wealth. So how is your statement many Indians who come to the US care about caste due to reservation even make sense?

> So how is your statement many Indians who come to the US care about caste due to reservation even make sense?

Your comment supports my observations. The newly-arrived Indians really don't like reservation and therefore care about caste. Second generation non-Brahmins in the US don't care about caste because it doesn't affect them.

You mean second generation.

No, I mean first generation born on American soil as American citizens which is distinct from first wave of immigrants from a specific country of origin. Their children are first generation born American, second generation in America.

Well, we are in the comments for an article which exactly disproves your point. You say Indians don't care about caste but I want to see some intercaste Indian couples and Indians without caste surnames among your "first-generation" Indian Americans.

Plenty of those, and inter-racial Indian marriages among friends who happen to be upper-caste exist. You're either not a first-generation Indian (seems likely) or you're seeing the story you believe in. And FWIW, even my dad's expat friend circle from IITB has people from all different caste backgrounds as extremely close friends, though you might cynically argue that IIT is an even higher caste.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com