I’ve been here almost 20 years. This city used to be largely caste agnostic.
Now when I meet new people, especially outside the elite tech circles, they will casually mention their upper caste status (“As Brahmins, we don’t do xyz of course!”).
Even cars carrying caste stickers are more common.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modh
A lot of Vaishyas have been certifying themselves as Backward caste in order to obtain affirmative action privileges. Including the dominant caste in Gujarat, the Patels - with the Patidar movement.
Modis were added to OBC list in 2002. This is a subversion of affirmative action which was meant to help lower castes, not upper castes.
BJP is primarily composed of upper castes. Only performative functions like Presidency are granted to lower castes.
Heck, in my home state, Rajputs, former rulers, have been lobbying to get categorized as OBC because of the reservation benefits.
I do however take issue with bashing the government for every social justice issue du jour. It’s convenient but very distracting for all sides involved. For example GP here accuses the current government of caste intolerance. If you think about it though it doesn’t make much sense, given the Indian government’s nationalist agenda of uniting all Hindus and instilling in them pride for their culture etc. Sowing caste divisions would be the exact opposite of what they would want to do in this scenario.
The Manusmriti, for instance, has been referenced and quoted by several ministers and politicians. Yet no one has addressed the deep casteism in it.
The government doesn’t promote casteism - I agree with that. But promoting Hindu pride without addressing some of its issues eventually gets you casteism.
If you’re Indian, you know it too - the OBC category is just political hogwash (disclaimer: I’m from an OBC category)
I imagine that hypothetical Republicoin and Demacoin currencies would find strong support among the hard-core true believers of the respective groups for the same reasons.
Am I talking to a bot?
But the very lowest castes which were outside the traditional varna division (i.e. untouchables, known today as Dalits) basically got the short end of the stick with little if any benefit (the only silver lining I can think of is lack of competition for ritually impure jobs that no one else was willing to do).
It is morally repugnant and treating it as anything else is perhaps even more morally repugnant.