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Comment by bravetraveler | Hacker News Reader

As a casual observer, their culture seems to include considerable classism; to the degree that 'where are you from?' appears to be an extremely common and loaded question [saved for the locals]. I only recognize it because it exists in mine, not a judgement.

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Don't tiptoe around the topic. By class you mean caste. As a white guy who has worked in tech for 25+ years and has made many Indian friends, I continue to be astounded by how fixated many (obviously not all) of them are on caste. In particular, how much time and effort gets spent trying to suss out each others' caste by asking questions like you noted. Every time we get a new Indian team member and the existing ones start asking him where his parents are from and I see him start to uncomfortably evade answering while all of the other non_Indians in the room have no idea what is happening, it starts to make ME feel uncomfortable.

Can't tiptoe around words I don't know :P I did say 'casual observer'! Thank you for sharing, reading to do. Seems related to my frustrations as a low-born but now well-made American.

edit: I say 'seems' here lightly; a system is conveniently reinforced by depriving participants words and the ability (or even desire) to identify. Time and time again the gut feeling is a well-established thing.

I hope that the caste system is on its way out though, although for that to really happen there need to be long-term societal reforms, just like with classism in e.g. Europe. Especially in the UK, working/middle/upper class is still very much a thing.

Caste is a disease for sure. Divides people for the benefit of dividers and the few..

And as an Indian who has lived for 25+ years in India, I continue to be astounded by how fixated white guys like you are on caste when I have never once witnessed caste-based discrimination in my life, despite belonging to a categorized "originally backward" caste.

That exists in the EU as well, although certainly not to the same extent.

If you've never felt it, that just means you're from the countries that look down on other european countries :)

Classism exists basically everywhere. The most obvious example is the country bumpkin, he's gonna have a hard time impressing a metropolitan.

I’m not talking about classism (or racism), but about xenophobia.

What do you think the difference is between those?

Interesting projection. Do I understand you correctly, you know that other countries look down on you because you think they do?

Indian society can be pervaded by a grotesque shadow practice of caste which still exists today.

And it's been used in the US by Indians who practice caste-centric Hinduism who feel they are at a certain step of the caste ladder to those below them, or non-Hindus.

https://www.google.com/search?q=silicon+valley+caste+system

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