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Comment by __rito__ | Hacker News Reader

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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That doesn't make it any less arbitrary and ostracizing to those who do not benefit from it. This is the same argument people make in favor of focusing on middle class politics in the US and leaving the poor to kick rocks and die of homelessness, disease or drug addiction. It's an anti-human system rooted in archaic practice and colonial reinforcement.

> 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.

I agree and will go further to point out that the "rags to riches" story of the US is mostly a fairytale propped up by a few exceptions. I grew up impoverished and have seen over and over how it affects the trajectory of my life in ways out of my control. Any remarkable success on my part would be in spite of the American economic system, not because of it.

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.

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.

Your counterpoint is “what if” ? What if a caste system didn’t exist?

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.

Racial discrimination is bad and we should say that out loud, too.

The caste system has matter-of-fact not been abolished. The only thing that has been "abolished" is discrimination regarding caste.

Yet, we also outlawed slavery and Jim Crow laws in the US and yet my local prison in the Deep South is filled with 90%+ Black people. We outlawed redlining and yet the modern credit score system does an excellent job of continuing the purpose of preventing Black people from getting loans and leveraging their wealth.

All this to say, my understanding is the sentiment and infrastructure are still in place regarding India's caste system.

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.

Actually you can change it, by getting rid of it. No one here thinks reparations are a bad thing. But the ongoing discrimination is unacceptable. Conflating the two does not help.

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.

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.

Have you considered that you, like many economic classes, might exist in a bubble?

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.

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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