> the caste system was evil, particularly in the nineteenth century, and the government of India made it illegal as soon as it became independent.
I've heard this before, but can't find evidence of it. Does the caste system not live on to this day? I thought caste is a protected class in terms of legally discrimination, and not a thing that's been banned.
Any present-day Indians able to clarify? My dad left India when he was three, so my knowledge is not current :-)
Caste based discrimination is illegal in India, but erstwhile lower castes are given academic and job reservations as a form of socio-economic equity. But as with a lot of government schemes this provision gets abused to some degree and many upper caste people claim that as "discrimination".
That being said, there is no enforcement of the "no-caste" policy so in many smaller towns/villages the caste system is still widely practiced and lower caste folks discriminated/beaten/killed/etc.
It’s been ten years since I was last in India but I saw evidence of discrimination when I was there… some seemed related to caste and other related to religion.
Not sure it was any worse than what I’ve seen in the UK though
As an outsider, here's my take. The historic caste system included many restrictions on what people could do and who they could do it with. That's what was banned.
That said, there are a lot of ways to guess at caste if one is so inclined[1], and some people choose to use these guesses to discriminate. That's why it's a protected class --- it's not permissable to discriminate based on caste. There's also affirmative action for historically repressed castes, with all that comes with affitrmative action, for better or worse.
[1] caste related surnames and diet are the most easily understood by an outsider like me, but I think there may be caste related firstnames and other cultural indicators that I'm not aware of.
The caste system in India is illegal, but lives on in California gig work. Almost all the Indians are kind polite and intelligent as a rule, mostly kind. But every so often, you will see someone in a business setting acting like a toddler. B. Confirmed.
The closest thing we had was that tennis player who broke rackets.
I should drop names, as they are still running around, but I would rather talk about the best of them. Nice V.P of engineering at E. He had an office so I was a bit more polite. Turns out he was more nice than brilliant, and he was really brilliant so things went very well.
I would guess that adherence to the system is a maturity
Discrimination based on race, gender, socio-economic class, age, ... is illegal in the UK, EU, and I think the US (or at least California).
Does that help? It's not exactly the same obviously, and I don't mean to imply that, caste system has (or retains) much stronger cultural roots.
I do think the idea, Indophile though I am, that India was itching to get away from it, as though it was entirely imposed upon it, is a bit rich. As I understand, it was somewhat formalised by Britishers, for censa and whatever else, but the foundations are ancient.
Caste system is still widespread in India. Just ask anyone if they are married to the person with the same caste or not? and 95% of time they would say yes. Even if your father left India when he was 3, you still belong to a caste. Its not a system enforced by the government but people themselves. Religion & Government have limited power in India, Society is basically what determines everything in India, and it enforces caste. Caste system is associated with hinduism but even Christians, Muslims and Sikhs in India have a caste. Only people I know who are not following caste system are Affluent Muslims, Jains & Tribals, but they have their own systems.
I've heard this before, but can't find evidence of it. Does the caste system not live on to this day? I thought caste is a protected class in terms of legally discrimination, and not a thing that's been banned.
Any present-day Indians able to clarify? My dad left India when he was three, so my knowledge is not current :-)