India’s engineers have thrived in the tech industry. So has its caste system
I find this issue totally real&#x2F;believable, and yet puzzling.<p><i>Questions about whether someone is a vegetarian, where they grew up, what religion they practice or who they married may be used as a “caste locator&quot; [...] Other tests include patting an Indian man on the back to see whether he is wearing a “sacred thread” worn by some Brahmins, the highest-ranked caste.</i><p>Only another Indian person would know&#x2F;care about these things to an extent that would prevent a Dalit individual from answering in a way that obscures his&#x2F;her caste association. I don&#x27;t know the beliefs surrounding the &#x27;sacred thread,&#x27; but it is imaginable that a person who wants to appear to be Brahmin could wear it to work, in case of an errant back pat. Not sure if that is considered unethical or dishonest.<p>People teach others how to treat them, and much of what we think we deserve is rooted in the sense of self that we develop in childhood. I would guess that this is true for many Dalit people; the untouchable-ness of their ancestral caste, though not necessarily a part of their daily life, is a part of their self-concept. I don&#x27;t want to be insensitive to the desire of Dalit individuals to focus on work rather than vestigial social classes, but I can&#x27;t help but think that part of the problem is a subconscious feeling of inferiority&#x2F;inadequacy nurtured by Indian culture.<p>What&#x27;s really bizarre to me is that in my industry, Indians as a whole are often treated quite poorly (I don&#x27;t agree with this practice, nor would I ever participate in bullying someone over nationality) because IT (disproportionately Indian where I have worked) is kind of considered the lowest-status group on a trading floor. IT gets underpaid, and they tend to get shouted at because they get called most often when essential tools break down. (To be fair, everyone gets shouted at on a trading floor.) Also, many Indians working in large banks are on H1Bs that make them less mobile than their locally-born coworkers, and thus more likely to tolerate an unhappy work environment. Outside of IT, I know foreign-born Indians with Ivy League PhDs who don&#x27;t get treated the same by higher-ups as their non-Indian peers. Given the awareness that Indians have toward class hierarchy, one would think that they would adapt outwardly to climb the status ladder of Corporate America, rather than discriminating against one another within the Indian cohort of their work group. This seems like a self-inflicted wound. Most white-collar Americans don&#x27;t see &quot;Dalit&quot; or &quot;Brahmin;&quot; they just see two Indian people.<p>I also don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a fair comparison to blackness in America. There is absolutely nothing that a black man can do to reduce awareness of his blackness. Unlike caste, blackness can never be eradicated because it is a physical property of a group of humans.<p>Disclaimer: I&#x27;m not Indian and may be fairly ignorant of several cultural nuances that are relevant to this topic. I recognize that this is a sensitive topic; I found it interesting and wanted to write out my thoughts. If I&#x27;m missing the point, please edify me.