#casteism

That is why when I see some white woman bragging about her choice to be a "trad wife" or adopting Hinduism as a religion, it disgusts me. These aren’t empowering choices for us - they’re tools of our oppression. Here, women are forced into arranged marriages, denied basic education and pressured into being docile housewives. Hinduism isn’t some liberating "girlboss" religion - it’s deeply rooted in Brahminical patriarchy.

Now, I'm not a Dalit, nor am I a Brahmin, but I have had my own experiences with casteism... so if you are willing to bear with me, can I share them?

I spent most of my life in tier 1 cities. I never had anyone ask my caste. I didn't even know what my caste was until my dad was filling some government form when I was 10 or 11. I studied, I passed some exams, and I went to college, without ever caring about my caste (or others').

But then this one day I had a horrible toothache. Excruciating pain. My college has a health centre, so I went there to get it checked. Right before I was about to be examined, my mom called. I didn't want to make her worry so I pretended everything was normal, cut the call as soon as I could. My doctor heard us speak though, and asked me if I was Maharashtrian. I said yes. She asked me where I was from, and I named the area. She knew it was in the konkan. Do you know what the next question out of her mouth was?

"Oh. Are you a Konkanastha Brahmin?" She seemed excited at the prospect (found out later she was one).

I'll admit I was a bit taken aback. No one had asked me such a question to my face. Took me a couple of seconds but I mumbled out that I wasn't, that I was [X] (not mentioning it here cos it's a relatively small community). She visibly deflated and then hurriedly finished her checkup.

This was in a tier 1 government institute. In a tier 1 city. By a dentist, well into her fifties, who should know better.

Another time, me and my family were in Sindhudurg sightseeing. Went to this temple- relatively isolated except for a couple other visitors, the pandit, and a shopkeeper selling flowers and other aarti material. While my father was buying flowers, he asked for our full names. When he heard our surname he was overjoyed. "Arre! Tumhi tar aamchyach samajatle!" (Hey! You guys are from my community!) He then proceeded to talk our ears off, telling us all about his family, his brothers, his neighbours... as if us coming from the same caste as him was some certificate of trustworthiness. I want yall to think how insane that is. You see three strangers you have never seen before and tell them all about your son in early twenties going to the city to get a job and teenage daughter who is good at studies and younger brother who doesn't help with the house expenses just because they are of the same caste.

One of my uncles is in a WhatsApp group of people from our caste. From Monday to Saturday, it's a trading area. People will share things they are selling, and others will buy it. (At this point I think it's sort of obvious we are from a merchant caste). On Sunday, they arrange marriages. And again these deals are trustworthy because "we are of the same community". He truly, wholeheartedly believes that shit. (If you ask me, lots of traders in one place actually increases the chance of running into scammers but whatever).

Also all the houses in my native village are arranged based on caste. Our entire line is ours, the one below is of some potter caste, the Brahmins live separately... oh, and during Visarjan, the Ganapatis of the Brahmins always go first. Only once they're done ours are allowed to go.

Now, I'm privileged enough to be of a sufficiently high caste that I don't face discrimination. That when people hear it, I either get acceptance or friendship. But not everyone is that lucky. In fact, most people aren't. If I can sense the caste system despite being in such a position of privilege... imagine what SCs are made to hear through their lives. No amount of money, I assure you, would have changed that dentist's view on Kokanastha Brahmins or allowed a Dalit man to build a house in the Upper Caste area of my village.

Dalit Christians are dalits (former hindus) who converted to christianity. Unfortunately, due to how pervasive casteism is in indian society, conversion did not reduce the caste oppression as they might have hoped, and dalit christians still face both caste based and religious discrimination from upper caste hindus.

A very interesting article from a dalit christian on how they don't feel fully welcomed in either dalit spaces or christian communities, and are eventually betrayed by both the church and the state.

like do you really think by removing reservation, there would still be enough seats in institutions for lakhs of students?

the entire entrance system is a symptom of govt incapability to provide basic higher education and jobs and trap the youth into giving exams and blame their failure on students/candidates/people for not cracking them.

which is perfectly fine right. i thought yeah fair it’s probably 18+ or some other practical characteristic. it was not. the ‘entry criteria’ is submitting a photo of yourself or having a profile pic of yourself so this person and their buddies can analyse whether you are adequately ‘explicitly non white passing’. helpfully, they have criteria for this, in which they state that dark hair is not, by itself, going to guarantee your inclusion, that having lighter eyes or ‘eurocentric features’ needs a ‘counterbalance’ like ‘darker skin’ or ‘noticeable body hair’ (bro? 😭) in order to count. all are direct quotes, you cannot make this up etc. bizarrely, they have a kindly little caveat: mixed race people with white parentage or european blood are exempt from having to conform to this criteria. if your granny’s white, you get to be in the club! caveat also extends to if you are jewish, practicing or otherwise.

and this part is of course my own interpretation, however, it is genuinely making me cackle because there is nothing in the world that gives away more than this caveat, the fact that the person setting this group up is suffering from the main character syndrome characteristic to a certain type of diaspora who is part of the dominant religion+caste in india aka upper caste hindus and assume that the specific version of racism (ie usa diaspora style ‘your lunchbox is stinky’ or ‘bindi’ racism) they face is the only valid experience. also let’s just say this group of people really enjoy phrenology when its results put them in the driver’s seat.

because if this deranged entry criteria specifically states that mixed race people with a white parent are given a free pass, so to speak, same with jewish folk, that means that there is only one group they intend to exclude, a group whose members are more likely than others to have lighter hair and eyes or ‘eurocentric’ features even if they have no european ancestry.

i’ll give you one guess as to which group this is!