NationStates

American.

The Democratic Marxists wrote:

Saiwania wrote:
I'm not Indian, so I don't have the benefit of having my last name already assigned to a caste, so in the absence of that- I think that there isn't a choice but to use your parent(s) occupation or your family's economic status if a non-Indian wants to know what caste they'd be put in. Unlike a lot of people, I don't think that the caste system necessarily gives India a bad name, it is just a rather unique system that has such history behind it. I'm perhaps a bit too enthralled by it because I have no personal experience with it good or bad.

Well, read a bit more history and news. Thugs shred apart Dalits in the street when they marry a member of a higher caste. The government has historically fought this kind of discrimination; The Congress Party of India always used to assist lower castes in finding jobs, homes, etc. It is only the recent rightist BJP government that ignores, or even allows this kind of inhumane practice of the caste war.

So then it very much affects people's lives.
Instead of being outraged that we think it sucks, change it.

I am of the british class, and stand above such pagan rituals

Kubra wrote:I am of the british class, and stand above such pagan rituals

Right. Let's not pretend that colonialism hasn't also caused many problems around the world, shall we?

Brahmin cos my family is full of nerds, and has been for several generations.

The Democratic Marxists wrote:You guys are being such dumbasses. I am actually Indian. The caste system is an outdated part of Hindu religion (yup, there are other religions in India folks!). Also, your profession in the current world does not determine caste. Rather, it is your last name, or your original heritage. I am a Brahmin, technically, although I believe the caste system is a worthless piece of shit. My heritage is from the Chatterjee surname, a Brahmin legacy. Other Brahmin surnames are Banerjee, Mukherjee, and Ganguli. However, for religious lunatics in India, a Dalit who becomes Chief Minister of a state is still a Dalit, not a Kshatriya.

However, it is illegal in India to discriminate based on caste, okay? If it wasn’t for all those idiotic thugs who go assaulting and murdering Dalits, this fucking caste issue would not even exist. Caste in India no longer determines your life, get it? We have multiple government ministers who are technically Dalits. And this chat is giving India a bad name. It is only the crazy religious Hindu extremists who practice the caste system, just like only extremist Muslims are part of the terrorism problem. So all you elitist Westerners can shut your self moral and judgmental mouths about a country you know nothing about.

Phew, that’s that with the rant!

Ehh, wasn't really planning on judging anybody, just playing along with Sai's hypothetical.

Katganistan wrote:

Kubra wrote:I am of the british class, and stand above such pagan rituals

Right. Let's not pretend that colonialism hasn't also caused many problems around the world, shall we?

chill, chill, just making fun of the whole caste system
it doesn't go so well when outsider who couldn't be bothered with it show up with flintlocks

Aellex wrote:"L'Assemblée nationale détruit entièrement le régime féodal. Elle décrète que, dans les droits et les devoirs tant féodaux que censuels, ceux qui tiennent à la main-morte réelle ou personnelle, et à la servitude personnelle, et ceux qui les représentent, sont abolis sans indemnité."

We may disagree sometimes but you're alright in my book

Kubra wrote:We may disagree sometimes but you're alright in my book

Same here, my friend.

Generel rule!
You can choose your religion but you can't convert your caste. If that was possible don't you think brahmins would have been converting to SC or OBC to get reservation quota. This is the present reality.
But according to scriptures nobody is born a brahmin or kshatriya or shudra or vaishaya, you can always choose your place in society and be in your desired CLASS or varna (not confuse the varna system to present day caste system)
So spiritually you can study scriptures and meditate on divine to become a BRAHMIN but not legally.
Even if you turn a Christian you'll still be considered of the same caste you currently have.

Kshatriyas it is. Not too bad to be second highest, despite most of the poll apparently being the highest.

Imperial--japan wrote:Kshatriyas it is. Not too bad to be second highest, despite most of the poll apparently being the highest.

People aren't voting accurately or are lying, and its a shame I can't fix that. Everyone seems to think of themselves as the top caste by default. But I recognize that no- my family does not primarily consist of people of that description. I've read that only around 3% of India's population are Brahmins, so it should be quite clear that if the poll were accurate; that the elite rank would be less than half of what it is currently polling at.

This is the last comment I have on the poll situation. It is there nonetheless, to get a picture of the caste distribution that people identify with as opposed to getting no information at all.

Some Dalits have moved overseas from India to "escape" the caste system, but the pitfall they can fall into is that if they're in a new country, they have little to no support system generally speaking, (always a struggle to become economically established, and to learn the language, culture, etc.) and if they associate with their own expatriate community (as nearly all immigrants do) then their Caste status "follows" them to wherever they move to.

No matter how hard a Dalit may try to escape discrimination or poverty, their fellow Indians will probably keep treating them quite poorly regardless, even in Canada or the US, etc. Indians will keep refusing to hire Indians that are of low caste, that aspect of it is sad.

http://nationalpost.com/news/we-are-zer ... -in-canada
https://www.indiaabroad.com/indian-amer ... a04a0.html

I'm a shudra married to a brahmin. Not bad, I'm batting

As a person of Indian-descent born in the U.S.A, I don't really have a caste. It doesn't help that almost everyone I'm aware of in my family are Christian/Muslim and therefore don't subscribe to the caste system. Plus we're all of Anglo-Indian descent.

I think on some family member's papers or something I actually remember "Anglo-Indian" being written in for the caste. But again, as an American, I don't really know how that works.

I suppose if I had to measure myself according to the OP's explanation, without family consideration and solely by the measure of my own merits, I'd be a Shudra. I'm certainly not in management or anything at my work, and I don't have any advanced degrees, but I have a pretty respectable job, a technical certification, and make enough to get myself and one other person by, autonomously, at an acceptable standard of living. Nothing luxurious, but we have a roof, a car, and we ain't starving or panicking about where the next checks are coming from.

It's not an entirely impressive class system, if we really look into it. For example, you are unable to marry with people from different caste. If you came from Brahmin, you married someone from the Brahmin caste as well. And well, it's sort of no longer quite adaptive to the modern period. Now we have lots of different jobs and upbringing that making qualifications based on caste a bit hard.

People who think of themselves as Brahmins forget that the Indian caste system has no way of going up, only down.

This means that even if a single of your ancestors cleaned toilets or was homeless, you, the descendant, are as Dalit as your ancestor was, and there was/is no way out of it.

This is why most self-proclaimed Brahmins in this thread are probably not Brahmins if you follow the caste system by the book.

My father was a teacher as was his father and grandfather, but that has nothing to do with what I'd do or where I'd belong. It'd be unlikely for me to be in the educating business. Criminal enterprise is looking more desirable to me by the minute. Unless criminals are anything other than dalit, I don't believe I have any other answer for this thread.

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Caste's sound like a bad idea. Rigid class system leaves no hope for expansion and gives others second class rights.

Kubra wrote:I am of the british class, and stand above such pagan rituals

Destroy the caste system! Deus Vult! FOR THE MOTHERLAND ALL CLASSES ARE EQUAL COMRADE! (ear rape)

Das Volksreich wrote:

Deads Heads wrote:My father was a teacher as was his father and grandfather, but that has nothing to do with what I'd do or where I'd belong. It'd be unlikely for me to be in the educating business. Criminal enterprise is looking more desirable to me by the minute. Unless criminals are anything other than dalit, I don't believe I have any other answer for this thread.

The caste system is not uniform from place to place, and in some areas 'thuggees' were considered a caste in of themselves, taking on familial nature. You could be none of the above - thuggee.

Well if the noose fits, strangle a tourist with it after gaining his confidence.

Genivaria wrote:American.

The best Caste

I'm sure someone has but I can't be bothered to read the last 5 pages of this topic, someone has informed OP that your caste assigns your job, your job does not assign your caste, right? That it's the sort of rigid class system that would make Marx long for the glory days of bourgeois Capitalism.

As a school teacher, I would be considered Brahmin. But, as for the main notion on the forum, castes are outdated and should not be taken seriously. They were only put in place to maintain strict social hierarchies.

Hamilpore wrote:As a school teacher, I would be considered Brahmin. But, as for the main notion on the forum, castes are outdated and should not be taken seriously. They were only put in place to maintain strict social hierarchies.

Strict religious hierarchies.