Cast into the Caste System
Saturday, 10. October 2009, 06:23:27
Disclaimer: these are entirely my own biased perceptions and my intent is not to educate you about the entire Indian culture. My intent is solely to express my anger at this social injustice.
caste: "ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited."1
This is evil. (I did say this was my own biased perception, right?)
I give my supporting evidence, based on personal experiences:
Item one: When my driver takes us to Bangalore and we stay the night, the 5-star hotel assures me that they have accomodations for drivers. Upon arrival I find out that their idea of "a room for my driver" is a picnic table in a brightly lit garage with a shared wash basin.
Item two: Drivers are not allowed in the main lobbies of any of the hotels.
Item three: Some parents at the school consistently make a stink about the fact that drivers sit on the benches in front of the school while they wait for their bosses to come outside. These benches are unoccupied 90% of the day, are OUTSIDE the main school building, and face the parking lot. Shades of water fountains labeled "colored only" come to my mind.....
Item four: While waiting in the doctor's office, I watch a girl who cannot be more than 12 following a toddler around with a hankie to whipe the little one's dripping nose. Mother sits on the chair, texting away, giving sharp orders to the twelve year old. The older girl is obviously a servant. Child indentured servitude flourishes here in India.
Item five: A certain local hotel, which has a nice beach and pool and is much populated by foreigners on the weekends, has a numerical limit on the number of Indians it allows on the property. This is heavily weighted towards Caucasians.
Item six: Recently a staff member at my husband's company criticized us about the amount of money we pay our household staff. We pay too much, not too little. Never mind that it's none of her business. Her reasoning? We're raising the bar for those who have hired help, and spoiling our staff.
Item seven: My staff have a definite pecking order. My driver passes any task he deems below his status on to the guards; they pass it on to the gardener. It doesn't matter who I tell to do it, they juggle it until it fits into the caste system.
Item eight: No one wants to talk to me openly about caste except the Brahmins (highest caste). None of my staff, not even my former foster daughter E, will say what caste they are from. I cannot find any books in the local bookstores that address the issue, even though there are plenty in US bookstores.
Item nine: Reading the newspapers, caste determines voting. (Caste leaders tell their caste members whom to vote for.) Caste determines what jobs are open to you. CASTE IS LISTED IN THE MARITAL ADS.
Item ten: Even though caste is technically outlawed, all children who register for any Indian school, private or government, must list it on their application. (Yes, reminiscent of the U.S. system for tracking minorities, although most of the time I believe that box is marked "optional".)
I personally cannot stand this system. Do we have racism and injustice in America? Of course. No country is perfect. I cannot stand it any more there than I can stand the caste system here (which is not as clearly based on skin color, although a darker skin tone in India is generally looked upon as less desirable.)
The irony is that my dislike of being labelled myself is very strong, even though in India I figure into the "rich, upward" caste. This is not how I see myself, and not how I want to be remembered. Label me as "nice"; label me as "bitchy"; label me as "tired"; label me based on my character (even if you're wrong
), NOT on my skin color or perceived economic status!Q and A encyclopedia.com
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 10. October 2009, 06:10
Teresa! This is such a true article/entry. It was one of the things I often noticed that sometimes made me lose my cool in India. You could write a book about this! I have ALWAYS wondered why caste was listed in marital ads, and on wedding invitations alongside the degrees that the bridegroom has. The surprising thing is that even the very educated people don't address the issue so as not to offend their caste members, i.e. members of their family. Why do you think this is something that people don't talk about?
Anonymous # 10. October 2009, 07:26
Living here gives me a new perspective on this hierarchy of sorts - amazing to see the trickle down effect and how it affects each and every person.
I totally agree with most of what you say ... except with a small twist on #3... the drivers sitting where they do at the school. I just had an unfortunate incident myself with these men - where about 12 of them were sitting in a small pack right outside the entrance to the school. I was waiting patiently for my driver to pick me up - and while there for less than 3 minutes, ALL eyes were on me. Staring. Looking me up and down. I turned behind me to see if they noticed something that I couldn't see - and clearly there was nothing there... it was me they were oogling. I walked up to them, told them how rude they were to be staring - how it made someone feel uncomfortable. They laughed. I then went to George and told them how uncomfortable I was - and how rude these men were. It was BLATANT staring... and then the whispers. I'm no looker - I"m just a mom who wants to feel relaxed in the one place I should be able to let my hair down - literally and figuratively.
I'd like to think there was no harm done. However, if this is what these men do when kids walk out - or young girls - then for the first time, I can understand why parents complain.
Just my own perspective...
Anonymous # 10. October 2009, 07:26
sorry - that comment was from jill
Anonymous # 10. October 2009, 07:27
sorry - the comment above was from me
Anonymous # 11. October 2009, 14:12
You said it all ... (and there are so many more examples)! It's sad, horrible and makes me nauseous nearly EVERY day that we are in Delhi.
http://delhibound.blogspot.com
Anonymous # 12. October 2009, 15:56
Wandered across the blog from the now-defunct Expatinchennai blog and have visited often. First time commenting though. While much of what you say about the glaring inequalities in Indian society is true, your observations are confusing class and caste and race. Drivers are a class (as in working-), the child laborer could be low-caste or high-caste but is definitely from a poor family, your sweeper is probably Dalit. Indians being excluded from certain hotels is racism. Of course, Indians themselves give as good as they get in the racism category. The reason why noone wants to talk about caste? One's caste identity is only important in personal situations like marriages and funerals and diet (higher caste= more vegetarianism, less meat-eating). It makes people uncomfortable to talk about it in a social or employment-related situation where people from different backgrounds mingle. In any case, in the workplace, caste-ism is illegal and punishable (probably another reason why no one wants to say much). Just my input.
Teresa # 13. October 2009, 02:48
Jill, sorry about the staring. What I'd really like to see them doing is ENFORCING THE ID BADGES and kicking those who stare or are rude OFF CAMPUS. Individually, not collectively. If those drivers had their badges on you could have reported them to security and had some action taken. But I don't think we'll make real headway until they import some security staff who have less class/caste/racial status hangups.
Anonymous # 13. October 2009, 20:03
If it helps, the closest analogy to caste is race/ethnicity in western culture. Just as you would not talk about your "whiteness" or your "black-ness" or your "Hispanic-ness" at work or at a party without making people uncomfortable, similarly you don't talk about your caste in mixed social settings or at work(it's considered crude and uneducated to do so). On the other hand, it's perfectly acceptable to put in a personal ad that says "Single White Male" or "Single Black Female" looking for, etc...without raising any eyebrows. Similarly, people put in marriage advertisements looking for people from the same caste. I find fascinating the parallels between caste/race and casteism/racism. Nothing's said out loud but everyone knows what signs are out there to read - silently.
Anonymous # 21. October 2009, 05:13
yea.. the caste system has been in India for a very very long time now... i think its rude too.. but theres nothing we can do.. unless the people who r victims to such things come out n try to change things...
Anonymous # 3. November 2009, 03:34
I think the desire to be judged based on our individual characteristics and achievements is very american. We are a nation that is based on the concept that you can move socially/economically based on individual hard work. When we rejected english rule, we sealed that notion of 'all men being equal' and rejected any 'royalty' or family-based status. I think that is why it may be hard to then be classified as high caste, when we don't feel that we deserve it, or that it is a fake construct being forced upon us. Of course, there are still barriers to social/economic movement in America, and some of them are even correlated to race, but we have made great strides in trying to even the playing field. I do think that this culture of individuality can lead to a lack of caring for extended family, and even a streak of selfishness that you don't find in more family/community/team based cultures. Perhaps one day a culture will arise that will find the proper balance.
Teresa # 3. November 2009, 05:07
Anonymous # 4. November 2009, 05:07
Comments 1 to 7: refers to 'class' not 'caste'.
Agree 8 to 10 refer to 'caste', but with a rider..point 10 is for identifying who needs what is referred to as 'affirmative action' in the US.
Point six: while unpleasant, it is probably true about raising the bar..remember, Indian salaries are not the same as expat salaries and maybe she (truly) finds it going beyond her means. (not meaning to sound harsh..just trying to be objective)
"Caste leaders tell their caste members whom to vote for"
Sad, but true. But this is not how we started out with Mahatma Gandhi. It has now evolved into the present day 'vote bank' politics, with purely an eye on winning elections.
"still, to me, both countries seem to lack a cohesive national identity, whereas Americans definitely have a strong sense of "being American"
You know, the American democracy is 300 plus years, and Indian democracy is still very young (we were a mix of principalities) ..we are still learning..I got a very clear sense of this when I read 'Chesapeake'..I could identify several points of equivalence in societal identity/attitudes at equivalent points of time on the path.
Anonymous # 10. November 2009, 20:40
Hi, I am from Tamil nadu. I share your feelings about discrimination in India but I want to just clarify what fits into caste based discrimination and what does not. Most of the things that you have listed are class based discrimination, not caste based. Its true that some hotels in Chennai limit Indians themselves from entering in. For example in GRT Grand Hotel the buffet had no proper vegetarian food, they only had western style raw salads which we Indians don't like. Since we went as a group they asked for feedback and we wrote that their food is like garbage and service poor. No wonder that I never saw any sizable number of people in that hotel at any time. There were days when Indians were not so rich to go to 5 star hotels and all the star hotels had to do was to attract the 'rich foreigners'. Now it is the Indian young people who are the main customers to star hotels and bars and if these minority hotels don't change soon they will lose out. Regarding the pecking order, I have seen it among workers in my house too. It is actually due to the feeling of being superior to others due to their job (a driver may not be an executive class job according to you but for him it is definitely higher than a security because driving is a skill and your security doesn't know kung fu). Though India is changing, the caste system is so entrenched to the extent that even Christians and Muslims HAVE castes, though people in the West may think it is associated with Hinduism alone. The well known Christian castes in TN are Christian Nadars (pronounced Naadaar and belonging to the same caste as Hindu Nadars), Christian Scheduled Castes (the lower caste) and Fernandos.