One of my foreign friends recently asked me why Indians are so much obsessed with the caste and colour?

A society where your status is decided based on the caste, where caste kills and caste rules apply to people from birth to even after death it is an easy answer. (Without a doubt, Indians are the most racist people with different researchers pointing toward that, in this post I would not go into the discussion on why Indians are obsessed with colour but will focus on caste only.)

Obsession with top castes come with the caste privileges that accompany the so-called upper castes. If one notices, it is the so-called upper castes which are obsessed with castes, not so-called lower castes.

Why does Indian take caste so seriously?

Birth, marriages to any other ceremony caste is the most important factor in Indian’s life. In India, homes are rented based on caste, caste colonies built by builders to accommodate so and so caste groups. Caste-based badminton and cricket tournaments are organized. Caste matters in all the field of life.

It can be dangerous in India to defy those social-religious rules set out by Brahminical scriptures while marrying someone from a different caste, particularly if you are from so-called lower castes. Honor killings have been conducted to maintain the social structure intact. If you look at matrimonial advertisements in any newspaper or try to register on matrimonial portals online, one is asked to indicate not only castes but sub-castes. ‘Caste no barrier, SC/ST excuse’ matrimonial ads can be found in such newspapers and online portals.

So-called upper castes use caste as a weapon, being born in so-called lower castes kills. (Studies have shown that so-called lower castes live fewer years than other castes!)

People want to get associated with those who are similar to them, those who have similar privileges and similar suffering. Every day, many people land on Velivada website while searching for ‘top 10 castes in India’, ‘top Brahmin castes’, ‘top Brahmins’, ‘upper castes in India, ‘ top castes among Hindus’, ‘top castes’, ‘the best caste’, ‘richest caste’ and with similar search results.

Search queries and number of times people landed on Velivada website

Considering Velivada site is not big enough but still, it gets almost 500 visits from such people searching for the ‘top castes’ after analyzing the similar data from our another website  www.drambedkarbooks.com, I can say that there are thousands and thousands (if not millions) searching for the ‘ top caste groups’ every single day.

When India is already divided into thousands of castes, it doesn’t surprise me why Indians are searching for top castes and neither you should wonder about it.

We have already seen whenever anyone achieves anything in India, people search for the caste of that person.

When P V Sindhu won a silver medal at Rio Olympics in women’s singles badminton competition, google search results saw a spike in the searches.

When Kalpit Veerwal, Dalit, who topped IIT Mains examination a few years ago with the perfect score, the first thing people were searching was his caste. Velivada site noticed that same trend as people landing on our website searching for the Kalpit’s caste saw a spike. Even today, people land of our website searching for Kalpit’s caste.

Similar results we noticed when Bhushan Ahire, Dalit, topped Maharashtra Public Service Commission examination a few years ago. We still get users landing on our website searching for the caste of Kalpit as well as Bhushan.

For Indians caste is a part of life, a person’s caste is decided when the person is born, so there is no escape from caste. With graded inequality and strict caste hierarchy, there is no chance that anyone can ever escape caste. Those at the bottom of the Hindu caste system suffer the most and those at the top enjoy at others’ expenses.

Brahminical scriptures have given larger than life value to the caste system and whole motive of writing all Brahminical scripture is to maintain caste/varna system. From Prashara Smriti to Manusmriti to Bhagavad Gita all Brahminical books support caste/varna system.

Caste has become motivation and adherence to it has become a central part of Brahminical India. So, till Brahminical scriptures would be there, Indian would be obsessed with the caste.

Families play an important role as a child is being raised child is told about the caste and caste privileges follow the suit. From socialization to education to profession, caste follows you and so-called upper caste society doesn’t leave any chance to remind so-called lower castes about their identity.

Indians living abroad are equally obsessed with caste. Whenever I meet Indians abroad, the first thing they ask is my name. When I tell them my first name only they ask for the what is your surname, in an attempt to find my caste.

Around 2007, Naukri.com, India’s biggest online recruitment service, was asking job-seekers to register their caste. Millions registered during this period and one can imagine how caste plays a factor in finding jobs. Any company with such data can manipulate algorithm to give benefit to a particular caste group.

Another research by Sukhadeo Thorat and Katherine S. Newman found that caste discrimination is rampant in labour market. Sometimes, there are job advertisements with ‘Dalits need not apply’ tags.

Thorat and Attewell conducted an experiment to test caste discrimination in the urban labour market for one year. The results of which the reproduced in the book – Blocked by Caste. They collected advertisements from leading English language newspapers for jobs in the private sector that required a university degree but no specialized skills and then submitted three false applications for each job. The applicants, all male, had the same or similar education qualification and experience. One of them had a recognizable upper caste Hindu name, another a Muslim name and the third a distinctly Dalit name. The expected outcome was a call for an interview or further screening.

Results showed that, although there were an equal number of false applicants from three social groups, for every 10 upper caste Hindu applicants selected for an interview, only six Dalits and three Muslims were chosen. It clearly shows casteist mentality of those sitting in private sector organizations.

So, you can see from birth to marriage to jobs to finding homes, Indians are obsessed with castes and finding top castes. When almost everything is connected with caste, no law can stop obsession and practice of caste discrimination. It is a reality of India and sooner we recognize it better for us.

A religion, Brahminism, that dominates the country has casteist teachings and scriptures those promote caste system. As Dr. Ambedkar said, you need to destroy those scriptures if you want to get rid of the caste system.

Author – Pardeep

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