How can people in India tell what caste a person is from?

Question

Can’t you just lie?

In: Other

Answer 1

So, my experience is from the British class system which shares a lot of parallels, but you’ll get the gist:

There’s a ton of “tells” that people can use to figure out which class someone is from, and a lot of them are little tests that mostly only people from the higher classes know are going on.

So say you’re British (class system doesn’t really apply to foreigners, even Anglo ones) talking to someone at a social gathering who’s also British, from a high class they’re gonna scope you out.

First – your accent. Is it right? Are you using the right words? Etc. This isn’t surefire, but is a good screen. Next, are you dressed in a fashion that is currently in favor among the upper classes? Again, not surefire; but a hint.

Then in the getting to know you chat they’re gonna ask you “what school did you go to”. Now you’re a professional 15 years out of university, so you might think they’re talking about your university. Answer with where you went to university and you fail. They know you’re middle class. You’re supposed to say which Secondary School (High School) you went to, and it better be a Private school, and ideally one of the more prestigious Public Schools (these aren’r public, they’re private).

Then you’ll probably expect to have them raise vacations and so on, where did you go this summer? They’re looking for locations and activities that tell them you’re loaded – and you better have a story to tell about them.

These are just a handful of a hundred little tells and challenges. Someone could learn them all and fake it, ideally with a decent bank balance backing them up, but it’d take a LOT of prep work and lying, which would probably be uncovered when your new acquaintance introduces you to a friend of theirs who also went to the school you claimed to have gone to whereupon you’ll be drawn into a chat about when you attended which will be awkward when they don’t remember you from their small graduating year…

The gates are less guarded for middle class vs working class, but again if you want to fake it you better do a deep dive research and practice your accent and so on or you’ll be outed soon enough.