Can’t you just lie?
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I live in Cambodia, and while its not a caste system per see, your title – or in many cases someone in your family. So if you have a brother in law thats a general, all people that max know a colonel cant “fuck with you”. And “everyone” is connected some way, just a question of how high the connection goes.
So therefore, before Khmer people can get to know anyone, they need to know a bit about who you are, what family, what part of the city etc. And that is the questions they ask each other when they first meet, to then establish where on the ladder they are. If they are on the same ladder – great! If not, the person below needs to know.
As my wife explains it can get a bit tiring, but just the way it is…
What is your last name?
By whose referral did you end up in this conversation?
What is your education/work background?
Who are your parents? What do they do?
Where do you come from? If the same city then which neighborhood?
What is your skin color?
What language(s) do you speak? What is your accent like?
The answers to even a few of these questions are enough for anyone to figure out your exact social standing. I’m sure this is the case not just in India but most of the world.
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I mean I visited India and there was definitely a divide with people working at malls making good money speaking English then there would be a guy helping who wouldn’t know as much English maybe a few words they picked up but definitely not fluent. I assumed a level of wealth not working retail is probably above some of these people.
I tried speaking a few Hindi words like thank you or sorry because so many people I interacted with.
Definitely interesting. I visited Germany and anyone under the age of 50 spoke English though a somewhat limited and strange vocabulary (didn’t know bathroom or restroom but did know toilet).
Surnames, appearance/behavior, language give these things away. You can only lie about so many things.
How is it in the 21st century that we can allow such a horrible thing as the caste system to continue!?!?
This is a very smart question.
It acts like a magnifying glass.
All the small minded ants will come out to play for the chance of looking bigger, not knowing that they’re getting burned in the process.
Because the process of answering the question becomes admittance…
In most Indian villages, people are familiar with everyone around them. They know each other’s relatives, visitors, and even where their children have migrated to and their professions, their spouses etc. Villagers are deeply involved in each other’s lives, and the concept of personal space doesn’t exist. In fact, demanding personal space can be offensive in the social circles. If someone lies about their background, such as claiming to be from a different caste or village, they might need to fabricate an extensive story to maintain the lie. This is because in India, it’s common for people to have connections across various places. If you claim to be from a particular village, there’s a high chance someone might know someone from there. This could lead to inquiries about you. This sort of inquiries and investigations is very common during arranged marriages. For example, if a person claims to be from a certain village or a certain cast and someone else knows another person from that village, they might inquire about the claimant during their next conversation. If the claimant is unknown in the village they claimed to be from, their lie could be exposed. Now from my personal experience almost 99.99% of the conversations in India between 2 ordinary middle/old aged people are about someone else (gossip). Maybe youngsters would talk about things, like cinema or whatever.
And skin color is significant in India. Darker skin is associated with lower caste status and unfortunately you’ll struggle a lot if you are darker in complexion. And if you lie with a darker skin tone the scrutiny will be much more intense.
Sometimes can tell by looking at them. I’m a Chinese, but born and raised in India. It’s similar to how you can tell different Asians apart. Subtle features
Fellow Canadians: do we have this here? I feel like we don’t. It’s not as if anyone gets put on a pedestal for going to McGill or something.
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