In another case of caste-based violence among school students in Tamil Nadu, more than 20 caste Hindu students belonging to the Urali Gounder community attacked a Dalit student and his grandmother in Karur district on Saturday, August 26, for laughing inside a bus.
This is the third such attack in the state in 20 days.
In India, Dalits have been attacked and killed by the oppressor uppercastes for sporting a moustache, wearing sunglasses, riding a bike, etc.
A week back in Tamil Nadu, India, a Dalit student was attacked by his fellow students for studying well - https://www.newsclick.in/tn-dalit-student-attacked-studying-well-anti-caste-groups-ring-alarm. A group of high school students broke into his home and hacked him with a sickle.
Caste based crimes abound in India and caste-based discrimination is rife even among Indians outside India. A couple of months back in another state Madhya Pradesh, an Adivasi man was urinated on by a Brahmin member of the ruling political party, the BJP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvXxKI-e-40 (link to kbin post : https://kbin.social/m/worldnews/t/138318/Caste-Matters-a-Brahmin-member-from-the-ruling-party-BJP)
India has a law to fight casteist oppression and violence against Dalits & Adivasis called the Prevention of Atrocities against SC/ST Act. But those in charge of implementing this law are themsselves from the oppressor upper castes. So the law is rarely applied even though caste atrocities abound.
Laws preventing caste discrimnation, like this one and the one passed in Seattle, are essential to ensuing basic human dignity to all, Pro-Hindu groups oppose anti-discrimination efforts.
https://time.com/6146141/caste-discrimination-us-opposition-grows/
Please support laws preventing caste discrimination!
Indian people will also bring their caste system with them when living in the United States. Here’s a news article about it happening in Silicon Valley.
It’s wild that even when a country is (mostly) racially homogeneous, humans will find the most minute differences (imagined or otherwise) to discriminate.
Indians discriminate within their own families between those who have fairer skin & darker skin tones. The experiences that Black people have in India are very different from those experienced by White people. You can find out by asking around in travel forums
We are extremely racist, classist, and casteist, but are good at pretending not to be while living in developed countries.I was married into a TamBram family, and after a while you can just clock Iyers vs Iyengars (which is a hyperfine distinction if there ever was one). It’s based on names, differences in pronunciation, items of jewelry… Those are like the differences between a Londoner and somebody from Oxford.
But a Bengali or a Gujurati? They look totally different, like the difference between Connor McGregor and Al Pacino.
India is a BIG place, it has only ever been unified as an empire, never as a nation.
“This is the city of Madras,
The home of the curry and the dal
Where Iyers speak only to Iyengars,
And Iyengars speak only to God.” - Hungarian mathematician Paul ErdősAt the same time, I think it’s a bit more fluid than that. You’ll definitely have individuals who can pass for different ethnic groups. I’m South Indian and I can often pass for North Indian (especially because my name is typically North Indian).
“If Hindus migrate to other regions on earth, Indian caste would become a world problem” - Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar
