Ruminating About Race, or, I Should Have Been a Social Sciences Major

Amidst all the hue and cry about how the Hindu caste system is archaic and inimical to Indian society, my dad has an interesting point of view. According to him, the caste system actually lets different communities find their own niches unlike the un-stratified social structure of Europe and America. I would have to say that I agree to an extent.

It is a theory of mine that the caste system allows the various Indian communities to pursue different wants and needs and life expectations, compared to the US, where I think the biggest problem is everyone aspiring to the "American Dream" of a house with a white picket fence, a garage, two kids and any number and breed of dogs.

Going off on a slight tangent, I think the reason racial discrimination is prevalent in certain Western societies is that a large part of the socio-economic structure of countries is based on race, especially in the lower strata. Thus, in the US, Indians and Pakistanis drive taxis or own convenience stores and motels, East Europeans are janitors, Mexicans serve as house help, gardeners or window-cleaners, African-Americans drive the transportation systems and form the bulk of the general service sector. Here, people are doubly compartmentalised, by race as well as by profession and economic status.

Contrast this with India. Here everyone may be of the same race (I'm ignoring the Dravidian-Aryan divide as a more macro-scale issue) but there are several similar possible divisions based on caste and religion. But, since it is well-nigh impossible at first glance to tell what caste or religion a person belongs to if one doesn't know the person's name and he/she doesn't display a clear distinguishing characteristic like the brahmin's sacred thread, the Christian's crucifix or the Sikh's turban, in this situation it is much easier and hence more likely for different castes to share an economic stratum, which in turn makes "casteism" (if there is such a word) less severe. Here, caste considerations really only come into play during social choices like marriage and the more powerful economic discrimination is diluted.

The foregoing discussion should probably not include small rural communities where everyone essentially knows everyone else. Furthermore, as the level of education increases, these racial/caste-based distinctions begin to dissolve, but that is already well-known.