The New York Times (free subscription required), in its Sunday edition has run an interesting take on the role of the Indian/Hindu caste-system in the Indian diaspora in America. I use a hyphen because followers of non-Hindu faiths found in India (Sikhism, Islam, and Christianity etc.) continue to have remnants of the caste system as part of their cultural traditions as referenced in the NYT piece’s example of Pinder Paul, who the Times describes as a
“spirited 50-year-old Punjabi Sikh (the Sikh faith absorbed some caste distinctions) who came to New York City in 1985 and worked as a dishwasher at Tad’s Steaks. Now he and his wife spend seven days a week running the Chirping Chicken outlet he owns in Astoria. He could cite no instance of outright discrimination, but said looks and gestures sometimes betray upper-caste condescension. “Our friends who came here from India from the upper classes, they’re supposed to leave this kind of thing behind, but unfortunately they brought it with them,” he said. Yet in a paradoxical demonstration of the stubborn resilience of caste, Mr. Paul is active with a local Dalit group and said he would prefer that his son marry a Dalit. “We want to stay in our community,” he said.”
The Times use the story of Dr. Bodh Das as their lede, a “silver-haired cardiologist in the Bronx,” who they compare to Tivye from Fiddler on the roof, and his attempts to ensure that his three daughters marry into the same familial caste they were born into.
As Dr. Das’s experience shows, the peculiarly Indian system of stratifying its people into hierarchical castes – with Brahmins at the top and untouchables at the bottom – has managed to stow away on the journey to the United States, a country that prides itself on its standard of egalitarianism, however flawed the execution. But the caste system, weakening for a half-century in India, is withering here under the relentless forces of assimilation and modernity. While it persists, its vestiges today often seem more a matter of sentiment than cultural imperative. Sometimes, the caste distinctions, recognizable by family names and places of origin, linger as a form of social snobbery. Keerthi Vadlamani, a 23-year-old chemical engineer from an affluent Brahmin family in the south-central Indian city of Hyderabad, said, “Some people are stupid enough not to mingle with a Dalit, to cold-shoulder them. “You won’t invite them home, you won’t go over to their home,” he said. Other upper-caste Indians here say that they do not bother to probe someone’s caste and that most compatriots will do business with anyone. Few Indians would admit to such behavior as refusing to eat in a restaurant because its food was cooked by an untouchable, something many upper-caste Indians might have done 50 years ago. Mostly caste survives here as a kind of tribal bonding, with Indians finding kindred spirits among people who grew up with the same foods and cultural signals. Just as descendants of the Pilgrims use the Mayflower Society as a social outlet to mingle with people of congenial backgrounds, a few castes have formed societies like the Brahmin Samaj of North America, where meditation and yoga are practiced and caste traditions like vegetarianism and periodic fasting are explained to the young.
The Times has an interesting take on the whole thing, but kudos to them for exploring a facet of the Indian diaspora that has remained, at least to my knowledge, relatively untouched by mainstream journalism.
I know — the French should pass a law requiring all desis to eat meat so that they could protect children from being socially isolated by their rigid, upper caste parents!
I liked these choice quotes from the story:
A desi engineer– rebel without a cause.
You hear the echoes of village life in these quotes.
Interesting piece. I still have to read through it, but here is a link to a version of the article that will not expire in 7 days and does not require a login.
Family Ties and the Entanglements of Caste
Hariharan Janakiraman, a 31-year-old software engineer who lives in Queens, is a Brahmin from the Vadama branch, which emphasizes teaching. Choosing engineering was his one rebellion.
Yeah, REALLY rebellious for a Brahmin. Almost as rebellious as a Jewish kid in America going to work for Goldman Sachs! 🙂
btw, it would have been really nice if the times had some stats on the caste distro in the US. Methinks the majority are upper castes, esp. among the professionals (just as they are in India), but it’d be nice to see stats.
I definitely agree that the vast majority of Indian-Americans are upper-caste.
“spirited 50-year-old Punjabi Sikh (the Sikh faith absorbed some caste distinctions) who came to New York City in 1985 and worked as a dishwasher at Tad’s Steaks. Now he and his wife spend seven days a week running the Chirping Chicken outlet he owns in Astoria. He could cite no instance of outright discrimination, but said looks and gestures sometimes betray upper-caste condescension. “Our friends who came here from India from the upper classes, they’re supposed to leave this kind of thing behind, but unfortunately they brought it with them,” he said. Yet in a paradoxical demonstration of the stubborn resilience of caste, Mr. Paul is active with a local Dalit group and said he would prefer that his son marry a Dalit. “We want to stay in our community,” he said.
1.) There are untouchables in Sikhism?
2.) How would someone know if you were Dalit just by looking at you?
Sikhism, like Islam, tacitly absorbed some caste consciousness from Hinduism. E.g. jats vs. non-jats.
Probably from Paul’s last name, I’m guessing.
I thought one of the goals of the founders of Sikhism was to eliminate caste distinctions, thus the Singh/Kaur surnames for all. Am i wrong?
Andrea, no amount of philosophy or religion has eradicated mankind’s inherent biases and discriminations. Every ethnic group that has emigrated to US has had the same issues and there has developed different version of the caste system in the US as well.
I’m curious — do 2nd-gen South Asians growing up in the West see this kind of thing as racism, a la a redneck telling his daughter not to mix with any durn furriners? Or is it seen as somehow culturally valid to want to only breed with “your own kind”?
clearly it’s equivalent to the societal definition of racism, and only advocates of the double-standard would say it’s more valid for group A to make explicit defenses of endogamy than for group B to do so.
the obvious counterpoint, though, is that if “wanting to marry someone who looks like you” is slickly equated to “hating those who don’t look like you”, then almost everyone in the world is racist. This is a curious and ideological way to look at things, one which is essentially religious (given its overtones of original sin = racism, high priests = tolerance.org, etc.).
caste is racism, probably even worse, its just called caste in india, probably helps us to feel a little less racist than we really are.
caste in diasporic community is very similar to race or even worse. diasporic indian are not questioning the etenicity but want egalitarian behaviour. also it is very paradoxical that they are also maintaining their caste identity by praciticing endogamy.
what does “a paradoxical demonstration of the stubborn resilience of caste†mean???