Caste System - My first awareness of it

Today's topic dealt with the practice of untouchability and the evils of caste system. Living in India, much as we would like to deny it, there can be no escaping the fact that it is an too pervasive a malaise.

So here I would like to hear from the members, at what age and under what circumstances did they come to understand caste-system? What was it that brought home to them very forcefully - about their caste and difference from others?

edited at 11:44 pm
If I make a short post, you can rest assured that there's more to come :)

After hearing so many accounts - I've come to understand something. All of us faced the evil at an age when our minds were mature enough to understand what discrimination is. Also most of us believed that discrimination on the basis of caste is wrong, but had been silent witness to the practice in our own homes. So there was this gap between understanding the evil of the system and the awareness of the practice.

Another thing the awareness of the practice invariably came from outsiders - neighbors, school, friends, colleagues and such like. And the heightened awareness made us re-evaluate our own domestic environment. Most of us felt ashamed of the environment. Implying thereby that what we believe is right and what we understand is the practice are two different things.

Then there was the account of Soni - whose father actually fought the system and made a place for himself. Most of us belong to the upper castes - the perpetrators of the crime so to say. Soni has to tell us the story from the other side of the lines. She faced it first-hand in the discrimination at her hometown. Her parents fought the system and must've gone through a lot to make place for themselves and their children in this society.

And this is what I wanted to understand through the stories shared by all. How the indoctrination works in the modern urban society. We all believe that "Aisa Nahi Hota" but it happens all around us everyday. We are asked at school to mention our caste. The census officials have a separate section to fill details about caste. Our surnames carry the caste identity with it. They narrate the entire story on their own. We still keep separate utensils at home for the servants. Somewhere we need to find a separate identifying paradigm than the existing one.

I believe the internet is a great equalizer. How many of us know each others religions or castes or even gender in some cases, till the information was willingly shared. In this forum we've learned over the past few weeks to assess each other purely on the basis of the thoughts and ideas expressed. And what better paradigm can be there for identifying a person? Wish we could replicate it in real life too.

Going to keep it super short

!st year college, i had an accident with a friend, He came to drop me home, My dad asks him, Tumhari Jaat Kya Hai. I was right there and he asked so casually, I actually yelled back. I do yell at my parents. When we went outside, the friend asked me why did he ask that. He was laughing but i would have been furious.

Any kabadiwala, jhadu wala comes to the door, papa used to ask them, tumhari caste kya hai.! Casual conversation.!!! I asked mummy about it today - she said it has become like a habit with him, if we correct him, he takes it as if we are the enemies so better shutup and let him be.

As a kid, my mama(Mummy's Brother) used to call us girls Mayawati, Chamarin etc, Pissed me off ALWAYS - i am a very violent person so i did give it back to them though i was drunk then.. but since then, He doesnt say that to me. But am not sure what happens in lucknow. Its like a joke with him. I didnt even know what that meant then. Chamarin etc.

EDIT
My parents are looking for guys for me.. There is a friend, He is OBC, i am not sure though, So i feel he is OBC.. and he is a good person, i dont judge him by his caste though am not physically attracted to him despite he is almost like a gentleman but in the corner of my mind i feel that maybe the caste issue wud affect me somehow. :/ Very hypocritical of me but yes, its in my head.

BUT i am seriously pissed watching the three girls clean toilets, the man in the end of the show who is nowhere related to the profession but is still regarded as bhangi ka beta. SO many times we have seen our family members regard others like this. :|

my experience is a lil bit different here.. I have studied in a Missionary School .. there was daughter of sweeper who used to read with us .. there was students from different cast n religion ... we have never seen any discrimination there, in my family also everyone was out of it.. I was in a world where caste discrimination was a word from alien world .. it was after my 12th when I was going to apply for collage one thing made me aware of this... "Reservation" for SC caste .. I could see how ppl less deserving getting the opportunity before me... n the thing was from whom ds reservation is the Needy class is not getting it but some ppl who has the surname of a SC using it.. some of them belong to reach family, some of their father is a officer in Gov office .. 2nd shock I got when one of my friends started trying for gov service .. for every form a general candidate should give 100/- n for sc/st its free ... d way it's going CASTE DISCRIMINATION will take another shape but it wont be removed from our country.. one side their is this Dalit system, one side some political leaders are banking upon it and in another side normal people who belongs to General category who were least bothered by ds caste system, now getting victimised by different kindda discrimination ... any way its a complicated thing

From a very young age.

When i was 11 year old, my grandma told me about manual scavenging 😲
i was shocked at that time as i heard that people from backward castes used to clean human excreta with their hands & were not allowed inside the house of a brahmin or kshatriya or any other upper caste people 😲

i noticed it several times that whenever the sweeper of our society asks for water, some people give him water & then throw away that glass in which they offered him water
but, my mom gives him water in the same glass from which we drink...& for that i m proud of her

i would like to add something...today there are many students from general category (including me) in India who are angry with our system...
because, a general category student with 70-75% finds it difficult to get admission while an SC, ST or OBC with 50-55% marks gets admission easily on the basis of Reservation
All i wanna say is if we talk about EQUALITY, it should mean EQUALITY in all terms...isn't it unfair that just bcoz a person belongs to SC ST or OBC category, even though he/she has less marks, he/she is given more preference over a meritorious student of General category?? 😡

P.S. - my bro got 99.75 percentile in CAT exam...still it was difficult for him to get admission in IIM Ahmedabad...thanks to the unnecessary reservation system 🤢

I have studied till my 12th in UAE .. so no way i got to experience any of it.

In our first year of college, we had to read an excerpt from Dr. Narendra Jadhav's Outcast as part of our General English syllabus. Since we were primarily Literature students and therefore seen by the department as more receptive to in-depth class discussion prior to studying the text in question, we had a discussion on the issues the text raised. If I remember correctly, the discussion took another turn when a lot of the students in our class brought up the problems they faced due to reservation. I also remembered one of my classmates arguing that the issues that were present for those of the SC/ST category weren't present any longer, so why were they still gaining favour over those who would get seats through merit?