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Many yuppies in metro areas might be shocked at the results to this poll

Maybe they expected option 2 to win hands down!

But it is not winning by a big margin

Goes to show how a section of English speaking Indians live in denial of what India is really like
The reaction I heard in some comments was -

Language is a real barrier
Varna is an artificial one

"Proper" societies are divided by language. Maybe race. But not something as artificial as varNa which defies even a proper definition
Clearly the results suggest Indians speak something and practice something else

When you make the question pointed, what you really think about caste comes out.
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Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya
@shrikanth_krish
Tweet below highlights ostensible inconsistency b/w

Sanskritization vs
Preserving diversity

No conflict

High-culture emulation exists everywhere
Usually imposed with force/violence

Sanskritization a milder process of cultural emulation, rendered mild by the realities of caste
In early medieval Europe, the culture of Christianity that radiated from Rome was the "high culture" of the day.

It uprooted the various low cultures of Pagan Northern Europe. There was little give-and-take. Rather a fresh start. A blank slate
In India, "brahminical high culture" integrates with local cultures, engages in compromise, and the result of that compromise is what we call "Hinduism"

It is not a violent top-down imposition, but a subtler process of emulation

The reason it is not violent is because of caste
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Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya
@shrikanth_krish
Caste is one subject where Urban Indians speak something and practice something else

Just about every person in metropolitan India has something negative to say about caste if you talk to him in private

But caste has a big imprint on each person's life choices and lifestyle
Caste as a theoretical construct is a "bad word" in metropolitan English speaking India

But as a practical phenomenon on the ground, it is alive and kicking and retains its utility as an organizer of large facets of Indian life - even in large towns
When people say they "dislike caste", they are basically saying they dislike themselves, their parents, much of their culture and religion, and social interactions

But they don't mean that. They do enjoy their lives.

Yet they dislike the "C" word as that is a cool thing to say
Read 8 tweets
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Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya
@shrikanth_krish
1. jAti preserves diversity

2. Birth-based social identities are more durable than money based statuses

Alternative to jAti is a system where money determines one's social worth

There will always be resistance to "pure materialism" as it is too fluid / impermanent
That's why there is resistance to "pure meritocracy" too

Because the culture of merit is closely linked to the culture of materialism.

People want their social identities to endure. Merit and money come in the way of that
That doesn't mean that all the social identities people are born with are desirable or worth preserving

That's why you see endogamy loosening, formation of new endogamous units, and an interplay of jAti vyavastha and materialist culture in society
Read 7 tweets

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