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.
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.
At 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).
“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 Erdős