<story><title>Apple becomes first tech giant to explicitly ban caste discrimination</title><url>https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-becomes-first-tech-giant-to-explicitly-ban-caste-discrimination-trains-managers-on-indian-caste-system-1988183-2022-08-15</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yardie</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not Indian American my origins are Caribbean but I have some Indian origins and can offer a few answers from my experience.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is this something that comes up in conversation among Indians?&lt;p&gt;It starts casually with  &amp;quot;where are you from?&amp;quot; and the questions get more invasive.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Do names tend to correlate to you caste?&lt;p&gt;In India, yes it does family name is derived from caste. I had some friends adopt English names to get from under their caste names. So quite a few Johnsons, Smiths, Matthews, Pauls out there.</text></item><item><author>FactolSarin</author><text>Out of curiosity, for Indians working in America, how hard is it to hide your caste or pretend to be of another caste altogether?&lt;p&gt;Is this something that comes up in conversation among Indians? Do names tend to correlate to you caste? And if so, do people change them as a way of hiding their family caste?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>paxys</author><text>&amp;gt; I had some friends adopt English names to get from under their caste names. So quite a few Johnsons, Smiths, Matthews, Pauls out there.&lt;p&gt;There is an interesting history behind this. When Christian missionaries first arrived in India to spread their religion (in the late 1700s&amp;#x2F;1800s) they were initially unable to make much progress, but then found success among lower caste Indians by promising them a life of equality. So the vast majority of Christian converts in India are from these castes.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple becomes first tech giant to explicitly ban caste discrimination</title><url>https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-becomes-first-tech-giant-to-explicitly-ban-caste-discrimination-trains-managers-on-indian-caste-system-1988183-2022-08-15</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>yardie</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not Indian American my origins are Caribbean but I have some Indian origins and can offer a few answers from my experience.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Is this something that comes up in conversation among Indians?&lt;p&gt;It starts casually with  &amp;quot;where are you from?&amp;quot; and the questions get more invasive.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Do names tend to correlate to you caste?&lt;p&gt;In India, yes it does family name is derived from caste. I had some friends adopt English names to get from under their caste names. So quite a few Johnsons, Smiths, Matthews, Pauls out there.</text></item><item><author>FactolSarin</author><text>Out of curiosity, for Indians working in America, how hard is it to hide your caste or pretend to be of another caste altogether?&lt;p&gt;Is this something that comes up in conversation among Indians? Do names tend to correlate to you caste? And if so, do people change them as a way of hiding their family caste?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kevinmchugh</author><text>NB: &amp;quot;where are you from?&amp;quot; is a question your HR training should already explicitly tell people not to ask candidates. I&amp;#x27;m not in HR or management and I still make sure to mention it to new hires before doing my first interview alongside them. National origin is a protected class. Even within the US , &amp;quot;where are you from?&amp;quot; can proxy for a protected class. Race, mostly, or possibly religion.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s also a question that&amp;#x27;s very easy to ask in good faith while making small talk, which makes it noticeably dangerous.</text></comment>