First Impressions

Hey Everyone,

Noopur and I arrived at the Rai Foundation, our hosts in Delhi, where we were reunited with Camila. After a scandalously late dinner we sat down and spoke about our initial impressions of India. As we start this project it is clear that we are coming from different backgrounds and different perspectives. Camila and I are both outsiders to this culture, whereas Noopur is an Indian American with a significant family presence in India. Camila is Brazilian and has been immediately struck by the contrast between the disorganization of Delhi's urban space and the "human heat" of this urban environment as opposed to the rigid social hierarchy that is presented in academic writings. On my part, as a Nigerian-American, I am struck by the familiarity I feel with Delhi. A warm city at night reminds me of Manhattan or even Lagos. But Delhi has neither the schizophrenic layout of New York's cultural quilt or the glaring economic tensions of Lagos. Instead it seems like a surprisingly peaceful place. For the moment I cannot make out the differences (phenotypic or otherwise ) that mark out caste and class. Noopur, who has been to India at least 12 times, is not as struck by the cows or lorrys intermixed with Mercedes Benzes. She is instead taking this opportunity to recognize that this trip has afforded her an opportunity to examine her culture with a fresh set of eyes. As we move forward in our exploration of Dalit, woman and the disabled she recognizes that she can step back and employ our culture shock to de-normalize her experience and recognize cultural signifiers with a new level of understanding.

For Camila and I, these are the kind of observations that a simple ride from the airport brought up on the first day. We know that some will be answered shortly whereas some will grow larger.

These are the questions that we already have:

What does caste look like?
Is it invisible ?
How and why is organized as such? What does it mean?

In just looking at the urban space we can see that caste and class have a much more complicated dynamic than what one would expect. To our untrained eye, the arrangement seems random and it also seems that there is a sense of Indian unity, of all Indians sharing space even if there are different economic circumstances. We concede that this may be a result of us not being aware of what else should be in this picture. Its a very raw analysis to be sure, but we want to record what we find striking.

The next question we have is, how much will this inform our analysis going forward? When you read about India you think about a very rigid system of stratification. However, when you arrive in an urban space that is not in the least as apparently stratified, (especially when compared to the hierachial academic treatment)--it is difficult to understand in a superficial analysis. There must be are forces driving exclusion and inequality that are now unfamiliar to us. Our hunch is that these forces are not now salient to us, but as we move forward we believe that this will change.

This brings us to the issue of invisibility of caste. According to Noopur, the insider of the group, there are markers that will place someone in a particular social category. One's name, parent's profession, are markers that are derived from ecomomic status. This leads to the next set of queries.


Where does skin color come into play? Can we clearly distinguish "pale" privilege?

This is a very early introduction for this weighty question, but we are asking ourselves if skin color this something that accompanies caste. There is a cultural preference for fairer skin and higher caste individuals tend to be fairer. What is actually attributed to caste and attributed to color is something to determine. I have a theory about the relationship of skin color to post colonial society. In the Nigerian example, skin color has not always tracked to privilege, such that for a significant period of time darker skinned people actually held sway over lighter skinned people. After colonialism and the Revolution, there is a societal function to white privilege but it is not determinative of quality of life. I wonder if our queries into the relationship between caste and class in India will involve cultural antecedents as well. Only time will tell. The volume of our queries leads us to conclude that this is an area where we will want to learn more before drawing any conclusions.