It actually does occur to me, mostly because I'm curious if all of my coworkers are of Brahmin caste. It doesn't matter to me personally, but obviously it would be of interest if all of the people in the Managerial or Lead roles are from a certain caste, while all of the lower-level Devs are in another.

Couldn't that be a follow-on effect from a lifetime of advantages in education and opportunity costs? It's not necessary to imagine a special Brahmin-loving company administration.

It’s also a general pattern that follows from human assortative mating. Then add to that inheritance laws and over the centuries the upper classes can acquire serious cumulative advantages. Of course it occasionally backfires, such as in the case of Habsburg inbreeding.

Oh, definitely. It could be neither intentional nor malicious. But it would still be interesting to know.

I worked at a big tech company where you could, with rare exceptions, reliably estimate a South Asian employee’s place in the org chart from skin tone. I don’t know how well that correlates to caste, but I imagine it does to at least some degree.

Someone who doesn't understand that it's taboo and is curious of a system that existed for 3000 years? I understand that it's a painful heritage for some but to an outsider this seems akin to genealogy for example.

I grew up around a lot of Indian people, and I have definitely had the curiosity to know how to ask, but at the same time known that it would be taboo. I can only guess from their wealth or their last names.