An Indian friend of mine several years ago explained it quite clearly to me: Who do you think has the resources to get an education, get an H1B, then travel halfway around the world? The guy whose parents are sleeping in the hallway?

Are you saying the US embassy in India discriminates based on caste when handing visas or the h1b process is discriminatory?

I think it is pretty obvious they mean that the pipeline of candidates for US work visas reflects the established societal privilege patterns.

I think the question is how much it (H1B) costs vs the person's disposable income, in addition to the cost of spending time pursuing it, having a place to do the paperwork, having a stable address and even a stable identity... I'm saying the people who make it to that embassy with the right paperwork are already highly filtered.

In a lot of cases you don't need to ask "what caste are you", you just need to ask "what's your name". For a vast majority of Indians their last name gives away their caste.

Castes come with plenty of cultural baggage, and the metaphorical 'secret handshakes' shared by people of higher castes can be used to suss out those of a lower caste even if the person of interest is trying to hide their background.

I saw this happen in front of my last week. A new coworker said he was vegetarian and the other asked if he was always vegetarian (Brahmin’s are usually vegetarian). Then he asks “oh Bangalore? What part? I used to live there, I know it well.”

In addition to surname, these are all questions that can be used to gather details about someone’s caste.

Or so I’m told.

Good question. I haven't read it, but the statistics come from this book: https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/books/the-other-.... They probably outline their methodology.