thwy_castech

In this particular case I knew because we're all from the same state. The Brahmins from the state wear a sacred thread, and on occasions will smear ash on their foreheads in a particular pattern. One would wear the thread visibly outside his shirt. You can also know based on the last name, skin tone (very light compared to other South indians) and office gossip fills in the rest. One of the VPs mentioned his caste in an after hours drinks party once, I was amused but not shocked.

There are different immigrant clusters around geography and industry. E.g. South indians are a majority in the Tech industry in the Bay Area, Punjabi migrants from North India work in more working class jobs - as taxi/Uber drivers and 7/11 or convenience stores clerks. And the Patel caste from the western state of Gujarat are known for their presence in the motel industry.

Based on my non-scientific observation of looking at the 300+ Indian origin folks in my LinkedIn profile, the upper castes are likely 60%, though they make up 10-15% of the population in India. The "middle" castes a. k. a Other Backward Castes or the so called merchant castes make up the remaining 35% and likely are 30% of the Indian population.

I'm an Indian immigrant working in a large Bay Area Tech company and caste is definitely a thing. At another tech company I worked at the CTO and everyone under him i.e 4/6 VPs was Brahmin. An anecdote - I tried to get a position in the CTO organization and the first question his underling asked me was my full name. Now, corporate email already has your first and last name but he was fishing for my "caste" name. He also wanted to know were my parents were from. Now it's possible he wanted to find some common ground, but for people who are not from the upper castes and part of the inner circle. You don't know, if this question is going to be used to give you less preferential treatment. I'm not saying the majority of upper caste folks discriminate, in fact I got my first job due to someone who was upper caste referring me. But there definitely are some bad apples. Based on my off the cuff discussion with other Indians, they've definitely noticed preferential treatment within Brahmins and certain upper castes especially when they make up the vast majority of the workforce (80%+)