Are you able to distinguish caste (at least somewhat reliably) by looking at someone?
Not just physical characteristics - but style of dress, mannerisms, speech patterns, etc?
In America, it is often easy to tell Democrats and Republicans (at least, the very-strongly entrenched ones) apart based on dress and/or the way they talk.
After living in East Asia for a decade - when traveling through Asian airports I am often able to tell Chinese, Korean and Japanese people apart from a distance based on a variety of indicators (I'll guess where they are from and then hear their language as they approach - often I'm right).
Are castes like this? If you saw someone walking 50 meters away, would you (more often than not, at least) be able to correctly guess what caste they belong to?
Not authoritatively (in India, not here in USA) but you can get a sense. one clue might be the way they speak language (or dialect) but it could also be a false positive for wealth. same with mannerism.
you could tell by their last names if they came from same geographical region as you grew up in (or quite familiar with).
> If you saw someone walking 50 meters away, would you ...
Are you able to distinguish caste (at least somewhat reliably) by looking at someone?
Not just physical characteristics - but style of dress, mannerisms, speech patterns, etc?
In America, it is often easy to tell Democrats and Republicans (at least, the very-strongly entrenched ones) apart based on dress and/or the way they talk.
After living in East Asia for a decade - when traveling through Asian airports I am often able to tell Chinese, Korean and Japanese people apart from a distance based on a variety of indicators (I'll guess where they are from and then hear their language as they approach - often I'm right).
Are castes like this? If you saw someone walking 50 meters away, would you (more often than not, at least) be able to correctly guess what caste they belong to?