Caste as a construct has been vilified by the west and milked dry by the Indian politicians for their vote banks.
Let me at the outset, make it clear that I believe in equality and do not discriminate against economic caste, religious caste, occupation caste or any other caste for that matter.
My view of Caste in India arises more from the division and classification of work associated many years ago. It exists even today in this world in a different way, not just in India and I will come to that argument a bit later. Going back ages ago, a little smarter and knowledgeable guys became the brahmins who used their brains as the weapon, a more aggressive and fighting class became the warrior class, the smarter in terms of managing money became the business class and other classes depended on the work they did like a plumber, mason, cleaner etc. etc.
And in order to protect each one's hold in the group, they prevented intermingling of jobs amongst the groups and it was kept that way to prevent more supply than demand. At the lower end, since they were poorly paid for the manual work, they tried to ensure their child/children also picks up that task and the parampara (lineage continues) and provided a steady career, albeit a lower income. It ensured at least a skill was learned and a job could be obtained.
Since 1947, when we got independence and wanted to remove the caste system to ensure every citizen had a right to work where he pleases, we brought in the reservation system to uplift the lower strata of people to higher learning and income category. We thus have now had 75 years of reservations to uplift these people. Question to ask is "Has it really uplifted them or created a new caste (or class as we call these days) amongst the rich lower caste who ensured the reservation continues ad-infinitum. My belief is that for reservation to be truly effective, those who got reservation should be allowed only 2 generation of reservation and move on and give space to the next economically weaker section of the lower caste. One cannot continue to be rich and still take the benefit of reservation.
The second point on reservation is the quality of work. While the focus should be on primary and secondary education, lowering the standards, through reservations using a lower cutoff in marks, in colleges and critical areas of medicine, engineering causes immense damage to society. Not only Indians, would anyone in the world employ someone who did not study but breezed through college because of caste and lower marks passing was the order of the day. It is important to bring their education and financial levels to the top in such a way that they focus on the studies and be equal to those who got admission without reservation. Reservation cannot be a tool to pass through college without effort.
Coming back to my argument of the first para, where I said I will revisit. Everyone talks of caste system in India. Does it exist only in India. My belief is it exists all across the world though subtly and stealthily done. The borders across nation is a caste system of discriminating people and casting them as belonging to X country or Y country. True caste less system will be like a Vasudeva Kutumbum- everyone stays together and does their job for the benefit of the world.
Again, would any of the richie rich marry off their children to a plumber or sweeper. They will look for a match that matches their financial strengths so that it is easier for the person to adapt. This is also a type of casteism which people will not talk. In many countries, they have adopted consanguineous marriages (at the cost of giving birth to impaired children) to keep their core class to themselves. This too is a casteism.
Again, would the sweeper or plumber or electrician be paid a high salary that enables him to live a good life and send his children to good schools and colleges. This is also casteism to keep them lowly paid and ensure work is done generation onwards by their families.
Maybe USA of the old times only had a true caste less society where people get paid as per the work they do and marry whom they please and caused by a huge migration and opportunity aplenty.
To conclude, casteism or whatever form it is called by, can be truly wiped out only in a borderless world, paid fairly well for all types of work (not just huge payouts for bankers, consultants, only), not much disparity in pays and human ability to work any type of jobs and given equal respect - be it an MD or a lowly worker.
It is only an Utopian dream to have a uniform society like above across the world and caste or what ever name it is called by or even not called as such will continue so long as pay and work differentiation is there for jobs .
