feelings

We don't have caste per say here in the USA but I think it might be unspoken. You marry. People usually pick out their own mates but usually you find that the poor marry the poor. My brother did marry into a rich family but he himself became rich as he was a pharmacist. I married someone who had about the same amount of possessions as myself. We do have more than our respective families have and our one daughter became a optometrist. ARe children of poor people able to do this?

Only Hinduism and hence India has the problem of caste. But that does not purport to mean that that anybody marries anybody. Religion still happens to be main marker of human identity.Now, whether it is good or bad is debatable. But if not caste or religion there will something like the so called social bracket- which is basically decided on the basis of the wealth you possess and how long you have possessed it(your financial pedigree may I say). There is no escaping this. It is subtly practiced if not pronounced. In India among Hindus one more, with all the other "ills" of civilization. This- the practice of caste, and socil status, if you see sociologically is a search for affiliation. There are several contradictory impulses in the human mind. One isto affiliate and other to distinguish. Ever human fears loss of identity while wanting to be part of a group.