Dalit man killed after brutal assault for calling caste-Hindu shopkeeper’s son “beta” in Gujarat
"beta" = "son" in Hindi and similar North Indian languages
What does caste Hindu mean here? Was the son a lower caste or a higher caste than the man calling him beta?
Higher-caste. Dalit is the lowest caste in Hinduism
Is caste a Hindu-specific thing? I thought it was more of an ignorant racist classist thing?
Caste originated in Hinduism. The concept has (slightly) bled over into other minority religions in the subcontinent due to cultural assimilation, but it's most deeply entrenched in Hinduism to this day and it shows up in absolutely horrific ways like this. There are hundreds of incidents like this across the country every day and a vast majority of them go completely unreported -- and that's not even accounting for microaggression that most folks either don't notice or choose to ignore because "that's just how things are".
