Sujatha Gidla: belief

Transcript context

…Would an Indian you would meet, say, in Manhattan, would that person know right away that you’re an untouchable? One thing is that most of the Christians except Syrian Christians and some Catholic Christians in Goa, Christians are untouchables, so immediately, the lack of forehead dot tells them that I’m an untouchable. Also, there’s a study. Indians are genetically same, but apparently, you could tell when the endogamy began. It’s 1,500 years ago people are different. There is some extra genetic thing that we inherit from castes. I think that people’s body language can easily tell which caste you are. When I came here, people would always constantly ask me, if I’m walking on the street like, “Why are you sad? Smile. Life is not that bad.” Things like that. I didn’t think that I was sad, but everybody was saying that, and other people used to say, “Why are you so anxious? Just calm down.” As far as untouchables are concerned and Brahmins are concerned, you can tell from the body language itself who you are. There’s a Russian philosophy that if you walk around smiling, you must be a fool. [laughter] Next question. Yes?…

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