Saloni*, who is in her mid-20s, could never imagine that the shadow of her caste identity would follow her in the world of dating apps until she started dating a 바카라Tam-Bram바카라 (a short form for Tamil Brahmin) boy whom she 바카라right-swiped바카라 seeing his 바카라woke바카라 bio.
바카라In the bio, the guy wrote everything 바카라progressive바카라바카라that he does not believe in caste, he is an atheist, politically moderate, and so on,바카라 says Saloni. But gradually, as she started dating him, she saw different shades of him. 바카라I belong to the OBC community. Whenever he got angry, he used casteist slurs to humiliate me,바카라 she adds.
They continued dating for almost a year, and by the time the façade of his 바카라wokeness바카라 vanished, Saloni managed to get rid of him. While the caste discrimination that she faced on the dating app OKCupid is quite prevalent and mirrors the everyday reality of society, what is confounding is that most of the apps promise a caste/class-less experience.
Most of these apps, including the recent favorite Hinge, leave the inclusion of surnames in the profile entirely to users. The help centre of Hinge notes: 바카라If you create an account with Facebook, your last name will be added to your profile but it will only be visible when you match with someone, not when someone views your profile in Discover.바카라
While such efforts바카라of not letting caste take over one바카라s choice of 바카라right-swiping바카라바카라are considered a step in the right direction, users feel that those who prioritise caste identity have ways to figure it out.
Adrija, who 바카라met바카라 her husband on an online dating app, says: 바카라Factors like caste and community did not matter to me, so I did not bother much about that aspect. But for many, it is a deciding factor and it will come up in the first few conversations itself.바카라 For her, the world of dating apps mirrors the real world and the world of matrimonial apps; the only difference is that the apps 바카라give more control to individuals, and not families, to decide what factors matter to them바카라.
But does it require the mentioning of caste at all in dating apps to subject the marginalised communities to ruthless discrimination. Ravikant Kisana, a professor of cultural studies at Woxsen University, Hyderabad, writes in one of his articles: 바카라A certain aesthetic language and cultural sensibility have come to be positioned as markers of taste and refinement바카라to the exclusion of people who don바카라t or can바카라t adhere.바카라
바카라Unless society is answering the deeper questions, we can only expect technology to merely play second fiddle to casteist attitudes or casteist sentiments바카라
Referring to the ubiquitous acceptance of the Savarna culture, Kisana adds: 바카라It바카라s unrecognisable as particularly Savarna culture because of its ubiquity바카라be it the lanky boy with a head full of curly hair who busks at Church Street in Bengaluru, the spoken poetess who is perennially in a bindi and a saree handed down from her grandmother (which she never fails to mention), or the Djembe-carrying shayar sahab who runs his own drum circle in Pune, and quotes Jaun Elia in Urdu (because Faiz is too mainstream after the CAA/NRC protests)바카라it바카라s an aspirational aesthetic.바카라
Against this backdrop, talking about the intersection of systematic hierarchy and the desire that shapes the choice, Dalit activist Christina Dhanuja says: 바카라Due to the relation between systematic hierarchy, caste, class and desire, one doesn바카라t need to reveal it. It is similar to the real, material world. We are so adept in finding people바카라s caste, we either subconsciously or unconsciously already know who they are, and approach them.바카라
The major aesthetic markers that reveal the caste/class identity of a person come through pictures, location, bio notes, etc. 바카라Through the picture, through the language and way of writing of your answers, the way you describe yourself or the type of photos you post바카라all of that will definitely contribute to different kinds of systematic markers that one adept within specific caste and class context can pick up on,바카라 adds Dhanuja.
However, sometimes, even complying with all the Savarna markers does not get one rid of their caste identity. Though Suryakant*, who belongs to a Dalit family, managed to get through elite educational institutes and bagged what Savarnas consider to be a 바카라good job바카라, he couldn바카라t overcome the burden of his caste while dating an upper-caste woman.
Strictly maintaining his anonymity, Suryankant says, 바카라She right-swiped my profile perhaps due to my bio, pictures and other things that don바카라t reveal my caste identity. However, when she started coming to my house and after a few meetings saw portraits of Dr Ambedkar and Jyotiba Phule next to the Buddhist statue, she was visibly disturbed.바카라 The upper-caste woman was so annoyed that she charged Suryakant with hiding his caste identity to 바카라hook up바카라 with her.
So, it does not matter if dating apps have the provision of mentioning surnames or not, once the users start meeting each other, caste will rear its ugly head, says Dhanuja. Such discrimination in making choices spills over to other markers as well. A Mumbai-based user of dating apps mentions how plus-size people suffer due to their body type. 바카라Men want to sexually engage with us in private but they don바카라t want to actually be with us in public,바카라 she says.
While caste identity and appearance work in tandem when it comes to popular dating apps like OKCupid, Hinge, Bumble or Tinder, there are exclusive spaces of dating for high-class elite celebrities as well. Raya is one of them. The New York Times has termed this app as 바카라Illuminati Tinder바카라 where people can get membership only through references.
However, even after the recommendations, one must wait for the final approval. As per a popular study, this members-only platform has a lower rate of admission than Harvard Business School. Indian celebrities like Janhvi Kapoor, Vani Kapoor and Neha Sharma바카라to name a few바카라are a part of the network.
Talking about the exclusivity of such celebrity dating apps, Adrija says: 바카라I think these exclusive dating apps are pretty much a reflection of the kind of society we are living in and how we look at relationships/marriages in general.바카라
These exclusive apps are not the only space where financial mobility of users matter. Even in regular apps, one can opt for a premium subscription which will augment their chances of finding a match. This indicates that technology in no way flattens social differences, rather it replicates the social cleavages. 바카라Unless society is answering the deeper questions, we can expect technology to merely play second fiddle to casteist attitudes or casteist sentiments,바카라 says Dhanuja.
