> I am from “upper caste”. My experience might not be commonly heard perspective. In 10th grade of schooling, my parents changed my lastname to avoid that folks figure out the caste. Due to affirmative action (aka reservation) on steroids, upper caste were losing opportunities. My parents wanted to avoid that I lose out on selection, promotions.., where subjective discretion was involved.
I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me whatsoever. Reservations in India follow a formal documented process and do not apply to private enterprises. Changing one's surname will make zero difference.
You are right. This anti "affirmative action" rhetoric is quite common among upper caste people in India. Unless OP managed to get faked documents and pretended to be from a lower caste, they absolutely did not gain anything.
In the same way you don't gain anything in the US if you change your last name from a 'black' or 'jewish' or 'slavic' last name to something 'american'. That is people treat you differently, even though legally nothing has changed.
Perhaps if something doesn’t make sense, ask for clarity instead of asserting that changing one’s surname makes zero difference.
I am also familiar with many upper-caste people who have changed their surname to something generic (like Kumar) to avoid revealing their caste. This doesn’t just apply to job seeking in private enterprises. They do this to avoid any kind of attention drawn to their surname, and hence caste. This attention can then play out differently in different scenarios.
I'm sorry but this makes no sense to me whatsoever. Reservations in India follow a formal documented process and do not apply to private enterprises. Changing one's surname will make zero difference.