Family Ties and Entanglements of Caste

Family Ties and Entanglements of Caste
The New York Times
October 25, 2004
By JOSEPH BERGER

As an Indian immigrant, Dr. Bodh Das faced an excruciating challenge. His three daughters had been exposed to America’s freewheeling mating rituals, but he wanted to find them husbands the old-fashioned way – within the Hindu caste into which he was born.

With his eldest daughter, Abha – the one who had spent the least time growing up in America – he hit the jackpot, getting her to return to India in 1975 to wed a man she had never met but who hailed not only from the same Kayashta subcaste but also from the same obscure offshoot. With his second daughter, Bibha, he was less successful. She married a Kayashta, but from a different branch.

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