I went back to school at age 27 to finish an engineering degree that I had begun and abandoned. In the interim years I had worked as a carpenter. When I went back, one of my professors was an old Indian man. He was adamant that I should continue as a carpenter and not try to finish the degree. I found this extremely odd - you’d think a prof would encourage someone to move forward with their education. It occurred to me later that he was probably a traditionalist Hindu and might have been seeing me as lower caste somehow, like I was being uppity or going beyond my social rank for pursuing a professional degree (he knew I had worked in construction but was unaware that I had been to school previously). It didn’t stop me, of course - I got the degree and am currently working as an EE - but it was an interesting experience to have possibly bumped up against another culture’s notion of class.
Most upper caste guys arent like that, especially when they are not in India. But some idiots bring that disgusting “superiority” complex with them. I too suffered under a south Indian (Madrasi as well call them back home) upper caste prof during engineering undergrad.