"One of the amazing things that I saw right away was that people from different castes were friends,

 "One of the amazing things that I saw right away was that people from different castes were friends, whereas according to the literature they never talked to each other" McKim Marriott, on his experience of researching India in the 1940s-50s (b. February 1, 1924, d. July 3, 2024). Marriott would go on to produce some of the most insightful studies of society in India and encourage his students and colleagues to report what they saw rather than merely imagining things and hoping that  Indian society  would fit in with their wild imaginations. Marriott had first come to India at the young age of 20, as a military soldier. He roamed around Delhi on a bicycle, interacting with people at random. After the war he conducted scientific research on village India, curated some of the most informative reports about Indian society and helped Americans get a better sense of India.