How important is your caste and other people’s caste to you?

I (24 F) come from relatively upper middle class background. I went to a good school in an urban city and was pretty much oblivious to my caste identity till I was in school. I understand what a big privilege this is because nothing was denied to me just because of the community I belonged to. I came to college and for the first time encountered people from different walks of life. The college has a good name in the city but the college’s management is run by a particular caste and most students also belong to the same caste. Now, again I was a dumb 18 year old who had no idea how this would affect anything. But since joining college, I have become more and more aware of my own caste identity just because of the fact that everyone else in college is so concerned about it. I hate engaging in these conversations where everybody is asking each other what caste they belong to but I do understand that for many getting to know this information might create a sense of belonging in the group. My question is how curious are you about other people’s caste and does it change your perception about them based on the biases you already have?