Are Indians asian or Middle-Eastern ? Or both ?

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W.G.Ewald

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Hello Ewald - saw the us govt doc you referred us to and thanks - but the document seems to me to be a categorisation perhaps of the main larger populationed immigrant communities . One reason for my saying so is that there is no mention of the various arab ethnic communities nor israeli , iranian is also missing , it is inadequate in the present form ? So I concluded that it is a short list with some specific application and not a categorisation from a genetic point of view of the ethnicities of mankind - as such the categorisation of indian under the asian sub-grioup is faulty or rather for some other purpose ...btw even the large pakistani nation is not mentioned.
Indians and Pakistanis are East Indians to USG; all these categories are considered for the purposes of affirmative action in some form. So if a highly educated Indian applies for a government contract, consideration is given over an economically disadvantaged caucasian.
 

Shaitan

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Hi

Yeah, I was talking about my personal experience. What have you to say on the thread?

Do you consider yourself more asian or middle-eastern?
None of them. "Asian" here in the states is used for people with smaller eyes.
 

Tolaha

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Dude, what's the point? Obviously not many people care about ethnicity here. There's already a poll somewhere on this forum on people's ethnicity here, you can check that up if you really want to know so badly. This is a pan-Indian board, no one cares about ethnicity.
Well the Indians I interacted with on other forums were quite proud to say they were Keralites, Punjabi etc. Maybe it's just this forum. Anyway I'm off.
Zarvin,
A state-based classification, in Indian context, like Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Assam etc would not be a pointer to one's 'ethnicity'. They are all in fact, a linguistic classification, mostly. Even within these states, you could have people speaking different languages as well as dialects and having different religious and cultural traditions. So there are no concrete/major ethnic classifications in India that I'm aware of. In India, such classifications may only work in smaller, isolated communities
 

The Messiah

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Majority of pakis look exactly like Indians and ones that are slightly different like pathans and balochs dont want anything to do with pakistan.
 

Zarvin

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Zarvin,
A state-based classification, in Indian context, like Kerala, Punjab, Gujarat, Assam etc would not be a pointer to one's 'ethnicity'. They are all in fact, a linguistic classification, mostly. Even within these states, you could have people speaking different languages as well as dialects and having different religious and cultural traditions. So there are no concrete/major ethnic classifications in India that I'm aware of. In India, such classifications may only work in smaller, isolated communities

Hi thanks for your post.

Regardless of where you live, I'm pretty sure many people have a view of their own ethnic background, like those people you quoted are in fact ethnic groups.

If they live in a different state or speak a different language, then it is up to them whether they are integrated enough into that community to consider a new identity or whether they still identify with their ancestors.
 

Known_Unknown

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Hi thanks for your post.

Regardless of where you live, I'm pretty sure many people have a view of their own ethnic background, like those people you quoted are in fact ethnic groups.

If they live in a different state or speak a different language, then it is up to them whether they are integrated enough into that community to consider a new identity or whether they still identify with their ancestors.
Why would they not identify with their ancestors? Only Pakis don't identify with their ancestors. Only Pakis celebrate the rape and pillage of their Sindhi ancestors by Bin Qasim and other invaders. Only Pakis celebrate the successive raids and sackings of the great cities and universities of the Pakjab (Paki Punjab FYI) by Afghan invaders time and time again. Pakis are the ones that curse and badmouth their ancestors because they are brainwashed by an ideology that considers Kafirs fit for nothing but slaughter.

Pakis are so brainwashed that they imported Urdu, a language from UP, India and made it their national language over the dead corpses of their own native languages like Punjabi.

Indians not only identify with their ancestors, they are proud of their 5000 year old civilization that started from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro and continues to this day uninterrupted. The various ethnicities and languages of India don't divide us, they unite us through our common historical experiences and shared values of secularism (part of dharmic tradition), democracy and pluralism.
 

LalTopi

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Why would they not identify with their ancestors? Only Pakis don't identify with their ancestors. Only Pakis celebrate the rape and pillage of their Sindhi ancestors by Bin Qasim and other invaders. Only Pakis celebrate the successive raids and sackings of the great cities and universities of the Pakjab (Paki Punjab FYI) by Afghan invaders time and time again. Pakis are the ones that curse and badmouth their ancestors because they are brainwashed by an ideology that considers Kafirs fit for nothing but slaughter.

Pakis are so brainwashed that they imported Urdu, a language from UP, India and made it their national language over the dead corpses of their own native languages like Punjabi.

Indians not only identify with their ancestors, they are proud of their 5000 year old civilization that started from Harappa and Mohenjo-daro and continues to this day uninterrupted. The various ethnicities and languages of India don't divide us, they unite us through our common historical experiences and shared values of secularism (part of dharmic tradition), democracy and pluralism.
Unfortunatly pakistanis like to have their cake and eat it. They subscribe to being both arabic and yet still think they founded the Indus and Harappan civilisations. George Orwell in 1984 called it 'doublethink', the ability to believe 100% in two entirely contradictary thoughts at the same time.
 

LalTopi

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This is not my thread to discuss myself. This is about Indians, the stage is all yours-----tell us about yourself.
Note the contradiction. Genetically - you are an Indian (If you have learnt anything on this thread so far), yet you refuse to think this thread is anything to do with you.

Why dont you answer the question. Do you now consider yourself Indian?
 

roma

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Unfortunatly pakistanis like to have their cake and eat it. They subscribe to being both arabic and yet still think they founded the Indus and Harappan civilisations. George Orwell in 1984 called it 'doublethink', the ability to believe 100% in two entirely contradictary thoughts at the same time.

should we be too hard on pak for having mixed feelings ? after all the very title of this thread " SUGGESTS" a duality in our nature ? ( but that is only my own personal hypothesis )

if i get it right, your point was that their duality is in fact ( violently ) contradictory

- so therein lies all the difference, i suppose
 
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Blackwater

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Well the Indians I interacted with on other forums were quite proud to say they were Keralites, Punjabi etc. Maybe it's just this forum. Anyway I'm off.

why are u afraid to accept and feel ashamed in accepting ur hindu forefathers
 

Zarvin

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Note the contradiction. Genetically - you are an Indian (If you have learnt anything on this thread so far), yet you refuse to think this thread is anything to do with you.

Why dont you answer the question. Do you now consider yourself Indian?
Hi

Genetically Germans and English are also similiar, genetically the whole world is the similiar, it has nothing to do with the topic.
India and Pakistan are nationalities. The question is addressed to Indians. Stop bringing in what you think Pakistanis think of themselves when I'm giving you the option to identify yourself.
 

Virendra

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Well the Indians I interacted with on other forums were quite proud to say they were Keralites, Punjabi etc. Maybe it's just this forum. Anyway I'm off.
:) This is one of the rarest places on the planet where people can celebrate their diversity and yet take pride in the all encompassing Indian unity :india:
Cheers !!
 

Rahul92

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We are neither Asian nor Middle East we are unique we are different
 

LalTopi

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Hi

Genetically Germans and English are also similiar, genetically the whole world is the similiar, it has nothing to do with the topic.
India and Pakistan are nationalities. The question is addressed to Indians. Stop bringing in what you think Pakistanis think of themselves when I'm giving you the option to identify yourself.
I re-read Roma's original post, and actually I stand by my question - how do you as a Pakistani identify yourself? as this is the driving question and also explains why Roma's original post and title-question got you so excited.

Roma's original question as you say is not one about genetics. But about regional classification - specifically about classification of people from the Indian sub-continent when they migrate abroad - commonly to the UK, US, Australia and Canada. So there is no point you asking Indians living in India how they classify themselves as they are Indian, happy to be Indian, and would have no concept of classifying themselves as anything else.

In the UK, originally when filling out official forms asking for ethnicity, there was only one classification - 'Indian' for people coming from the Indian sub-continent. But specifically, the Pakistani immigrants protested against this as they did not want anything with the word Indian in it (despite coming from the Indian sub-continent). Therefore, the British introduced a new classification called 'South Asian' - however the local pakistanis were still not happy as they wanted to be classified completely separatly from Indians. To an extent also, the local Indians wanted to be differentiated from the Pakistanis as there was a lot of adverse publicity arising out of Pakistani terrorist acitivities and grooming of young white girls etc. Therefore the classifications are now 'South Asian - Indian', 'South-Asian - Pakistani' etc.

But my whole point is, in the UK context, this whole clasification industry started because the Pakistanis had a problem with identifying themselves as from the Indian sub-continent. I am from India and happy to lable myself as from the 'Indian sub-continent' . The question is - how do you classify yourself as it is your people that caused all the problems with classification in the first place? My question stands for you to answer - now will you answer it?
 

Zarvin

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I re-read Roma's original post, and actually I stand by my question - how do you as a Pakistani identify yourself? as this is the driving question and also explains why Roma's original post and title-question got you so excited.
Pakistani

Roma's original question as you say is not one about genetics. But about regional classification - specifically about classification of people from the Indian sub-continent when they migrate abroad - commonly to the UK, US, Australia and Canada. So there is no point you asking Indians living in India how they classify themselves as they are Indian, happy to be Indian, and would have no concept of classifying themselves as anything else.
Agreed, but regardless of whether you've travelled outside or not, a Chinese living in China will still say he sees himself as an Asian in the mongoloid and not the middle eastern or Indian sense, he would tell you he's a Cantonese/Mandarin by ethnicity/language and any other distinction or history of the specific area where he originates.


In the UK, originally when filling out official forms asking for ethnicity, there was only one classification - 'Indian' for people coming from the Indian sub-continent. But specifically, the Pakistani immigrants protested against this as they did not want anything with the word Indian in it (despite coming from the Indian sub-continent). Therefore, the British introduced a new classification called 'South Asian' - however the local pakistanis were still not happy as they wanted to be classified completely separatly from Indians. To an extent also, the local Indians wanted to be differentiated from the Pakistanis as there was a lot of adverse publicity arising out of Pakistani terrorist acitivities and grooming of young white girls etc. Therefore the classifications are now 'South Asian - Indian', 'South-Asian - Pakistani' etc.
Kool Story.

But my whole point is, in the UK context, this whole clasification industry started because the Pakistanis had a problem with identifying themselves as from the Indian sub-continent. I am from India and happy to lable myself as from the 'Indian sub-continent' . The question is - how do you classify yourself as it is your people that caused all the problems with classification in the first place? My question stands for you to answer - now will you answer it?
Pakistani.
 

maomao

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Arabs are from India!! ;)

So, pakistanis actually follow........... :)
 

Splurgenxs

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Would one categorize Slavs/Russian as Asian? No

Indians are Indians .Hindu can also be used to categorize Indians. THe problem is not the lack of categories but the lack of adjectives in the ignorant minds of the western world.
 
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