Perception of Indians

Many of my friends have often asked me about the general perception of India and her people in Canada. The following is an attempt to summarize the same.

I have lived in Canada for almost eight months now. I get to interact with people from many countries here; not just Canadians. In fact most of the people I meet are non-Canadians: and are of diverse ethnicities, that include Chinese, Arabs, Iranians, Indonesians, Europeans.

The general awareness about India and her culture isn't significant, which is somewhat understandable. For instance, people (except those from the sub-continent) find it strange that our country has so many different languages and find it rather hard to believe that not all people speak or understand a single language. They will ask if these are really different languages, or just dialects/ accents of the same language.

People are also not much cognizant of our cultural diversity. I had a heated argument with this guy from Kyrgyzstan who argued that Kazakhstan has more diversity than India. This guy was my office-mate and sat next to me. His point of view was that the diversity of India is only at a micro level, and not at a macro-level; and therefore it is perceptible only by Indians themselves; while to foreigners our culture seems quite homogeneous. He would talk about the caste system (which he thought was all-pervasive), and arranged marriages, and people who he thought looked very similar (and therefore were ethnically identical, according to him), and languages that sounded similar to him (he had heard us speak in both Bangla and Hindi). Of course he hadn't read much about India and his opinion was mostly based on a bunch of Bollywood Movies and a handful of Indians he had known. And he is the kind of person who turns a debate into a monologue; without letting anyone answer his points. I was initially somewhat irritated at his, should I say "arrogant ignorance", but then again, he can't be blamed either, because there apparently isn't a conscious effort on the part of those who promote India, to sufficiently emphasize our diversity to the outside world.

People, especially most Asians (Asians refer to all Asians here and not just East Asians; refer to a previous entry in this blog if you are wondering why this is clarified) do know about Bollywood and are interested in it, though they have this idea that all Bollywood movies have a dozen song sequences where the hero and the heroine sing and dance and go around trees. They also think that Indian movies don't expose women much, and a couple of Chinese guys had their jaws dropped when I showed them the "Beedi Jalaile" video on youtube. And that Tamil song where Prabhudeva dances (titled great Indian dance or something similar and available on youtube, with an astoundingly high view count) is very well known. The University actually offers a course on "Bollywood Dancing" alongside Salsa, Ballet, Tango and Mambo and it attracts several students of different national and ethnic origins.

There are some people who think that all Indians are born with Singing and dancing skills. Of course people don't know much about movies in regional languages or non-main stream Hindi movies. Most think "brown" girls are hot, which makes them wonder why Bollywood heroines are mostly of fair complexion. Some people also confuse the words "Hindi" and "Hindu". People know that Cricket is the most popular sports in India though their knowledge in this field is rather limited; though they believe that a single match necessarily played in five days.

Another misconception is that almost all Hindus (and all Brahmins) are vegetarians (I found this misconception even among some Pakistanis and Bangladeshis); and that beef is not available in India. "Indian Cuisine" (which is basically a selective combo of North and West Indian cuisine) is very popular and the Indian Restaurants attract a lot of customers. They also think that Indian food is excessively spicy, but they like that. "Chicken Tikka Masala", the national dish of Great Britain is popular here as well. My floormates gave me a strange look when they found me cooking lentils (Daal) in the common kitchen; they hadn't seen anything like that before. One Chinese guy asked if it was some curry.

Almost everyone has heard the name of "Calcutta", and instantly connect Mother Teresa (and probably abject poverty, though they won't say it) to it; though nobody knows the city's new name, "Kolkata", nor do I mention it, to avoid confusion. Some Europeans and central Asians pronounce it as "Kaal-Kootta" (which sounds like Kaalo kootta, meaning Black Dog in Bangla). Other well known cities are Delhi, Bombay (not Mumbai), and Bangalore. And they have heard of Taj Mahal. Well, at least most of them.

Despite a few misconceptions, most appreciate India as one of the earliest and greatest civilizations in the world, and our culture as one of the most outstanding. They also are aware of India' s recent economic boom and some consider her a superpower in the recent future. Most people like India and Indians and do not harness any negative feelings against us, barring may be, a few Pakistanis (though certainly not all of them, most of them are friendly and nice). Even in case of those Pakistanis, the grievance usually is against the Government of India and its Army, and not the common people.