Indians who
go for merry-making or go in hordes to do menial jobs sometimes leave such
impressions on the nationals of western/ native origin that they are often
disliked. When foreigners visit India, they too see a lot of things happening
here that would not be acceptable in their own societies. Indians may not be
the only such creatures, but let’s restrict the present discussion to Indians.
Some stereotypes of Indians that hurt Indians’ image and make their life difficult abroad are given below. Some of these are related to the way Indians grow up or carry their cultural baggage. Some are appreciable too, but do not match with foreigners’ sensitivities on those matters.
Some stereotypes of Indians that hurt Indians’ image and make their life difficult abroad are given below. Some of these are related to the way Indians grow up or carry their cultural baggage. Some are appreciable too, but do not match with foreigners’ sensitivities on those matters.
- They are very argumentative.
- They are very noisy, especially when in their own groups.
- They do not use western toilets properly.
- They bargain even when fixed price mentioned, and bargain too much.
- They carry big luggage. [They don’t travel light.]
- Even when abroad on short pleasure trips, they are too nostalgic about family.
- They have poor traffic sense [both, when driving a vehicle and when on foot].
- They are unduly particular about taking bath, taking vegetarian meals, their traditions and culture, Bollywood films and songs.
- They do not adopt western dress too easily and wear non-western things such as [women] bindi, mangalsutra, saree, sindur, glass bangles, jhumke; [south-Indian men] lungi, sandal marks on forehead, [Sikhs] turban… and so are snooty and/or do not mix well with the local population.
- Given a chance, they would take meals with hand [without using cutlery], urinate behind a wall [males], walk barefoot [especially South Indians].
- They don’t mind doing part-time menial jobs even if in big post.
- They have highly accented English pronunciation.
- [in western countries] They eat up ‘our’ jobs in IT and BPO; [in Africa] have overtaken our business by cheating us.
- [In Arab countries] They are good to be treated like labour only.
- They create ghettoes when a large number of them live together in a foreign land.
- They are fond of hot curries, pickles and spicy food that smells typical of Indians.
- They carry their cast identities, joint family links and old-world notions with them.
- [Foriegners who have seen from trains people defecate in the open]Most of Indians in Indian small towns and villages shit in the open and don’t clean themselves after that.
What an
Indian identity!!
