Humanities desk
< September 16	<< Aug \| September \| Oct >>	September 18 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 17[edit]

Stereotypes of Indians/Pakistanis in the UK[edit]

Do people in the UK can tell Indians from Pakistanis apart? Do they apply different stereotypes to them?--Hofhof (talk) 21:02, 17 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

We have Stereotypes of South Asians. Bus stop (talk) 21:13, 17 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That covers the 2nd part of the question. I still wonder how well can Britons tell Pakistanis from Hindus apart.--Hofhof (talk) 22:18, 17 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

They can do what every other nationality outside of Britain does: They can ask them. --Jayron 32 23:06, 17 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Most likely if they do, and the person decides to be informative rather than tell the asker to bugger off, the person will tell them that as Pakistani is a ethnic-national group and Hindu is a religious one, so they aren't actually ever "apart". A Pakistani may be a Hindu and a Hindu could be a Pakistani and yes this includes in the UK. Nil Einne (talk) 06:30, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There's also a strong possibility that a Moslim from the Indian subcontinent (or less likely, a Hindu or Sikh) could be a Bangladeshi, "...one of the UK's largest group of people of overseas descent". Alansplodge (talk) 11:13, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sometimes there is obvious difference in dress. If that isn't obvious then look for things like mala beads. If they are Rudraksha or Tulsi you have a Hindu. Also look for Kalava (thread) on the wrist. If they are wearing a turban they are probably Sikh. There is a difference between Sikh and Islamic turbans but hard to describe. -- Q Chris (talk) 11:33, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's rare to find an American, unless they have such friends or deal with Subcontinentals, who knows the difference between a Pakistani of various stripes or an Indian of various stripes. The same with Indo-Aryan versus Dravidian; Muslim vs Sikh, vs Hindu, etc.

It's more common among younger people who may have had recent immigrant friends. My sisterr had a friend who she called "Indian". When I met her I could tell from dress, custom and name she was a Dravidian Hindu, and asked her if she spoke Telugu, which she was surprised to confirm. I know a Gujarat-speaker from Mumbai who will not identify his religion, which I take to mean apostate Muslim.

The area is as complex as Europe, and most Americans will settle with "European" if you tell them you are Gheg, Breton or Polabian. μηδείς (talk) 02:45, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Shame you obviously misread UK to mean US. Interesting anecdotes nonetheless. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 131.251.254.154 (talk) 11:24, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The horror! (Or should that be the horrour!) μηδείς (talk) 19:59, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

As our article on the ethnic slur Paki explains, the people who used the word were indiscriminate about using it to insult anyone from South Asia. So certainly British racists don't apply different stereotypes. (Similarly, they aren't very aware of the difference between Indian religions, which is why for example there are many news stories about Sikhs being attacked by people who thought they were Muslim) Smurrayinchester 07:32, 18 September 2017 (UTC

Which leads to a variety of similarly offensive comebacks like "I'm from India, I hate Pakis too!" I don't think the turban thing is just because of an inability to tell Indian religions apart. It may be more so in the UK, but from what I've read etc, I think as much as anything they see someone with dark skin and a turban and think Muslim. They may not necessarily think the person is from South Asia. Nil Einne (talk) 12:52, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Lest anyone think this is unique to the UK and US, a fairly prominent Canadian Sikh, the politician Jagmeet Singh, was recently accosted for being Muslim. Adam Bishop (talk) 13:23, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

(Any man in a turban risks being mistaken for a Muslim.[1]) I popped by to offer a link to British Asian. Carbon Caryatid (talk) 19:47, 18 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Muslim women can be identified by the hijab, a form of headwear, also they sometimes wear black robes. 92.8.216.51 (talk) 13:26, 19 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

But bear in mind that not all Muslim women wear hijabs/head scarves, and not every woman wearing a headscarf is a Muslim. Iapetus (talk) 16:36, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]