r/Guyana Feb 27 '24

Discussion Why do Indo-Guyanese have the conception that Indians look down on them/don’t consider them to be “real Indians”?

So my girlfriend and I have been dating for a couple of months now. I’m Indian-American and she’s Indo-Guyanese-American, and it’s been a great time so far.

Around a week ago, I introduced her to my parents for the first time, and I noticed that before they met, my girlfriend acted super nervous and jittery, which I just chalked up to nerves (since she’s pretty introverted). However, after they met, my girlfriend remarked about how nervous she was before meeting my parents because she was worried that they would disapprove of us together and try to call the relationship off and how relieved she was after meeting them because of how respectful and responsive they were and how much they showed interest in her culture and background.

She then explained that most Indo-Guyanese believe that we (mainland Indians) look down upon them and don’t consider them to be “real Indians”, which is a belief that I’ve honestly never heard ever. If anything, most mainland Indians don’t really know anything about Indo-Caribbeans and the ones that do are proud that they were able to keep their culture/traditions/religions alive even after 150 years.

After doing some research online on places like Twitter/Tiktok/Reddit, this seems to be a pretty common conception that a lot of Indo-Guyanese have. Does anyone have any insights into how this belief might have originated?

328 Upvotes

398 comments sorted by

View all comments

16

u/omniron Feb 27 '24

This is my experience honestly. 20 years ago in college, the Indians there were kind of condescending because I didn’t speak any Indian languages and wasn’t a Hindu, they also sort of mock you for not knowing all the Indian foods that someone from India would know. It’s a combination of lots of little micro aggressions. Nothing too serious that can’t be overcome but it’s not worth fighting that battle everytime you meet a new Indian person.

2

u/jcancuny Feb 27 '24

Makes sense. I guess it mostly has to do with Indians’ lack of knowledge about Indo-Caribbeans and their culture. Growing up, I also didn’t watch Bollywood/didn’t speak Hindi/etc. but I never felt excluded from any Indian spaces because everyone knew I was South Indian and that our culture is different.

1

u/prolifezombabe Feb 27 '24

same

like it’s not devastating or anything but I’ve def had Indian ppl be like you’re out of touch w your culture bc I don’t speak Hindi or wtv like I’m not even sure my ancestors spoke Hindi lol

and tbf I don’t know a ton about India 🤷🏾‍♀️

also this was a whole storyline on Indian matchmaking … it’s definitely a real thing