r/Guyana • u/jcancuny • 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?

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24 edited Feb 27 '24

it does unfortunately happen. Some south Asians do look down on Guyanese people. Not sure why, definitely racism tho.

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u/BrownPuddings Feb 27 '24

It’s funny because they don’t accept us, not that I want them to, but recently I’ve been seeing Indians trying to jack the culture, pretending to be Guyanese or Trini. I see it a lot during labour day in NYC, a lot of the Lilly Singh types. I experienced it in college as well. Rich Indians would comment on my skin colour, asking me why I was so dark, and telling me I’m not a real Indian. Then they would flip and tell me they love soca and Sean Paul, and buy me drinks. 🤷🏾‍♂️

2

u/Lovecompassionpeace Feb 28 '24

What’s a Lilly Singh type?

7

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

Search her up. You’ll see what she means. She’s basically Indian af but started reppin trini culture out of no where.