As an ABCD, I want things both ways. In the USA I want to be recognized as fully American; hyphenated American to be sure, but still just as American as any pink-skinned Mayflower descendent. This is especially true when I need consular support or when I am re-entering the country.
I once had an INS agent look at my face and tell me that the line for foreign nationals was elsewhere. When I showed her my passport, she proceeded to treat it as fraudulent and grilled me (improperly) until she was satisfied. Ironically, she was a Filipina with a thick accent herself.
But in India, I usually want to pass. I was really proud when a Delhite came up to me on the street and asked me for directions in Hindi. The only time I’ve been amused to hear “You speak English really well” was when it came from an Eastern European tourist at Fatehpur Sikri. [I ruined the illusion by responding “Thanks. I watch a lot of American television” whereupon he recognized the American sense of humor.]
Heck, last time I was in India, I passed too well. I was wearing a khaddar kurta and had my beard open and some guard at the Delhi domestic airport decided I was too pendu to belong and demanded that I produce my ticket. I responded in very American English that my ticket was with my “Daaaaad” (it was) and walked off, having asserted myself as an NRI.
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I mean, we don’t even have a word for the opposite of coconut. What would we call somebody who is white on the outside, but brown (and hairy) on the inside? A pickled egg? A rotten egg? What’s the correct term for somebody like Jamie Alter?
A day in the life of Jamie Alter is not easy. He takes the bus to office … and is stared at all the way. Teenagers snigger and point… But Jamie, son of actor Tom Alter, isn’t a tourist or long-term expat. He’s Indian and it says as much on his passport. Having grown up in Mumbai and Mussoorie, Jamie understands references to Chitrahaar, not American sitcoms. When he went to the US for his undergraduate degree, he thought he’d blend in. And he did — as far as appearances go. Until he realised his heart was in India. “I missed the chaos of Mumbai. I love cricket, not American culture. I came back because I’m happier here,” says the 25-year-old. [Link]
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p>To me, the correct term for Jamie Alter is Indian.
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p>I know we want to believe so strongly that we can inherit cultural ownership by virtue of our skin and our domestic experiences that sometimes we see people like Alter as a challenge. If they’re Indian, what does that make us? I don’t know but I’m not that troubled by it. There can be both jus sanguinis and jus solis.
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p>India is a multicultural country. I remember once asking a Tibetan friend where the best Tibetan restaurant in Boston was, and she replied that she didn’t know since she only ate Indian. She had been born, raised and went to college in India before she came to the US, and was far more Indian than I. Her Hindi was not just better than mine, but probably better than both her Tibetan and her English.
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p>Similarly, my friend S. got annoyed by the failure of other people, especially ABDs, to recognize him as Indian. S. had blue eyes and fair skin. I thought he was Latino when I met him. But he was a hadesi pukka Bombayite, a real Indian.
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p>So I’m happy to recognize non-browns as being more Indian than I am, just like I’m not afraid of Elvis in the USA. I have no problem with white and black (and yes, non-Punjabi) contestants on Bhangra teams, just like I have no problem with non-desis learning Bollywood in Yorkshire or Colorado. I’ve gotten over my annoyance at people who can’t dance the right traditional way to Bhangra at clubs, in part because the worst offenders there are usually Gujaratis, not white folks. [I’m even more hopeless at Garba, so I can’t point fingers.] I don’t own Bhangra within India (heck, it’s not even part of my family’s tradition), and I don’t own it here either.
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p>I’m just not that fussed about asserting cultural ownership I guess, unlike some:
Cultural Ownership: I have no problems admitting that I sometimes feel like this. It’s like, “Dudes, I can’t even understand my own culture! It’s not fair that you can!” That just makes me jealous. What can I say? [Link]
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p>To me, it’s only fair I guess that things should go both ways. I’m an American. Kenyandesi is a third generation Kenyan. And Jamie Alter? He’s an Indian.
Related Posts: I’m not afraid of Elvis, On Hybrid Vigor, Acceptance and Grace
There’s a private study done by the US Embassy in Delhi which estimates 100,000 Americans live permanently in India. Lots of Hindu ashrams that are basically all-white, many entrepreneurs, tech industry workers, a few missionaries, NGO officials and volunteers.
Many years ago, Tom’s cousin was a teacher of mine in India, and a fine man. I also knew Jamie, as we were kids together. Its good to know he’s doing well. Thanks for this.
Hari – was he as Indian as this article suggests?
The best solution to the “white in the outside / brown on the inside” conundrum I’ve heard is white chocolate truffle.
I knew of white people being raised in other countries, Korea, for example. But there they more or less have “Western bubbles” (Western run schools, nearly all western cohabitants, etc..) in which they pick up all the salient features of being western. They may not eat cheeseburgers every day or watch Seinfeld, but that doesn’t take away their westernness – the same way simply eating cheeseburgers and watching Seinfeld for us doesn’t automatically make us western/American.
I don’t know about this guys particular case.
From what I know Mussorie has a large white, Christian conversion contingent there (ooh alliteration)
White outside, brown inside – A Nutella Sandwich 😛 ( Courtesy Yahoo! Answers)
Modak is a whole lot closer.
M. Nam
His father is a Bollywood actor, he works for cricinfo. Beyond that, all I know is that he carries an Indian passport and chose to return.
Hari? You knew him …
Ennis –
I always found it odd that desis in the U.S. view themselves as “immigrants” whereas foreigners in India (notwithstanding however long they have lived there) view themselves as “expatriates”.
The Alters were very different. Hindi was as much their first language as English, and there was a great commitment to being part of the Indian political, social and cultural firmament. I couldn’t think of them as anything but a part of the modern Indian nation.
Brown on the outside, white on the inside? That’s a HoHo!
Ennis –
We were less than 10 years old then, but more than anything, I have a vivid impression of his uncle, who taught at my school.
i’ve known several people like this. it really is hard for them to adjust to the “white” west after growing up in india. many of them speak indian languages fluently and have returned to india to settle down.
ok, I give up..what is hadesi..does it mean half-desi?
I know so many people like this guy. Having been in and around ISKCON and other various religious groups connected to India. There are so many girls and guys who are not ethnically south asian but have been born, or raised, or both in India, and raised as some sort of “hindu” by their parents.
They are IBORCEs — Indian Born Or Raised Confused Entities
His dad has done a lot of films, he is always the token “angrez” speaking hindi with an english accent. In real life he speaks hindi very well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Alter
Jamie looks very much like his dad… http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-12,GGLG:en&q=tom%20alter&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
Impressive.
A non sociocommunistic post from Ennis decrying the oppression caused by the white man.
Gazsi
i never made the connection between cricinfo’s jamie alter and tom alter. interesting.
OT but I knew Tom Alter when he lived as a paying guest @ my uncle’s neighbor’s apt in Pali Hill, Bbay..wow..that was a while back..
Of course cultural ownership that Jamie has comes from total immersion for a prolonged period with strong personal sense of belonging and ownership of the culture. But I gotta say, it would be hard for me to be in his shoes in India- what with open stares, and probably universally misassumed identity. Anna writes often about having to assert her American identity, can you imagine that for Jaime! I mean a gora Indian in India is far more of an outlier than a desi American in USA as a percent of respective native population.
This reminds me of an incident that happened with me a yr ago or so. On a leisurely sunday noon, we went to lunch at our fav Indian restaruant. A white family was seated in adjacent booth. We were merrily busy with our food when our din was interrupted by a voice speaking in hindi, in an unmistakable north Indian native-hindi accent. We almost fell out of our seats when we realized that this hindi was being spoken by the gentleman in the adjacent booth! I mean he was asking ‘Aap jalebi banatey hai yahaan?’ (do you make jalebis here?) of the restaurant owner!!
I so wanted to chat him up – I’ve never met a western foreigner (ha! I‘m the foreigner… but I digress) who spoke an Indian language like that. And other bits of his conversation told me he understood India (or Delhi) like a long-time resident. I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt him or his family’s lunch, and realized myself at the other end of the usual curious WAYF conversations I’ve been part of here in the States…I guess there could have been a life-enriching opportunity (for me anyway).
At any rate, I think Jamie has probably surprised desis all his life 🙂
I have a friend who is African, but raised in India. Judging from what he’s said in the past, it’s a lot worse when you’re foreign, but you’re not white.
my cousin is half-german but could be whole for all practical purposes (fair-skinned, light eyes, etc.). when he’s caught by the cops in bombay, i have seen him speak marathi and bargain bribes down to pennies. doesn’t get more bambaiyya than that!
as for jamie – he’s indian enough for me. an honorary brown man, as it were…
I know a certain Sikh who’s more New York Askenazi Jew than I am, in spite of being (technically) a New York Ashkenazi Jew.
Whatever colors we appear on the outside, inside we’re all the same dark pulpy red.
“If they’re Indian, what does that make us? I don’t know but I’m not that troubled by it”.
Same here, heck my grandfather born and raised in chital Gujarat, worked in Kenya, father was born and raised in Mombassa Kenya, worked in UK, as for me, born and raised London England, who knows where i end up.
i will never be Indian the way Jamie Alter is Indian, never be Kenyan as my father or some cousins, not even be British as some of my friends.. the point is knowing where you are from, and are at.
Its a unique place to be that many are in.
just got to find a cool word for it.
Manju
i grew up with a son of chinese immigrants to India. he turned out to be very politically active and even spent a year living with tibetan refugees in dharamsthala, protesting chinese oppression. conversations at his home during that time got real interesting.
Pink != Mayflower descendent.
Below is a list of last names of people who came on the Mayflower, including servants and sailors. Some of these even died without continuing their lines. So, if you’re not on here, no need to assume that you’re a Mayflower child.
Allerton Bradford Brewster Carver Chilton Cook Cooper Crackstone Fletcher Freidland Fuller Goodman Minter Priest Rogers Sampson Tilley Tinker Turner White Williams Winslow Billington Britteridge Browne Clarke Eaton Gardiner Hopkins Margesson Martin Mullins Prower Rigsdale Standish Warren Alden Carter Doty Holbeck Hooke Howland Lancemore Latham Leister More Soule Story Thompson Wilder
A few of my black friends in India feel the same way.
On the otherhand, a few of them get mistaken for local desis there….
But maybe that could be “worse” too, depending on how locals treat each other.
Always admired Tom Alter. Son has some resemblance.
Ever since my ex-bf came to India with me for a year, and repeatedly got spoken to in Hindi or Bengali, and even got regularly chatted up with a ‘kothai jachen, babu?’, I’ve thought that most Indians are ready to assume you’re an Indian unless informed otherwise. There’s some pretty whitey looking Anglo Indians out there. Anyone can be an Indian – we can look east asian, black, white, arab…so I’m puzzled as to why this guy is pointed at and laughed at. Mind you, I get pointed at and laughed at in the streets of Kolkata and I’m brown-skinned, black-eyed and do not have any strange dress or behavioural habits (that anyone’s told me of). Poking fun at others seems to be the Indian national sport.
In my kindergarten class in India I had an Albino teacher. For a long time I thought she was a foreigner. Its funny, Albinos from most races look the same way.
very well written post, ennis. reflects your story telling skills.
sigh
I can’t believe I’m going to contribute, but the pejorative I’ve always heard for a white person who’s brown on the inside is a Snoball.
I guess, in the same sense that wigger was used…could you use wesi?
Dammit I really am going to hell.
Tom Alter played the lead(desi character) in the soap Junoon, didn’t he? He also wrote Rerun at Rialto, a detective story set in Mussoorie. A nice read.
Commune denizens are not in the same category as Mr. Alter…they are a world unto themselves. ISKON members don’t live as Indian Vaishnavites or integrate with the community at large. I’m not saying it’s all their fault, our social structure makes it hard to make sense of new entrants. Until the current wave of desis coming home for visits with white wives/husbands & hitech expats, in rural India white=”hippie interloper”.
I’m disappointed to hear that Jamie is getting stares. I guess people are used to North & South Indian “phenotypes” & that they don’t warrant a second look, but it must be tough for Indians from the North East or Tibetans who have settled in peninsular India.
Another famous American in india is the founder of FABINDIA http://fabindia.com/company.asp now his son and daughter who were born in india now run the company, they did there schooling in delhi ( not western school) went to US for undergrad and now living in delhi. There family’s commitment to promote traditional indian designs is a inspiring story. Fabindia has went on to to become a iconic ethic indian wear brandoutlets across the country with 100% sourcing from 10,000 tradional craftspersons, going very strong.
Pink != Mayflower descendent.
Below is a list of last names of people who came on the Mayflower, including servants and sailors. Some of these even died without continuing their lines. So, if you’re not on here, no need to assume that you’re a Mayflower child.
Also, many names on the list are the names of people I know, none of whom have pink skin.
They brown, baby! The last name on the list, Wilder, is the name of the mayor of my chocolate city, (and he was the first African-American governor). Of a southern state. Imagine that!
nice post Ennis.
It is not about ownership. It is about learning, respecting, and loving the good habits of your grandmother. Educating oneself to catch the aesthetic in practices of the past.
What you say is correct for the ones living exclusively in communes or ashrams. However there are quite a few that do not, even amongst ISKCON members, you get non-south asian kids growing up speaking Hindi or Bengla and some who have never been outside of India.
Outside of India there are other religious group, some less communal, who have non-Indian, or mixed parents raising their kids along with the local – sending them to local schools (hindi/bengla medium), and basically “going completely native”.
I know several people like that.
The last name on the list, Wilder, is the name of the mayor of my chocolate city, (and he was the first African-American governor). Of a southern state. Imagine that! Many emancipated slaves took the names of their former owners. Also, there are people who are descendants of people who came on the Mayflower but do not have one of these last names.
Meant to write “outside of ISKCON”….
Plus there are some non-Indian kids who grow up in completely Indian ashrams, being a minority there.
And there are plenty of descendents of the Mayflower-ers who look black or brown or some other color than white. Yet, that’s not how it plays out. If the “other” branch of your family tree came from Europe, you’re more of a “Mayflower” descendant.
Even more extreme – A cabbie I met in Salt Lake City referred to some people of Mexican descent as foreigners (2nd gen), said something bad about their “culture”. Yet, while talking about the history of the area, he said something about the Native Americans living there before “we” drove them out. He himself was born of two German parents.
TOUBOB!! 🙂
I don’t get why ABCD’s claim to be from India. Why not just say wherever you are really from i.e. Edison , NJ or Boondocksville, PA ? Do you see white people saying they are from Germany or Ireland. Integrate ABCDs. Stop the confusion. Lose the hyphen.
Only IBDs are from India.
So funny, I’ve just been writing to Tom Alter recently. I met him a few years ago when I lived in India for some time. We shared a cab home once and the cab driver was so impressed that Tom had such excellent Hindi that he said to me “He’s a very good man,” (but in Hindi). Ironically, my Hindi is so bad that i can’t even transliterate back to Hindi how he said it exactly.
Also, Tom is not always just playing the token white man. In Veer-Zaara, he played the doctor who examines the heroine’s grandmother. He just finished up a 12-show run in Delhi of “City of Djinns,” he wrote.
I sent him the link of this discussion, btw!
That’s actually impossible, because different races have different facial bone structures. A skull of a Caucosoid will be shaped differrent than the skull of a Negroid, which in turn will be different than the skull of a Mongoloid. So, a Caucasoid Albino will look much different than a Negroid Albino, who will look much different than a Mongoloid albino. Perhaps, you don’t notice differences in bone structure.
I have always wondered whether people from different cultures look at different features while identifying a person. For example, I almost never notice the color of someone’s hair, because back in India, everyone has black hair. OTH, in the US, people usually describe other people with the color of the hair and eyes. I wonder whether Indians are more observant of things like differing shades of skin color, and don’t notice things like shape of the nose, hair color, etc.
In my experience, Indians, while very color-conscious, are also very features-conscious. They do often notice the eyes, the nose, cheekbones, etc. How ‘sharp’ someone’s features are. Whereas Americans will take away a general sense of whether they find someone attractive or not, without necessarily dissecting every feature (although subconsciously features obviously help them arrive at their judgements too).
I don’t know many writers who have talked about being in India while being non-brown. I came away with some of the feeling of isolation from Ruskin Bond, a fine writer whose stories were among the best in the CBSE textbooks. But he is also a bit of a recluse. The dude is up in the hills. Anybody would feel isolated up there 🙂 He writes stories about people in the Duns, but he doesn’t talk very much about personal stuff. What he feels about being non-brown can only be inferred. A very understated style, if you know what I mean.
Make that : “I don’t know many Indian writers …”
The first part of this post resonates with me a lot because I’m the same way. I’m sick of the past six years of people exclaiming “but you don’t have an accent” whenever they find out that I’m not hispanic or some sort of mixed race american-born citizen and ask the fateful question. Even mexicans think I’m mexican. I’m going to learn spanish just so I can get see the looks on people’s faces when I have to tell them I’m not. 😀 I also blend in perfectly well both in the general urdu-speaking community in Pakistan and with my own farsi-speaking people. Then again I enjoy being a chameleon, and I love language because of its exclusionary aspect.
I went to this school when it was AIS during some pretty formative years, and have quite few homesick friends who, e.g., speak Desi English fluently and some Hindi, and arrange to play kabaddi at alumnae reunions in Washington DC. Some remain in Desh. see mug shots, aka yearbook photos.