When asked about my ethnicity, I usually provide the following response: “Well, you see I’m Indian but I’m not Indian, although sometimes I can be ‘Indian’ if I’m in the mood.”
Scratching your head? Don’t worry; after this short tutorial, you’ll know everything you need to know — and possibly more — about your loud-mouthed curve-setting friends here at Penn.
Indian (IN-dee-uhn) adj.: Although the word Indian has come to refer to two groups of people, for the purposes of our discussions we will distinguish Indians as only those who are of the Indian diaspora.
While I myself was born and raised outside of Pittsburgh, my parents made the long, hard voyage — or 18-hour plane ride — from India over 25 years ago to settle down in the Promised Land; so hence I, too, am technically 100 percent of Indian descent.
However, keep in mind that this term “Indian” refers to many distinct groups here at Penn; from those who came straight from the streets of Bombay to study at “Varton” so that they may someday take over their family’s software company, to the children of doctors from North Dakota who have only recently discovered that they, unlike their friends, are not white. We are all fairly used to categorizing these groups of students into one — I mean, brown is brown, right? — but upon closer examination you will see the leaps of difference amongst this 8 percent of Penn’s population.
Indian (in-DHI-uhn) adj.: You know them; the kids who stink up your kitchen religiously every day with warmed-up curry dishes from mother, whose ideal romance involves a Hindi movie-like song-and-dance routine in the fields, who take every possible opportunity to blast the evil of the rogue state that is Pakistan. These kids are hardcore; and with their passionate zeal for all things brown, the Indians at Penn have done some incredible things with the spreading of Indian culture through large organizations like the South Asian Society.
However, there are ill-effects of Indian-ness — namely, socializing only with other Indians and refusing to accept important components of American culture, such as keeping one’s voice down when in the library. One need not be from India to be Indian; as long as they have an inexplicable desire to trek to the ‘burbs to catch the newest Hindi flick in a run-down theater, they’re free to join the jet set of brown kids here.
“Indian” (IN-dyun) adj.: Straight from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the “Indians” are a completely different entity unto themselves. Typically raised in the States, these upper-middle class children of physicians are used to some interaction with other Indians, but are often torn between their frat-partying urges and homely temple values. Though they had at one point desired to possibly study history, the “Indians” were quickly pointed towards the direction of monetary stability and prestige; they are all either pre-med or in Wharton, no exceptions.
The “Indians” will make their appearances at the Indian parties — where the tracks are always spun by someone who finds himself to be awfully cooler than he actually is — but when it comes to taking charge of the Gandhi Day of Service they would rather spend their time flirting with Jewish boys at Smokey Joe’s. Balance is extremely important to “Indians” as they strive to be normal while staying in touch with their cow-loving roots; however, this oftentimes results in the shutting out of Indians, for fear that they will become one of them.
Though none of the above descriptions is completely accurate, they do reflect a staggeringly negative interaction between Indians and “Indians” here at Penn that we oftentimes overlook.
As Indians, we are all so concerned about defining ourselves and our relation to one another that we rarely pay attention to the negative side-effects that result from our fears, myself included. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe that we should be friends with those people whose company we enjoy and who we can respect, regardless of race, gender and the like, but maybe it’s time that we all take another look at our behavior toward other Indians.
Maybe you didn’t give a second thought to the Indian kid down the hall who plays cricket on Hill Field at every possible occasion, even though he could’ve been your next best friend; or maybe you dismissed the trendy “Indian” in your chemistry class because you thought, to quote the movie American Desi, that “all Indian girls born in America become corrupt.”
No, this isn’t an issue of punctuation and italicizing; it’s a plea to look beyond text formatting and open our minds to all that the Indians at Penn have to offer.
As long as there are Indians on campus, there will always be Indians and “Indians.” But hopefully, with time, those definitions will change and we will become a dynamic group on campus — even, if we’re lucky, a dynamic force in the world.
Aneri Jambusaria is a sophomore Finance concentrator from Monroeville, Pa.
