Saturday, August 6, 2011

What type of Indian am I?

Hey, I live in South Africa. Although I'm of indian descent, I don't exactly know what type of indian I am. My mom says Gujarati/Urdu. I'm also confused between my identity of Indian Vs Muslim. It didnt really bother me at first, but now since i've found out within the last year or so India was invaded by Arabs, so I just see it as an religion we adopted. Although when I did some inquiring by my mom, it appears from my grandmothers side, her family is still hindu, and she speaks tamil. But when she got married to my grandfather, she became muslim. I always associated Hinduism with India, and Islam with Arabs, and since I'm not Arab, I feel a certain disconnect. There are both Indian Muslims/HIndu's where, my moms from. But my family's view towards other Indian's of Hindu heritage is the common view that they Kafir/Nasarah/Pagan-Idol worshippers who are on the wrong path, and nutters. Even though some of our family are themselves Hindu and the community there. We associate with them, but still observe the differences. Dont ask where in India, theyre from cause theyve been out of India since 1800's. Even though I still have an innate love for Islam since I was born to believe it, I can't come to term with the idea, that Arab people invaded India. And there are things that I like about Hinduism, but the philosophy as a whole also has some shortcomings as well, like all the multiple gods and stuff. My grandfathers name was Sheik Hameed Emam Alli, and grandmother's name Sarah Bibi. So you can see his name is still Arabic. And hence mine Hidaayatullah Ahmed. For the most part I dont feel indian at all, within an India context. I dont speak an indian language but my cousin can speak urdu, but more as a second language, and her father gujarati. I feel more South African.And what are Surti and Kokni Indians because we have those people as well, and they have a somehwhat different culture. Thanks.

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