Indian Culture - Tumblr Posts

Markets of Assam by Imdad Barbhuyan

I just remembered when I was a kid and when I wouldn't eat any food my aunt would feed me food by saying "just eat one bite for me" then I'll eat it then she would say "eat another bite for krishna" then she would say "eat another bite for ram" then "eat one more bite for mahadev" and little by little I have eaten everything thanks to God 😭

Hi! I'm sorry to bother, but I have a question. I have a friend who looks white (blonde, light skin, green eyes) but was actually born and raised in India by her Hindu parents. She practices Hinduism and only recently moved to the states. She still wears traditional clothing, but the other day she posted a picture of herself in her traditional clothes and got a lot of hate for it, people saying it was cultural appropriation. She's bummed out about it and is now questioning her ethnicity. Help?

1. All those people screaming cultural appropriation at her are ignoramuses who are basically saying, “Wow, you don’t look like my ill-informed, narrow-minded stereotype of what people from this region actually look like!” and “I actually subscribe to horrible, reductionist stereotypes that Indian people can only have dark hair, skin and eyes. Light hair? Green eyes? European (origin) only!” 

This is gonna be a tad long, because it’s gonna delve into biology and history- and it’s because I hope people realise how artificial the US paradigm of race is. It’s woefully incompetent at understanding the biological diversity of our species because it is a social construct. Modern scientists and historians generally refuse to categorise people on the amount of melanin they have because it’s just reductionist and oversimplistic- what they do is classify people by their geographic origin, linguistic and cultural ties. 

2. India is an EXTREMELY diverse continent. It’s so genetically diverse that the only place more genetically diverse is the African continent, aka, the birthplace of humanity. And this is a big deal. I’ll explain why.

Surprise! People inhabiting an extremely large country that has more than 2000 ethnic groups, members of all the world’s religions, been the site of multiple ancient civilisations, been on the major crossroads of human migration and trade for thousands of years come in multiple colours!

Presently, the most widely-accepted theory of our origins is the Recent African Origin, or Out of Africa Theory. This holds that originally, humans first appeared in Africa, thus all of us have African ancestors. All modern non-Africans are descended from much smaller groups of people who migrated out of Africa, anytime from 65,000 to 125,000 years ago. How do scientists know this? By looking at our DNA, in addition to fossil and archaeological records. They discovered that the differences in the DNA of non-African peoples like say, a German a Japanese and a New Zealand Maori was far less than the genetic differences between people from different African ethnic groups. (Somali, Dinka, Yoruba, San, Kikuyu, Luo etc- I’m BARELY scratching the surface)

What this meant was that Africa had to be the original, diverse genetic pool where modern humans first appeared. Everybody else outside of Africa today is descended from much smaller groups of people who left Africa at various times- and that ancestral genetic “bottleneck” is why people who appear to have very different heritage (e.g European vs East Asian) actually have far less genetic variation than the various African peoples.

So, India being the second most genetically diverse place on this planet is a big deal- it’s basically second only to THE CRADLE OF HUMANITY. That’s why I’m pretty convinced your friend can have blonde hair and green eyes and still be 100% Made in India.

3. Now, the genetics of India itself.

Genetic studies have shown that if you take a modern Indian from any part of India, no matter how dark or fair they are, his or her lineage will consist of mixing from two main ancestral groups. One is the Ancestral Northern Indians (ANI), and the other the Ancestral Southern Indians (ASI). You may have heard of the ancient Indian caste system which put a lot of social pressure that prohibited marrying outside your caste. Caste discrimination is banned today, but old attitudes do persist. However, even this caste rigidity wasn’t so 4000- 2000 years ago. ANI people married ASI pretty freely, so that’s why every modern Indian has heredity from both groups. So, already to start off, you got quite a fair bit of diversity hidden in people’s genes. 

And the next interesting part to explain why it IS possible for Indians to have features stereotyped as “European” is because while the ASI seemed to be genetically unique to the Indian subcontinent, the ANI people are genetically related to Middle-Easterns, Europeans and Caucasians (and I mean this not in the sense of “white” as often used in the US, but the actual region of Caucasus, which borders Europe and Asia).

You mentioned she looks “white”- and the American-understanding of “white” being hurled at her by those people screaming cultural appropriation are actually ignorantly treating “white” as synonymous with “European-origin”. In reality, it’s completely useless in the realm of biology. Biologically, there is actually no real dichotomy where “European” suddenly ends and “Asia” begins. 

As I earlier pointed out, well, we’re all kinda related. And it’s not at all earth-shattering that some people from India look like they’re of “European-origin”. Because modern Europeans, Central Asians and the Ancestral Northern Indians are all believed to be descendants of a group of people called the Proto-Indo-Europeans. It’s believed they lived around 6000-7000 years ago. Some modern people that are descended from the Proto-Indo-Europeans are French, Germans, Iranians and Pashtuns (a major ethnic group in Afghanistan).  It’s even been found that Europeans and Indians shared a gene for fair skin from a common ancestor- which is why there ARE people who look like your friend. Naturally, fair skin is just relatively rarer in India vs Europe because more parts of India are located in hotter regions. Therefore, there’s more selection pressure for darker skin which has more melanin to protect from the sun- making fair skin rarer, but still possible. 

(This is a map of the Kurgan Hypothesis, which is currently the most popular theory for how the Proto-Indo-Europeans migrated from their homeland to settle Europe, Central Asia, Iran, India and Turkey etc)

Saying Indians are descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans is NOT the same as saying they’re of “European origin”. For example, think of the Proto-Indo-Europeans as like the “mother” of Europeans, Central Asians and the Ancestral Northern Indians- they’re like “sibling” groups, not descendants. The original Indo-Europeans were not “European” in the modern sense. I am clarifying this because plenty of colonial-era scientific racism tried to attribute ancient India’s achievements to “European who left Europe for India”- you might have heard the phrase “Aryan” thrown around in Nazi Germany, which was used to mean “blonde hair, blue eyes”. Nazi scientists and historians also abused it to explain away the sophistication of non-European civilisations in Ancient Egypt and India. In reality, ”Aryan” is derived from the ancient Sanskrit word “Arya“ which means “noble”. Sanskrit is an ancient language still used in classical Indian texts, and is of Proto-Indo-European origin. For example, the name of the country “Iran” actually means “land of the Aryans”- it was the names ancient Iranians (another people descended from the Proto-Indo-Europeans) gave to what others called the Persian Empire for more than a thousand years before the Third Reich. 

(Sanskrit manuscript)

Furthermore, many languages we often separate as “European” and “Asian” like German, English, French, Italian vs. Hindi, Farsi (Persian), Gujarati, Punjabi, Pashto, Sanskrit etc are ALL classified by linguists as belonging to the same Indo-European language family- which all evolved from the original language the Proto-Indo-Europeans spoke. See how artificial the Europe/Asia dichotomy really is, in terms of human genetics and origin of cultures? 

4. Finally- there’s plenty of modern proof that the region we call Europe today does NOT have a monopoly on producing people with blonde hair, fair skin and green eyes.

This is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, a popular Indian Bollywood actress who is also known for her striking blue-green eyes. She’s 100% Indian- she was born in Mangalore, India to Indian parents. 

This is a couple at their wedding- the lady on the left is Indian, from the Southern Indian city of Hyderabad. Her husband is Ethiopian.

This is a photo of a boy and a woman who is likely his mother, taken in Turkey.

This is a girl from Darfur, Sudan- an area that has more than 30 ethnic groups.

This is a Nuristani girl. The Nuristani people are an ethnic group from Afghanistan. 

5. And in the first place, what makes up a person’s identity IS NOT JUST HOW MUCH or HOW LITTLE MELANIN THEY HAVE.

Tell your friend she is 100% Indian, because what makes up her identity is not just how she looks. Identity is what feels most natural to her, and if that identity is indeed very intertwined with major aspects of Indian culture- then well, she IS Indian and noone can say otherwise. 

Those people had no right to make her feel awful and “not-Indian enough” because it’s clear she identifies as such due to actually being born there and also practising major aspects of Indian culture. The best example I can think of to explain this is how in the US, people sometimes use the term “Latino” as a race category, with the stereotype that all latinos must have tanned skin and dark hair. In reality, it’s more of a cultural identity. The are fair haired-latinos and darker-skinned latinos whose ancestors included the African slaves brought to the Americas four hundred years ago. But what really makes them “Latino” or “Hispanic” is their upbringing- growing up in the environment of Latin America, which is culturally a syncretic fusion of Amerindian, African, Spanish, Portuguese and other European influences. 

(This is the Brazilian football team that won the 1970 World Cup- you can see Pelé- second from the bottom right. He is an Afro-Brazilian. If you look at his teammates, you can see how latinos come in ALL COLOURS.)

6. Your friend should not be questioning her identity, but those people attacking her should be questioning their utterly myopic worldview. The history of human genetics and migrations makes it abundantly clear how DIVERSE India is- so it’s perfectly possible for her to be Indian but have blonde hair and green eyes, even if it may be less common. 

7. On a more general note, I cannot stress this enough to everyone- DO NOT GO AROUND ATTACKING PEOPLE for “cultural appropriation” when you are NOT even from that culture in question and/or don’t actually know in detail the history and genetics of that region.

If you suspect cultural appropriation: DO YOUR RESEARCH FIRST or ASK SOMEBODY you know who actually belongs to that group. You may be attacking mixed-race people or people like the anon’s friend, who simply has features that are less genetically dominant- blonde hair shows up less easily in countries with a bigger pool of people with dark hair because dark hair is dominant. Even if her parents had dark hair, it’s possible they both carried a recessive gene for blonde hair that was suppressed by their dark-hair gene. Their child would be blonde if she happened to get both copies of the blonde gene instead of the dark hair gene.

Also, even if you think the person isn’t of that group, please bear in mind they might have been invited to dress in that clothing by a friend, or because they’re at an event. (I.e let’s say, at an Indian wedding)

I can’t stress how infuriating this “white knight” complex is. Speaking as someone pretty familiar with colonialism, I’ve had people who didn’t grow up in my culture condescendingly insist that if I’m okay with somebody doing something from my culture, it’s “self-internalised oppression”. I’ve studied African colonial literature, and the way people insist on defining what people should be alright with is very reminiscent of 19th century imperialists high-handedly saying, “oh, we have to bring the light of civilisation to save those backwards colonial subjects from themselves!”

This is Reese Witherspoon, wearing a kimono in Japan, where she is being taught by JAPANESE people how to perform the traditional tea ceremony. This is not reducing a culture to a caricature because she’s actually learning stuff respectfully and wearing a bona fide kimono.

Fighting against cultural appropriation is to prevent cultures from being cheapened, made into jokes, sexual fetishes or ugly caricatures. Part of returning power to people to define themselves is ALSO by allowing them to set the parameters of what they want to share with others- and many cultures are perfectly willing to share aspects that are non-sacred or do not have to be earned. So, for example, do not go around insisting a Japanese person should not be allowed to teach non-Japanese people to wear a kimono- because a kimono, unlike a Navajo war bonnet (akin to veteran’s medals), is something anybody can wear. Recognise this difference.

I think referring trans man who one word is pretty nice. I’ve really liked the words achillean and sapphic, especially since they have roots in historical myths. I’m personally Indian, and I thought maybe I could pull a word or rather a name out of my own culture’s stories that could act as a word for trans man as well. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about the Mahabharta. But essentially it is an Indian Epic that revolves around two clans of family, the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who fight in a battle called the Kurukshetra war. Throughout the epic, there are tales of people living and dead, different points on philosophy, and lessons being taught. It’s very long, about 10 times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined.

Despite the Pandavas and Kauravas being the sort of main characters of the Epic, there are many other individuals who play and important role in the story. One such character is Shikhandi. This seems to be already getting long, so I will give a brief background of Shikhandi. Essentially he was born in his past life as the princess Amba, who was abducted by Bhishma, but later rejected by him (This story is layered but if you want a summary Wikipedia is always good). Angered with this Amba preformed a difficult fast and at the end Lord Shiva granted her a boon that she would in the next life be born as female but would later become a man and the reason why Bhishma is killed. (And additionally gave him the ability to remember his past live as well)

Simultaneously, King Draupda wanted a child and prayed to Lord Shiva for one. He came and said to the king, that in his house a girl would be born who in due course would become a man. Shikhandi was born as Shikhandini, but of course later changed his name. He was raised as a man, and was taught warfare. When it was his time to get married, his father offered his hand in marriage to the daughter of king Hiranyavarman. Shikhandi’s wife realized that his wasn’t a “real man” (whatever that means). And when Hiranyavarman realized this, he prepared for war with Draupda, even though the latter insisted that his son was a real man. Shikhandi, distressed by his wife’s comments and by bringing shame onto his parents, decides to go commit suicide by fasting to death. He goes in the woods where people were terrified to enter since it was inhabited by a yaksha.

He goes in the forest and starts to take of his royal clothing, where the yaksha meets him. He asks what Shikhandi is doing, and the prince tells his story. The yaksha, feeling compassion over the prince, proposes that two exchange their sex. Shikhandi readily agrees and goes back to his family and tells his father of what had occurred. His father was delighted and said to Hiranyavarman that he could send someone over to check if it was true. Women were sent to Shikhandi who then confirmed that he was a man and his wife came back to him.

This has become extraordinarily long, but on a final note as I conclude the retelling I will say that Shikhandi fought on the side of the Pandavas during the war and played a vital role during it.

Now onto my main point. I know the story is sort of unconventional, maybe just by reading my summary or if you go on Wikipedia you might even find parts of it problematic. In our modern definition, Shikhandi would probably be considered a trans man, and his story is important to me, an Indian trans man, for a few reasons. For example, he given the gift of being trans by God. He isn’t just born a man, he becomes one because of Lord Shiva’s boon. As someone who has been told before (and I’m sure that many trans men have had that experience before) that me being trans is a mental illness, it was a point that touched my heart deeply when I reread the Mahabharta. He is distressed and tries to commit suicide but is saved because he allowed to be who he is in the body that he wants. He is accepted by his fellow peers, He is accepted by his fellow peers, and in fact the reason that Bhisma loses to the Pandavas is because he refuses to see Shikhandi as man and doesn’t fight him.

I really understand where people of colour are coming from when they say that they feel uncomfortable being compared to animals. After all, I have heard Indian men be talked about as“animals that only know how to rape”. In the same way Achilles was a character from a story and hence where word “achillean” comes from, I thought that that it would be nice to take the name of what one might consider in current terminology to be a trans man, and use his name Shikhandi, as a way of conveying those who feel a strong desire to be a man.

I do have a hard time finding the suffix for the name Shikhandi. Because Achilles became achillean and Saphos became sapphic. The most obvious would probably be shikhandian (since the name ends with an I) but people have said they don’t want that. I guess shikhandic could also work or maybe shikhandien. (I personally like shikhandian the best). I think you probably have some way better ideas to better mold this name, so I leave it to you or others who want to try.

Greek mythology is extremely common in the Western world, but rarely have I ever seen anyone talk about Hindu mythology. I guess because Hinduism has been constantly said to be demonic, especially by Western Christians. People think of us backwards and not progressive, and not many even consider the idea that Indian queer people exist. At most, Hijras are used as a gotcha by other queers to conservatives to say that “Yeah see trans people have existed for thousands of years, take that”. Without really considering who Hijra people are, how it connects to culture, and what the issues they face and have faced are.

Thus, I thought I would add my two cents about how we could create a single word for trans men that is also rooted in my culture. I guess people might consider it ridiculous and that it doesn’t make sense, but even if the name Shikhandi doesn’t stick, I thought I would talk about my religion and my Hindu culture as well.

I’m really sorry for how long this got, but thank you so much for reading till the end.

- Dev

sorry it took a few days to get to this, but that's a really cool story!! I loved reading it!!

honestly I was already thinking that the words we have that are rooted in lore are already mostly white, or at least that I know of, so it'd be cool to see more words that aren't centered on us so much!

I'd also love to hear what other indian trans people think too! I love hearing different viewpoints and opinions!

Desi Habits

Just Indian things

A Indian lady own a little puppy and welcome in a traditional way.... 

"But a boy just can't wear a dress-" We don't have different drapping styles and garments like lungis, our kings did not wear those absolutely beautiful angrakhas and robes and kurtas, our traditional (& historical) clothing was not mostly gender fluid and some form of dresses or skirts regardless of who wears it FOR YOU TO SAY THINGS LIKE THIS SHEELA!!!!!

Until I saw clips of Across the Spider-verse, I genuinely didn't know Chai meant Tea, I thought Chai was a type of tea, like Green Tea, and I would just like to apologize to all Indian people.

dont read if not feeling well

no one relay talks about how helpless it feels to be in a culture that justifies and normalises child abuse. i cant talk to a "a trusted adult" they hit thier own kid. i cant call "cps" we dont have one, thier is child line but they wont help not realy. its so normal to hit children that i dont know a single kid that hasnt been hit. hiting children is soo normal its in our school sylabus, no realy, there is a eng ch in 9 th grade where they justify hiting children and if children feel bad or mad or anything when they get hit they are the bad guys cuz parents are oh so tired. that chapter desrvrs its own rant. its so normalised that when i shared with my friends some memories , i found that aprently my case is pheraps out of the normal amount of abuse . which is a wild line to say cuz abuse is not ok either way. its not untill 2007?8?9?6? did hiting children in schools became a crime. which still hapens, my second grade teacher used to hit us soo much i still feel traumatied to a point i cant trust treachers anymore . and if teachers arent hiting you they would let you know how much they want to beat you and how much they wished it was legal and how much you desrve to be hit and i am like bro i am 7 ??

by the way its legal for parents to hit thier children at home,so yeah goverment thanks for nothing!

also i am from a uraban city in my country next to my country's capital, so things are way worse in rural areas .

GUYS ,A QUESTION?(genuely serious and imp question)

is it normal for parents to like...say things like

1 "tang toar dungi/dunga"

(TRANSLATION:" i will break your legs!")

2 "utha ke patak dunga/patk dungi"

( TRANSLATION:" i will pick up and thow you on the floor !" thtas the closets translation icould ghink of)

3 " jhapad padega zoor se ! "

(TRANSLATION: ill slap you really hard/you'll get slaped realy hard !)

4 " school se naam katwa ke ghar pe jhadu pocha karwane bethake shaadi karwadijaygi ! "

(TRANSLATION: "well have your name cut from school, well make you do cleaning , cooking, then mary you off ! ")

5 " mu tor dunga/dungi"

9TRANSATION : "ILL BREAK YOUR FACE !")

etc etc When your were 11? 7? 4? and even now? for the smalest of things and geting a sum wrong.

is it normal or is like the thrats of voilence just normalised in our culture. also non indians what are your thoughts on yhis ? how bad is this?

add on too this is it normal for them to throw things at you and break you stuff?

is it normal to get yelled at for wanting to sleep alone since i am nearly alomst going to be 16?

is it normal to get yelled at for wanting a closed door?am i wird for wanting a closecd door?

is it normal for my father to throw me on the floor when i was in 1st 2 nd grade and i did a sum the way my teacher told me and not the way he said and i told him this but he just threw me on the floor brfpore slaping and bashing my head?

is it normal for parents to say " why do you make me do this? i dont like doing this to you." and i have to aopligise?

i genuionly dont know if its normal,part of culture or what so plesae people any one got htoughts becuse i am drowining in guilt and would like outside perspective pleases

Draped in Shadows

In the courtyard where the peepal tree sighs, A girl once danced in sunlight’s embrace, Her laughter mingled with temple bells, But faith now lingers like a ghost in this space.

Incense curls, like a serpent's breath, Winding through tales of glory and grace, Yet beneath the vibrant marigold blooms, Lurk whispers of fear that time can’t erase.

The sacred texts, heavy as stone, Speak of dharma, yet silence her pleas, For every prayer, a question lingers, “Why must love bend and break on its knees?”

In the twilight of rituals, colors fade, As the Ganges flows, a relentless stream, With every aarti, her spirit feels caged, Caught in the web of another’s dream.

Once, she sought solace in divine embrace, But the gaze of the faithful grew cold and stern, With every gaze that pierced her soul, The light of devotion began to burn.

The goddess adorned with silken threads, Yet her heart aches under the weight of her chains, For in the shadow of sacred shrines, Love is a battlefield, and faith bears its stains.

As festivals come and go, like fleeting dreams, She stands amidst the echoes, searching for peace, But the mantras sound hollow, the colors bleed, And the truth of her heart lies in pieces, released.

Once, she believed in the lotus’s bloom, But now sees the thorns that cling to the stem, In the temple’s glow, she feels so alone, Her faith, a whisper—a broken hymn.

In the end, as the sun dips low, She lays down her trust in the sacred soil, For the girl who once danced in the light of the divine, Now walks a path where shadows recoil.

Yet beneath the ruins of faith that once soared, A flicker ignites in the ashes of doubt. For from shattered beliefs, new paths may unfold, In the garden of healing, her spirit breaks out.

She whispers to the stars, “I will rise from the dark, With each step I take, I’ll reclaim my own spark.” In the silence, she finds strength to create, A faith not in gods, but in love, unrestrained.

so much of the racism and misunderstandings of Indian culture comes from the fact foreigners see Indians as a monolith, when they are in actuality the least united country you will ever meet. i have the same amount of commonality with a non-Indian desi that i would have with an Indian person from a different state.

This will explain some of Indian dance methodology.

Alta

~Alta is specially applied by women in india during festivals on their feet symbolising fertility and auspiciousness~

Ladakh, India

Varanasi, India

Varanasi, India

Natraj

Durgo