One Quantum of Indian

One of my pet peeves is when people stereotype or try to label other people, especially me. Maybe this is immature and maybe I have too much pride, but I do not appreciate it when someone else tries to define me and who I am or what I do or why I do things. So of course I find it a bit annoying when someone tries to quantify "how Indian" I am. So here's two anecdotes:

Early on in college, one of the first friends I made said, "Oh I totally thought you were white-washed," in response to hearing that I lived in India for a year and learned to read/write/speak Marathi and Hindi. I was offended and wanted to lecture her about a variety of topics including the label "white-washed" and her definition of it, but I think I kept my mouth shut. Her first impressions of me, for whatever reason, made her believe I wasn't "that Indian". Was I offended b/c she didn't think I was Indian enough at first? Or offended that she would even try to label me in the first place? Maybe both. (white-washed: when someone who is not caucasian or white acts like they are, ie in this context my friend thought I was more "American" than "Indian".)

On this trip, one of the graduate students that I chat with in lab asked me if I eat food with my hands, and I said "yes most of the time." His response, "Oh so you're really Indian!" (Then I said, "Well I wouldn't have lasted this long in Shibpur if I wasn't, I would have left the first week.") So in this guy's definition, eating with hands is considered "really Indian." I also got a few responses like this when I told people I am vegetarian, they seem to think that's "very Indian" as well. I wasn't really offended by this but it just got me thinking about the whole concept again. I understand that's how our brains work, we like to categorize and label things with similar properties. But I try not to do that to people and their personalities, I think it hinders their potential and makes me have subconscious expectations for them that they may not want or deserve.

And of course, I get the same question at least 5 or 10 times on every visit to India, "Which culture do you like better, Indian or American?" Ugh. I try to be polite and lucky for them my Hindi or Marathi is not developed enough to be rude or arrogant or sarcastic on purpose (my usual attitude in English as many of you may have experienced), so I say, "I like both, I don't have to pick one." And actually I don't even know what American culture really is by definition.

So, how Indian are you? I'm sure there's a Facebook quiz for that.