Pakistani - Identity Crisis

Okay, i saw that post from one guy who said he was ashamed of being pakistani and stuff... And honestly, I feel the same way due to the stererotypes you get, etc. what i want to know is - what am i? I saw some people commenting that pakistani is not a race/ethnicity; it's a nationality.

Here's some information about me/my family:
My mum was born in Pakistan in Faisalabad
My dad was born in the UK
I was born in the UK.
Now, i consider myself British first, then Pakistani; even though i wasn't born there, it's just my heritage. My caste is Arain, which are muslims that are from the punjab province. So my quesiton is, what do i class myself as? Asian? Arain? Pakistani? Punjabi? I have fairly brown light skin, but i would not class myself as caucasian. When i was young (1-2-3 years old), i was white as a mother ****er. You could never guess i'm from pakistan, but obviously i got darker from year to year. I'm in no way really dark; i'm quite light skined.

I dont know if skin colour has any relevance, but im putting it for descriptive purposes; my skin colour right now is imran khan's colour (cricketer , politician)

Being from a country which was one (pakistan, india, bangladesh), it really does give you an identiy crisis, you i would love some feedback.

Reply 1

fudgecake22

17

I don't get it. You want to be white/English? Yoyre ashamed of being Pakistani? You want white skin...you hate your culture???

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Skip_Snip

3

You don't need to be ashamed of your heritage, but you're also under no obligation to embrace it. You were born in the UK, if you want to identify as British and live that way, it's completely fine.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by fudgecake22

I don't get it. You want to be white/English? Yoyre ashamed of being Pakistani? You want white skin...you hate your culture???

Posted from TSR Mobile

Well, yes. But the question at had is what do i calss myself as? As pakistani as NOT a ethnicity or race.

Reply 4

Skip_Snip

3

Original post by Anonymous

Well, yes. But the question at had is what do i calss myself as? As pakistani as NOT a ethnicity or race.

Whatever you like. You were born here, so you can say you're English.

Reply 5

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Skip_Snip

Whatever you like. You were born here, so you can say you're English.

Well, i consider myself british since i was born here, that's my nationality. But as for race, i dont know. Is it Arain? Punjabi? etc..

Reply 6

jakeel1

12

Original post by Anonymous

Well, i consider myself british since i was born here, that's my nationality. But as for race, i dont know. Is it Arain? Punjabi? etc..

Race is mainly cultural; biological just describes skin variations which really doesn't matter anymore.

Reply 7

Ravenous

17

Original post by Anonymous

Well, i consider myself british since i was born here, that's my nationality. But as for race, i dont know. Is it Arain? Punjabi? etc..

Nationality is British, ethnic group is Punjabi.

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Ravenous

Nationality is British, ethnic group is Punjabi.

Could you explain what arain is? I dont know, asked my mum and didnt understand.. :/

Reply 9

Ravenous

17

Original post by Anonymous

Could you explain what arain is? I dont know, asked my mum and didnt understand.. :/

I'm actually Arain too :tongue:

it's like our 'caste', traditionally our people have been agriculturists and historically Arain people only marry other Arain's but since our people have become educated and moved into cities we now marry out more.

Reply 10

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Ravenous

I'm actually Arain too :tongue:

it's like our 'caste', traditionally our people have been agriculturists and historically Arain people only marry other Arain's but since our people have become educated and moved into cities we now marry out more.

Yeah, my mum said Arains dont marry others such as Butt, etc. I DESPISE onions, which arains all eat, so she said no one will marry me lol :/

Also, what race are we? Since Well first of all the modern definition of a Punjabi person is anyone born, bred and culturally adapted to the region of Punjab is known as Punjabi. So it is not a race. You can find Punjabis of all types. I know many dark Punjabis and many light ones as well. For example one of my friends who belong from Awan tribe of North Punjab have green eyes and Natural brown hair and the other one from South Punjab is pretty Dark and both are Punjabis.
Punjabi is a geographical and cultural definition so you cannot define a Punjabi race in a generic manner at all.

Reply 11

Ravenous

17

Original post by Anonymous

Yeah, my mum said Arains dont marry others such as Butt, etc. I DESPISE onions, which arains all eat, so she said no one will marry me lol :/

Also, what race are we? Since Well first of all the modern definition of a Punjabi person is anyone born, bred and culturally adapted to the region of Punjab is known as Punjabi. So it is not a race. You can find Punjabis of all types. I know many dark Punjabis and many light ones as well. For example one of my friends who belong from Awan tribe of North Punjab have green eyes and Natural brown hair and the other one from South Punjab is pretty Dark and both are Punjabis.
Punjabi is a geographical and cultural definition so you cannot define a Punjabi race in a generic manner at all.

I don't like onions either, doubt it will be too much of a problem lol. Tbh I'm not under any pressure to marry another arain, caste is never even mentioned and lots of my relatives have married 'non-arains'.

You're right that Punjabi isn't a real ethnic group like Pashtun or Gujarati, so it is confusing. Apparently it can be split up into smaller groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majha#mediaviewer/File :biggrin:

ialects_Of_Punjabi.jpg Since my family are originally from lahore that would make me 'Majhi' although I've never even heard that term used before.
And yeah people from South Punjab are like a completely different race to the rest, they're Seraiki.
By the way since your family are from Faisalabad, did they migrate from Jalandhar during partition?

Reply 12

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Ravenous

I don't like onions either, doubt it will be too much of a problem lol. Tbh I'm not under any pressure to marry another arain, caste is never even mentioned and lots of my relatives have married 'non-arains'.

You're right that Punjabi isn't a real ethnic group like Pashtun or Gujarati, so it is confusing. Apparently it can be split up into smaller groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majha#mediaviewer/File :biggrin:

ialects_Of_Punjabi.jpg Since my family are originally from lahore that would make me 'Majhi' although I've never even heard that term used before.
And yeah people from South Punjab are like a completely different race to the rest, they're Seraiki.
By the way since your family are from Faisalabad, did they migrate from Jalandhar during partition?

Yes, my mum's parents' parents' were from Jalandhar. But my dad's parents' parents' were from another city in india.

Reply 13

Princess31

14

Original post by Anonymous

Could you explain what arain is? I dont know, asked my mum and didnt understand.. :/

Original post by Ravenous

I'm actually Arain too :tongue:

it's like our 'caste', traditionally our people have been agriculturists and historically Arain people only marry other Arain's but since our people have become educated and moved into cities we now marry out more.

Big up for punjabi arains :bhangra:

Anyway. OP whats sl bad about being pakistani anyway? Im pakistani but live in scotland. I was born here aswell. I call myself Scottish Pakistani.
Im proud of who i am and what i am tbh :yy:

you should too

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post by Princess31

Big up for punjabi arains :bhangra:

Anyway. OP whats sl bad about being pakistani anyway? Im pakistani but live in scotland. I was born here aswell. I call myself Scottish Pakistani.
Im proud of who i am and what i am tbh :yy:

you should too

It's not really being pakistani, it's where im actually from. I mean, if my parents were pushton, and from pakistan, i wouldnt care. But since their from punjab, i just dont like it. Also, am i caucasian? Since my parents' parents' were from india?

Reply 15

TheBBQ

21

Original post by Princess31

Big up for punjabi arains :bhangra:

Anyway. OP whats sl bad about being pakistani anyway? Im pakistani but live in scotland. I was born here aswell. I call myself Scottish Pakistani.
Im proud of who i am and what i am tbh :yy:

you should too

Why you lot think you are Punjabi, not even the real Punjab man. :colonhash:

British Pakistani?

Original post by Anonymous

It's not really being pakistani, it's where im actually from. I mean, if my parents were pushton, and from pakistan, i wouldnt care. But since their from punjab, i just dont like it. Also, am i caucasian? Since my parents' parents' were from india?