Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Former Managing Director of Google and Twitter Parminder Singh recently took to X and shared a very interesting observation regarding ethnicity. 

In his post shared on April 14, Singh emphasised how Malaysians often refer to Sikhs as Bengalis. He further explained that not just Sikhs, but everybody from North India is perceived as Bengalis in the country. 

Singh decodes 'historicity' behind the 'ethnic' confusion

Singh, clarifying the confusion, said that the people in Malaysia tend to refer to everyone from North India as Bengalis. He said that he was made aware of this by fellow Malay Indians in a meditation retreat in Malaysia.

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Explaining the historical reason behind the confusion, Singh said, ''British India had three sea ports - Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. British Malaya was served by ships from Calcutta and Madras. Most North Indians used the Calcutta port, the majority of whom were Sikhs recruited for army, police, and security jobs. To the Malay people, everyone who didn't come from Madras, essentially everyone from North India, was a Bengali."

''In a lighter vein, some of them insisted on calling me Parry Dada (the Bengali term for elder brother). I suppose this is the opposite of how many of us North Indians tend to label everyone from the South as 'Madrasis'," he explained.

Netizens share their own anecdotes 

Netizens appreciated the observation shared by Singh and wrote their own stories of how their ethnicities and cultures were misunderstood by people of other nationalities. 

"That is so amusing. Reminds me of what a salwar-kurta/kameez is called in Odisha. It is called, believe it or not, Punjabi!!! Imagine telling the shopkeeper there 'Show me colourful Punjabis'," said one user.

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''Yea all over the world we are undersrood differently as per their own perception, based on lack of knowledge but in reality we the Sikhs carry values of of each one of those. We are like a VIBGYOR of the world communities and hence all names are acceptable," wrote another netizen. (sic)

"This is why colloquially many south Asians used to refer to every white person as “Angrez” (Angrez means English, not French/German/Scottish etc). And it's the reason the name for Sind/Hind/Indus became a mistaken label for all South Asians - Panjab Sind Gujarat Maratha," said a third user.

''Interesting. In East Africa, Sikhs are called Kala Singha. An earliest immigrant Sikh was one Kala Singh and Indians with beard and similar turban like Kala Singh got the same name tag," wrote another netizen.