Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
Europeans look the same but they correct others if an Englishman is taken to be French.
India always consisted of several kingdoms. It was united for a very short period of time in history. So to say that once we all belonged to one country is wrong.
And what is offensive is someone not correcting someone taking a Pakistani to be Indian.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
^ If we all belonged to different kingdoms, then clearly our appearances will be varied. So you can't say there is such a thing as looking "Pakistani".
People need to really visit Karachi, you'll see all kinds of folks working alongside each other, when they're not trying to rob one another. Kaalay kalootay, and goray chittay all alike. And everyone treats each other like a fellow Pakistani: i.e. we disregard each other's basic human rights.
At that point, baby dolls, your goray skin ain't gonna help ya. ;)
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
And for those of you who have a lot of naaz and fakhr over looking like a "real" pakistani unlike the rest of us immigrants from India during the partition, chalo let me take you to the real Pakistan. We'll start with Lyari colony in Karachi. We'll see how long your "Pakistani" chehra will last you. Kuch Kuch mein Pakistan ka maza bhi tho chakaa dun, in Pakistani-yon ko.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
Sure, correcting them is fine if its that important.
But why are people offended by it?
well because. If you're American and someone calls you Canadian...you get the point.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
^except Americans and Canadians don't have a skin-racial issue that some Pakistanis have over folks who may have ancestry in present-day India. And people certainly wont discriminate against each other. In Pakistan, there are definitely people who think they have "persian" looks, and that they're the real Pakistanis,and if someone darker comes along they assume they're Indian. Americans and Canadians dont have that sort of relationship.
We just don't appreciate each other's healthcare systems, and Canadians think we're their loud neighbors they wish would go to sleep, and we think they're too nice.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
well because. If you're American and someone calls you Canadian...you get the point.
there was a time after first and second Gulf War, Americans passed themselves as Canadians in Asia and Africa for their personal security and safety. i don't think Americans and Canadians mind if they are misidentified.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
there was a time after first and second Gulf War, Americans passed themselves as Canadians in Asia and Africa for their personal security and safety. i don't think Americans and Canadians mind if they are misidentified.
Americans used to identify themselves as Canadians because Canadians used to be well liked all over the world as opposed to Americans who were disliked. Unfortunately that image has changed in the past decade.
However, I would still not like it if someone confused me as an American because I don't want to be associated with American culture. I do find it slightly offensive but I don't react to it I just politely correct the person.
As for the indian/pakistani thing, people generally assume you're from India if you look south asian because its the bigger and better known country. I don't have a huge issue with it, I do correct people though so that they are actually informed. However, I know for my parents/grandparents they don't like it at all, but to be fair they've lived through a constant war with India so it does make sense that they don't want to identify with a country they've been fighting with since Pakistan's existence.
Also PCG I'm not sure why you're attributing fair skin to punjabis. I'm punjabi and I have family who are every colour of the rainbow. Punjabi's make up over half the population of Pakistan and they aren't all fair by any means. I've never heard of 'standard' punjabi facial features, they're quite a diverse group in terms of their facial features.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
although, in a group of Pakistanis, there was an Indian Gujarati that was a total flirt with all the women married or single and I disliked him so much thinking about how this Pakistani guy is bringing shame to other decent Pakistani men. All this time he was Indian Hindu and I mistook him for a Pakistani and I was a little embarrassed that I couldn't tell the difference.
After finding out, I could see how shy and reserved the Pakistani guys were in the company of women as compared to this lone Indian guy in their group. I am not judging other Indian men just based on this guy's actions and overly flirtatious way of acting(with married and single women) nor am I saying all Pakistani men are reserved, shy and all are respectful towards women. I was merely making an observation.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
That's definitely true, but you can't base your distinction on looks. Then you're basically saying Pakistan is only for the fair punjabis and pathans and not for the sindhis who have a distinctly indian look, or for the memons or the gujratis who definitely often look Indian. Or how about the south indian population that migrated to Pakistan? They don't belong to Pakistan? Have you seen the people who migrated from calcutta, even down so far as sri lankan populations?
What does this say to an Indian muslim who might be marrying into a Pakistani family, or immigrating to Pakistan to change his nationality because he believes in Jinnah's vision. So he looks dark, or has a hair type, or his lips are shaped a certain way or nose is shaped a certain way, he can't come to Pakistan and become a Pakistani?
Sometimes I really wonder whether people deserved a Pakistan. We should have been one India and let the hindus kick our arses. Maybe then aqal aa thi.
[quote="Ess_Emm"]
Maybe 30, 40 years ago there was similarity between the 2 cultures. And sure we look similar to some extent, but after 60+ years of independence, both countries are developing their own separate cultures and identities. Because we have a shared history of centuries there are similar interests and similar values, but it's diverging and maybe a century later it won't be similar at all, just like Chinese and Japanese cultures aren't similar now.
[/QUOTE]
Putting words into my mouth much? Did I really emphasize that much on who looks like who? I only spoke about how cultures are diverging. Don't try to extrapolate something completely different than what was actually posted.
Re: If you’re Pakistani and you’re mistaken for an Indian…
Call a Korean a Japanese or a Chinese and you’ll see how offended they get. Why don’t Pakistanis have any right to be offended then? Pakistan has a violent history of its formation and on the basis of those sacrifices I have every right to be offended if anyone mistakes me for an Indian. And FYI I will not be proud if anyone calls me sometihng other than a Pakistani ie Irani or Portuguese or whatever everyone else is proud of.
Yeah, just like I’ve come across Pathans who think all Punjabis are worthless, and Karachites that think that all Lahoris are paindus and worthless. You’re not the only one who’s come across sh1tty people, but you’re the only one who’s come to generalize based on the behavior of just a couple of people.
And have you come across Punjabis from other than Lahore? Even in Lahore, just like Karachi, immigration from surrounding areas has been going on for centuries. People from northern Punjab look a heck lot different than people from southern Punjab. So where int he world are you getting your information of every Punjabi wants the entirety of Pakistan to look like Punjabis. Which Punjabis? Ones from up north? South? East? West? 
I wish people would realize how offended a Welsh gets when he is called an English, or offended a Scot gets when he gets called an English man. There is a reason that part of the world is known as United Kingdom, or Great Britain, and not England. The subcontinent was once made of various kingdoms, and then during the British rule, because all brown people look alike, they were forced to be the citizens area of India. Forget the rich history of that subcontinent, forget the migration of nations through that continent. Brown is brown is brown.
That is not to say that intermarriages or whatever the point was raised a few posts above can’t happen. White-brown marriages happen, because people make them work. Brown-black marriages happen because people make those marriages work. There are more than enough stories about Pakistani-Indian marriages happening, both successful and unsuccessful, because attraction happens. It’s human nature. But just because an Indian man marries a Pakistani doesn’t mean that he is all of a sudden a Pakistani himself. He is more than proud of being an Indian, as he should be.
:k:
Re: If you’re Pakistani and you’re mistaken for an Indian…
why is this turning into a punjabi vs. rest of pakistani ppl?
Re: If you’re Pakistani and you’re mistaken for an Indian…
What did you expect 
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
i really dont know :/
hated but pretty at least lol.
Re: If you’re Pakistani and you’re mistaken for an Indian…
Because certain people always like to do so.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
Funny and awkward (awkward because these people are born and bred/live in western world/multicultural society so you'd expect better from them) how some people have these positive misconceptions about people of other ethnicities. I'd say take off those rose tinted glasses, come out of your bubble and experience the real world.
Re: If you’re Pakistani and you’re mistaken for an Indian…
Well many Afghans in the states do call themselves ‘Persian’, i’m not saying all of them do but there are many that do.
You make it sound as if the ‘fascination’ of fair skin is only prevalent among South Asians when in reality it is a universal epidemic; People all over the world view fair skin and european facial features as a virtue(unfortunately), in Middle eastern countries people bleach their skin and dye their hair blonde
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2008/08/20/55137.html
The sames true in the Far East; Japanese,Chinese,Filipino and Korean women bleach their skin and wear colored contacts, they also do double eye-lid surgery to make themselves appear Caucasian, and the Iranians are known for getting nose jobs(they also like to call themselves ‘Italian’ in America).
Then you’ve got racism all over Latin America, just watch any Latino show and the actors look nothing like real latinos, it’s the samething in Africa.
There’s internal racism among African-Americans, where the lighter-skinned ones look down on the darker and they bleach their skin too.
There’s even colorism among Southern Europeans where they try to distance their connections to the middle east and africa and try to appear more scandinavian.
Even Malala Yusufzai wrote in her biography about how girls at her school in Swat would talk about fairness creams and she said her father had self-esteem issues because he was darker than most swatis, so even the northern parts of Pakistan aren’t immune from colorism.
That’s a load of bs, if i were to believe you, that would mean that Afghanistan is the only country in the world where there is no colorism; in reality colorism is prevalent in Afghanistan, and that’s why Afghans generally look down Pakistanis and Indians, they view them weak and inferior refer to them ‘tor’ in their language, it’s also why Afghan marauders invaded south asia and subjugated the Indic peoples, even the Muslim ones just because they were brown and never considered them ‘proper Muslim’(this attitude is still prevalent among Afghans, especially the nationalistic ones.
I’m just speaking from experience; there are Afghans that i know that have referred to themselves as 'Persian, and most Middle eastern people(idk about Afghans) like being mistaken for southern euros, almost everybody wants to be Italian or Spanish.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
And if we're so ugly to you, then I can say, I wish we memons took our skills, intelligence, honesty, and took it back with us to India. How about we take Eidhi back too, he's not that hot looking either by your northern punjabi standards.
So you are mad that Punjabis think they're better looking than you, yet you claim you are more skillfull, intelligent and honest.
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
You have to be a Pakistani to understand the feeling. There is a reason, Pakistan and India are called arch rivals, I don't have to elaborate the reason. And no its got nothing to do with looks and colour. If you refer to an Irish as English, he will get offended.
Call a Croat, Serbian, if he corrects you, tell him, Oh you were once the same country, he will not be happy.
^ I understand this argument - this makes sense that there remains long-standing animosity which affects how Pakistanis and Indians don't want to be confused for one another. Loyalty to the nation-state is a very interesting concept (Machiavelli's The Prince is a great read on this topic) and the examples that Icono has provided demonstrate that soul-deep loyalty.
But the earlier point by Mezghan about how some Pakistanis take it as a compliment to be thought of as Arab or Persian or Greek - that's where I see the hypocrisy. And I've seen it in quite a few individuals (girls and guys ) where they consider it to be the highest compliment to be mistaken for a Spanish or Greek person - where's the cultural/national pride then?
And it's not just a new/Western generation thing - I've seen moms and dads who are fresh off the boat from Pakistan proudly proclaim that their child was mistaken for ______ (insert light-skinned, non-South Asian ethnicity/nationality).
Let me hunt up the thread posted some time back on exactly that topic....
Re: If you're Pakistani and you're mistaken for an Indian...
^ I understand this argument - this makes sense that there remains long-standing animosity which affects how Pakistanis and Indians don't want to be confused for one another. Loyalty to the nation-state is a very interesting concept (Machiavelli's The Prince is a great read on this topic) and the examples that Icono has provided demonstrate that soul-deep loyalty.
But the earlier point by Mezghan about how some Pakistanis take it as a compliment to be thought of as Arab or Persian or Greek - that's where I see the hypocrisy. And I've seen it in quite a few individuals (girls and guys ) where they consider it to be the highest compliment to be mistaken for a Spanish or Greek person - where's the cultural/national pride then?
And it's not just a new/Western generation thing - I've seen moms and dads who are fresh off the boat from Pakistan proudly proclaim that their child was mistaken for ______ (insert light-skinned, non-South Asian ethnicity/nationality).
Let me hunt up the thread posted some time back on exactly that topic....
read my comment above