Re: When Pakistanis are grouped with Indians
Your title said if Pakistanis are grouped with Indians not as Indians. I mean that makes it slightly different. Obviously it is wrong if Pakistanis are called Indians or Indians are called Pakistanis. No Indian I know disputes that Pakistan and Pakistanis are separate. If in a small country there are 2000 Indians and 1000 Pakistanis they will be labelled together as asians and seen together. It happened in Uganda when both Indians and Pakistanis were forced to leave and it happens in UK and US where they are both seen as asians or south asians. In some countries people are grouped according to region rather than countries which might be specific. Australia and Britain example does not work as they are different continents. Koreans and Chinese would not like to be confused but they can agree they are Asians. They have an asian federation which works for then. French, German and Italians don’t mind being labelled as Western Europeans.
As an Australian i can tell you that though Aussies joke about Brits all the time many are proud of their British past and still pledge allegiance to the British Queen. Some of them would be happy to be called British. So even that might not be the best example.
Which community (in the West) groups people according to which country they are originally from? Maybe you mean an Arab country? In the West you belong to the land you live in. If you live in the US you are American and if in the UK are British. Your other identity only becomes important to people if you make it. So are you talking about an organisation doing the labelling, the gov labelling them together for the census or people on the street assuming you’re Indian?
In your example maybe they were labelling it as the Indian subcontinent rather than calling all Indians and Pakistanis Indians.