Hypothetically if I’m born in India would I be Indian

[eRobin]

I’m a bit nervous asking about this subject incase it’s taken the wrong way. I was speaking with a not-quite friend (an acquaintance as I don’t know them very well but we’re friendly) from Bangladesh. I am Celtic. I asked him hypothetically if I was born in Bangladesh, India, or Africa, would be considered Indian or British or both because of my ethnicity/skin colour. He said I wouldn’t be considered Bengali because I wouldn’t be part of their culture/religion, and other places like India or Africa would feel the same. But when I asked him why he considers himself to be British despite being born here if I couldn’t be classed as Bengali if I was born over there, a woman from Dubai who was also present said that my comment was racist - but I felt that what the person from Bengali had said was racist. Do celtic people not have a culture?

No I don't think it would. I was born in England but I'm not English. At a stretch I'd say I was British. I do refer to myself as a Londoner as I feel specifically that London is my home. It's complex.

That is my DH except he lives in country F. He and his DB and DSis each describe themselves differently.

Your nationality, if you mean the passport which you hold, is not English. It's British.

Being born in the UK does NOT make you British!

Bio sex and ethnicity are real; gender and nationality are social constructs

Depends what you mean by Indian.

Under the Raj (colonialism) thousands of British people were born in India but I doubt if any of them would consider themselves Indian; though a British person born in Indian would probably be eligible for Indian citizenship of dual nationality.
The Duke of Wellington used to get very testy when accused of being Irish.
'If I'd been born in a stable it wouldn't make me a horse.' he said.

You could probably choose to be Indian, which would be a fine thing, but it would be a hard slog be culturally Indian, though Sonia Gandhi has made a fair crack at it. She's still called 'The Italian Woman' by her political opponents though.

I think the term Celtic is quite broad. I would imagine the culture of Ireland differs from Scotland although they are similar.

I am born in the UK, although I am British Citizen, I wouldn't classify myself as English although technically I am partially mixed with British ancestry and can trace my ancestors for centuries.

My DGF was born in Darjeeling because his DF worked for the British Foreign office and was stationed there. He grew up speaking Hindi and enjoyed the immigration of the 1950s and 60s as it meant he could gas natter and enjoy a decent curry. My DM recalls he was told (by white Britons) that he "wasn't allowed" to be Indian as he was white. Which irritated him.

A friend at Uni was born in Kenya to a Danish family (the Danes are very big in Kenya it seems). He considered himself African.

Amused by the first reply that asked if there is a "Celtic culture".

That seems like a really weird and aggressive conversation to have with someone who you don't know that well.

It's also weird to conflate being from a continent with being from a specific culture. The truth is that what you "count" as depends on many factors, and terms like "British" mean different things depending on the context. For example, it might mean culturally British, ethnically British, of British nationality, or something else entirely.

If you were born in India and integrated completely into Indian culture, then surely you'd be at least somewhat culturally Indian, and perhaps even nationality wise Indian. You wouldn't be ethnically Indian because ethnicity traces back through generations.

What's difficult about that? Someone born in Britain knows British culture as their own culture. Why doesn't that make them British?

I was born in another country to British parents. Most local people consider me to be from that country, which seems right to me. I went to school there, all my friends were from there, I spoke the language and celebrated the holdidays. Every now and again someone would insist that I was British, but I found that weird when I'd never really spent any time in Britain.

You can be whatever religion or none and belong to any country in the world. I'm SE Asian and I consider myself a person of 'X' heritage (the country of my parents birth) but fundamentally British (not English) because I'm not white. My children (born in this country to non-white British Asian parents may define themselves as English because not only were they born here but English is the only language and dominant culture they know. In other words; it's complicated.

On the flip side, neither me nor my siblings are considered X (parents country of birth) because even though we speak my parents language fluently, dress as those from the country and cook the same food, we have English values and therefore don't assimilate easily into that way of life/country! We're basically in limbo in no-man's land! 😂

India doesn't allow dual citizenship, so you would have to either be Indian, or renounce any rights and have a passport for wherever your parents are from. Ethnicity and nationality are not the same thing. You can gain or lose nationalities, but your genetic make up remains the same.

Being born somewhere doesn't automatically make you be eligible for citizenship. I was born in another European country because my family were living there at the time. My parents have no ethnic or cultural links and we did not visit regularly once we left. I don't consider myself as being part of that nation and I doubt I could get a passport for there, even if I wanted to.

Someone asked me to expand on my comment about colonialism. I think what I was suggesting that there's probably a reason that someone white born in India is less likely to considered Indian than someone of indian ethnicity born in the UK would be considered British, and that's to do with centuries old power and political dynamics between the two (and indeed between the UK and many former colonies). As colonials, the British set out to stake their claim on many foreign lands and bring them under British rule. Then, not long after leaving those colonies, we invited lots of citizens of those former colonies to come to the UK to provide us with cheap labour. In both movements we were imposing our culture and norms on those people. To the extent that we now have a multicultural society and generations born of the ethnicities common to our former colonies are now entirely settled here. Of course they feel British - they are British.

The same dynamic is obviously not true in reverse. Obviously there are Caucasian families settled in many countries worldwide, but the power dynamics and history are entirely different.

This is all a different matter to the discussions around citizenship which differ from country to country.

If you were born in Indian and held citizenship then you would be an Indian National and then whatever your ethnic make up is.

Reminds me of when my Turkish husband said his brother was English, despite having the same (Turkish) parents 😆 just because he was born here. Ethnicity and being a citizen of are different things.

Citizenship
Nationality
Residence
Domiciliary status
Ethnicity
Race
Religion

Finally, identity.

For me, each one of these is different. Further complicated for my DC by marrying someone who's almost as different.

It's complicated and nobody hold One True Answer. All you need to do is be aware of who you are, and respect what other people tell you they are. Nobody gets to decide for anyone else.

That could be true depending on when his brother was born.

@CandyCane5 oh I see, you're talking about him saying English rather than British...

My husband was born in Germany but he is English. My dad was born in Wales but he is also English. Although my Dad claims to be Welsh if they are winning the rugby!

My eldest wasn't born in the UK.
She has no claim on citizenship in the country she was born. She can't even live there now (EU). Shes British as her patents are British.

She is as British as her sister, who was born in England.

To add to the fun... although she was physically born abroad... legally she was born in the UK as her father was (is) an employee of the British Government and he was there officially.

Or claiming to be ‘Celtic’.

The Southport murderer is British. Full stop. And 'ethnically African' means nothing. There are thousands of ethnic groups in Africa. It's like saying someone is fluent in Asian.