Parminder Singh, former Managing Director of Google and Twitter, recently took to X, to share an interesting observation about ethnicity. In a tweet posted on April 14, Parminder Singh noted how Sikhs are often referred to as Bengalis in Malaysia. Not just Bengalis, everyone from North India are essentially referred to as Bengalis in the country. Mr Singh also shared a detailed historical reason behind this confusion.
The Ex-Google MD said that he got to know about this during a recent meditation retreat in Malaysia from fellow Malay Indians.
''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,'' he explained.
''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", Mr Singh added.
See the tweet here:
Internet users were also fascinated with the observation and shared stories of how their cultures and ethnicities were perceived by people of different nationalities.
One user wrote, ''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".
Another commented, ''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.''
A third stated, ''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.''
A fourth added, ''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.''
A fifth said, ''This was fascinating - thanks for sharing. We have family married into Sikhs and can't wait to spring this.''
