Jindal Discards His Indian Roots – So What?

I think Bobby Jindal is a joker. His remarks about gay marriage itself are enough to mark him out as a silly guy catering only to his deeply conservative GOP base – whether or not he actually believes in what he says is anyone’s guess. I have no admiration for him.

I do however, support him when he says that he doesn’t want to be an “Indian-American” – just “American”. I see absolutely nothing wrong with him wanting to distance himself from what others are calling his “roots”. Apparently people have taken offense at him wanting to cut himself free from his Indian heritage, taking to Twitter with tags like #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite etc. This is nothing but racism. People who are criticizing Jindal look at race first. Instead of looking at his Passport, his nationality, and where he grew up, they are looking at his skin color and DNA. That is blatant, pure, racism.

Seriously, what is wrong with wanting to purge yourself of a particular culture? To start with, he wasn’t even born in India. His parents immigrated over. So right off the bat, his link with India is broken. Do you think just because he has a certain DNA by accident he is bound to identify himself with it? What is Indian about Jindal? Nothing!

The place of one’s birth is an accident, nothing more. I was born in India. I could have been born anywhere in the world. It’s random chance that placed me on this particular corner of earth. Am I supposed to bear an identity that is based on nothing more than pure random chance? Sorry, but I do not. My identity is something that I determine for myself. If a person wants to break free of their circumstances, then I applaud them instead of trying to drag them into the mud.

I think it’s pathetic when Indians seize upon the achievements of someone of Indian origin and claim it as a win for India. “Oh, an Indian origin person won the Nobel prize!” Yeah so? Was it because they had Indian DNA that they won it? Or did they get it through their hard work and effort, and through the infrastructure provided by another country? Yeah, I thought so.

Jindal was never Indian in the first place. But even if he was, that doesn’t mean he can’t reforge himself whenever he wants to. People talk a a lot about “roots”. But that’s bullshit. We are not trees! We are not stuck to one place and we sure as hell don’t take its identity onto ourselves by force. When an Indian (or anyone else) moves permanently to another country and they want to forget all about where they came from, we should applaud their courage and their resolve to take their destiny in their own hands.

Instead, we get all offended and take umbrage. Get over yourselves. There is nothing special about being Indian. It’s all an accident of birth. And if Jindal wants to take the “Indian” out of him, then that’s his prerogative and he has my full support. Those who can’t look at a person without their race blinding them are racists.

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21 thoughts on “Jindal Discards His Indian Roots – So What?”

  1. I agree. I don’t even know why Indians are even interested in Bobby Jindal. There is a class of liberals who are obsessed with showing off their “sensitivity” to groups they perceive as “weak”: non-whites, women, gays etc. And so they have an obsession with forcing people with such identities to act as representatives and/or advocates for that “weak group”. It’s a patronizing attitude. Let Bobby Jindal be. If he had British heritage, no one would care whether he ate fish and chips often enough or something. An Italian born woman was India’s supreme ruler for 10 years; I never met an Italian who cared or even knew.

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    • In reply to Sumit

      I know right? How is it that Italians are not beating their chest in appreciation of Sonia Gandhi? My god, can you imagine if an Indian was the PM of Italy…

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    • In reply to Sumit

      Bobby Jindal has about as much of a chance of becoming president as a server has of getting a tip off of Bhagwad Park…. You’ll get free food at a Chinese restaurant before you see Jindal in the White House.

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  2. Sonia Gandhi was India’s PM for 10 years ??? And I thought that by living in India, I was highly aware of the current events of India at least. Guess I don’t even know about my own limits of ignorance.

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    • In reply to Mayank

      “Supreme ruler” was the phrase Sumit used – it’s sad that we had to invent a new word other than “PM” to denote who actually manages a country in India!

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  3. Some of his distant ancestors lived in India. That’s about it. So it’s more than fair to claim he’s not Indian by any stretch of imagination.

    But does that warrant deliberately creating portraits of himself that look white?

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    • In reply to Sun

      Well, consider that all politicians change the way the look to either “fit in”, or reduce the chances of them being viewed differently from others. For example, no US politician will openly call themselves an atheist. Even if they don’t believe in god, they will pretend to do so to pander to the biases of the electorate. Some of them make themselves look younger, older, dye their hair, or whatever.

      Now as for Jindal I don’t know what the truth is. That famous painting was said to be a gift from someone. How true that is or isn’t I don’t know. But even assuming he did it purposely, it’s standard behavior for a politician. Especially if you consider that he’s in the GOP which is pretty white dominated.

      That’s what politics has come to now (well, I don’t know if it was ever different!)

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      • In reply to bhagwad

        If the portrait isn’t a gift, and is a deliberate act, then in a country where race is a huge problem, it comes across as a member of a non-white race desperately trying to become white for some reason (He believes being white is superior? He thinks people of his race are somehow not fit to be in office? He thinks voters are stupid enough not to notice?) There is something about it that feels off.

        If he’d tried to make the Indian-American vs American argument in isolation, it’s definitely agreeable. In conjunction with this, he comes across as a wannabe for all the wrong reasons.

        But then, if i was a citizen here, I wouldn’t vote for GOP anyway, so there.

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      • In reply to Sun

        It was a gift from a constituent. But that’s besides the point. Even if it wasn’t, why not ascribe it to wanting to appear to voters as they expect, much like most politicians hide their religious views? Why bring race into it?

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      • In reply to bhagwad

        Right, even if it wasn’t a gift from a constituent –

        If a politician hides his religious views and gets outed, then he has to apologize, or make reparations, or in general face the consequences. If he attempts to hide the color of his skin and is outed, exact same thing. Basically any kind of misrepresentation of oneself shouldn’t be tolerated in someone running for office.

        A politician trying to appear a different shade of color has already brought race into this in some way – He’s trying to subtly say he is really white, or that he aspires to be white, and that whatever he really is isn’t what he likes being. Which is silly because the color of your skin doesn’t matter at all! If he is presenting himself in a way which ‘appeals to his voters’ he is doing no one any favors. People aren’t dumb and will start wondering what else is he trying to hide about himself.

        You make a fair point in saying that politicians change their appearance to make themselves look younger, or older, or speak with a different tone of voice, or their views on religion. All I’m trying to say that doesn’t extend to color of your skin. In the not so distant past, some colors were ‘superior’ to others, and this plays into that kind of mentality.

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      • In reply to Sun

        It’s one thing to lie about objective things like your education, your past history, your financial records etc. It’s entirely something else to lie about subjective stuff like opinions, and religious views. Lots of politicians change their views depending on what their voters want all the time – often making both statements in front of the camera! No politicians are free of this – even liberal ones like Obama!

        To me, someone trying to subtly change their skin color is no different from wearing contact lenses to change their eye color. If tomorrow we found out that Jindal has black eyes instead of brow or vice-versa, we wouldn’t care would we? Or if he suddenly started to wear green contact lenses. In fact, I’m sure it’s already happening! For me, skin color = eye color. As important…or unimportant.

        Now when you say that skin color was important in the past, I agree. But we mustn’t let ourselves judge modern actions by historical standards. It’s time to start treating skin color with the same indifference as we view hair or eye color.

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      • In reply to bhagwad

        Okay, I think I know where we disagree. Yes, ideally we should treat skin color with the same indifference, but I don’t think it’s time yet. Over and out.

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      • In reply to Sun

        If I was an American, I would definitely vote Republican as well. Because as South Park creator Matt Stone put it:

        “I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals. “

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  4. Most north Indians are deeply ashamed to admit thier central Asian and Iranian and Afghan mixed DNa in them, so hide behind nationalism to cover this fact. The only true Indians are the South Indian black skinned Tamilains, and no weather does not change a person’s skull structure or eye shape or skin, otherwise all the Arabs and Indonesians in hot climates would be black. Genetics defines it.

    indian itself is a created identity, a subcontinental identity based on geography, it has nothing to do with ethnicity. Bobby is a Punjabi American. If Indians want Parsees and jews to call themselves Indians, why angry and hate filled with Bobby ? ARe they insecure? fearful?

    If someone says, Gujarati-Indian, Keralite-Indian, Punjabi-Indian, they get angry and say “call indian only”. Why this obsession with this greek given name “Indios” Indian? Indian is a nationality, Bobby meant it in that term, not to divide. Extremist attitude among Indians is no less dangerous than Islamic extremism.

    All human beings should be proud of their African roots, from Africa did we all came.

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  5. When in rome, be a roman citizen and behave as a Roman, at home you can be anything. Indians expect that from Parsees and Jews who came from middle east or Anglo-Indians or white women marrying Indians, then Americans too have right to expect you to be American. They are infact including the Indians into their family. That is a nice thing. One can be Keralite American, Punjabi American , identified by lingusitic roots, not hide behind some national tag of India. Bobby has admitted his Punjabi heritage many times. This is nothing but hatred by Hindu extremist groups.

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  6. There is no such thing as Indian DNA itself, India was like America welcomed people from all over world. Jews, Parsees from Iran, Tajiks, Turks, Arab traders, Tibetans all to become India. It is something to be proud of. India achieved that long ago before America, and now Indians want to be so petty and possessive? Some fake Hindu nationalist one DNA theory or some puesdo research is being passed. DNA tests have shown India has many haplogroups of various DNA from various nations merged into it. What is rahul gandhi ? What is Tata ? All humans come from Africa in the end, one common root for all. Sick mindset of extremist Hindus that is shaming India before the world.

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  7. thanks for commenting on this, it was amazing seeing all the progressives go all

    “he’s not acting the way someone of his race *should* act! OUTRAGEOUS!!!”

    totally not racist …

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  8. I would have thought they would disown him as quickly as possible considering the utter bilge coming out of his mouth! I agree that he is “a silly guy catering only to his deeply conservative GOP base”!

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