Writing Indian Characters: The Basics
So @cynwritess made a post a while back about writing Asian characters (which I highly recommend you check out, btw), and since my comment under it, I've gotten a lot of questions about writing Indian characters, so here's a post.
Keep in mind, these are just the basics. I might make more posts on this, idk, but if you need any help, feel free to contact me! If I'm unable to help you out, I’ll try to guide you to someone who might be able to.
Anyways, let me shut up and start already.
Some stereotypes to avoid would be:
1. Intellect:
Again, like with Asian characters, a common stereotype seems to be the smart Indian kid. While this might be partially true due to many having strict parents with high standards, it doesn’t always mean that Indians are smarter. Indians can be idiots too.
However, this does not mean India was backward. From Shampoo to Chess, there were many innovations that originated in India. The number 0 was invented by an ancient Indian, and Ancient Indians were pioneers in medicine. Its even speculated that Indians might have discovered flying long before the Wright Brothers.
Long story short, India was not backward. And just because it isn't a rich developed nation, doesn't mean it is backward now. (Looks pointedly at sjm)
2. Diversity:
India has more than just Hinduism. While Hindus are a majority of the population, Muslims are pretty dominant as well (but sadly marginalized).
Some other religions in India include Christianity, Jainism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism.
On the point of Diversity, India is one of the most diverse countries in the world. It’s got 28 states and 8 Union Territories. Each with many cultures.
3. Accents:
Like I said, India is SUPER diverse. There are several languages spoken in the country, and if you count dialects and subcultures, there would be over 500 languages. Naturally, this means that accents differ, especially if you’re a native of some place. Pop culture tends to show Indians with heavy Hindi like accents, but most people in India can speak English, and our accents are not usually as heavy and exaggerated as shown.
4. Appearance/ Skin Tone:
Again, India has its racial biases as well. India likes to think it’s all fair skin and has actors and models as such, but brown skin tones is pretty common, especially further south. However, it’s not always very dark either.
There are a multitude of skin tones and appearances, for people from all backgrounds. Towards east India, people tend to look more like what you might associate with East Asians, with relatively lighter skin tones and monolids.
5. Discrimination:
India tends to discriminate a lot. It’s even turning into fascism right now, tbh. (Follow @cee_writes to get updates on that)
Not only do people discriminate on the basis of class, religion, gender, sexuality and so on, but there is a sort of discrimination unique to India.
Casteism sucks, and the practice called untouchability was a horrifying practice. All of this would require a lot of research and delicacy, but if possible try to amplify this issue and talk about it in your work without suppressing Dalit voices. It’s something that, to our horror, is still prevalent to this day and age.
Do your research.
If you wanna represent an Indian, I’d suggest you pick some details like religion, state, language, etc. and then go on and research accordingly so that you can narrow down your amount of research.
The internet is a large place, with people from different backgrounds. If you're writing Indian characters, reach out, and we can help you out
But please, do not half-ass this.
