What Does It Mean To Not Be Indian Enough

What does it mean to not be Indian enough?

You cannot pronounce the words of your mother tongue properly, you navigate between 2 different cultures--you have one personality at home with one family and one personality with your American friends. Is that what it means to not be Indian enough?

You like Bollywood movies, but cannot relate to all the concepts. You want to date outside of your culture. You don't wear Indian clothes unless it's for special events, you don't know how to cook Indian food or you don't eat Indian food as often. Is that what it means to not be Indian enough?

You were raised with Indian values by your parents but they too were assimilating to another culture. You constantly have to switch or chose between different cultural values. Your name is Indian but you Americanize it so it makes it easier for your co-workers or classmates to pronounce your name properly. Is that what it means to not be Indian enough?

You want to live with your partner before marriage, even though that's against what traditional Indian culture suggests. You want to travel with your partner before marriage but you have to do it secretly or tell your parents you are traveling with friends instead. You want to adopt certain values of one culture but it risks you coming off as not being completely aligned with the other culture you belong to. Is that what it means to not be Indian enough?

What really is the idea of not being Indian enough? Well, firstly this is an idea that was created to cause cultural members to feel like they are not meeting the standards of a cultural group. I see this happen a lot in my work with second generation individuals raised in America by parents who were born and raised with the values of another country. We need to acknowledge the disparity for those navigating multicultural or bicultural identities. I speak about not being Indian enough specifically in this blog post, but this can relate to basically any cultural identity or group. 

It's a challenge and difficult experience of having to navigate two different cultures. You may be culturally raised one way but living and absorbing another culture. I am looking at you all my second gen individuals--this may be you! It creates the question which culture do you belong to when neither culture thinks you are enough?

Questions and challenges like this really form and impact cultural and identity development. This is something that I work on with my clients in therapy and is such an important piece for identity development for a lot of individuals. If you are in New Jersey and are interested in exploring this in therapy, I encourage you to reach out to me at natasha@root-and-rise.org.