shiv wrote:The progress if any, is slow. Britain has tended to lump subcontinental minorities together as one group. That was not helped by the fact that people from the Indian subcontinent look similarly "foreign", spoke foreign and described themselves variously as "Indian", "Kashmiri" or "Punjabi". Long ago Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants became Indian restaurants and take-aways. Perhaps people openly have Bangladeshi businesses now that BDesh has a better image, but I cannot imagine Pakis running openly "Pakistani" establishments - barring a few. The word Paki itself has (I believe) been declared haraam in Britain - but I'm not sure.
Britain has encouraged and accepted the migration of a disproportionately large number of people from Pakistan occupied Kashmir who now form a political group in Britain, apart from having served as a body of people who collected funds for jihad in Kashmir. It is not clear to me why Britain chose to do that - and the best explanation I can reach is plain malice.
The real point is that India/Indians should not expect any sympathy or concessions from Britain or Britons, and need not show any expectation or understanding that people will somehow instinctively recognize some sort of moral superiority of the Indian over the Pakistani. That ain't gonna happen.
Sorry Shiv, but your assumptions are about 20 years out of date. That's a third of the total time there's been a sizable Subcontinental population in Britain.
Most people in the UK have no trouble telling a Hindu from a Muslim from a Sikh, especially if people either give their names or have visible symbols of their religious tradition.
Can they tell an Indian Muslim from a Bangladeshi Muslim from an Indian Muslim? Or a Bangladeshi Hindu from an Indian one? Probably not. At least not yet.
And that is precisely why the press continues to use the term 'Asian' - its becoming a politically correct euphemism for problematic Subcontinental Muslims, whether Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian.
The restaurants on the other hand are known as Indian because that's the sort of food they sell, regardless of the people who run the place - vindaloo and samosas aren't particularly Bangladeshi are they?
In places like San Francisco there have been people from East Asia for over 150 years. Those who grow up in California whether white, yellow, black or brown are comfortable talking collectively of 'Asians' even though these days they are perfectly aware of and capable of telling the differences between Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Thais and Vietnamese. Having collective terms survive doesnt mean people are completely stupid about things.
