Dear Friend,
Whenever someone meets me, they always assume I'm Pakistani. And when I say I'm not, they start listing a bunch of other countries that I also have no association with. Eventually, I just say I'm Indian and they almost always look a little surprised. I often get comments like, "I've never met an Indian that's Muslim before."
But the reality it is not that uncommon with 14% of India's population being Muslim. That's over 200 million people bigger than countries like Japan and Russia. Still, seeing someone’s reaction to your identity is a strange feeling. Not necessarily uncomfortable, just strange. Because your identity is never foreign or novel to you, it is just who you've always been.
Even my Pakistani friends sometimes forget there are Indian Muslims. And the discriminatory jokes don't even seem to land right like, What kind of brown are you? Like a convenience store or... airport security ?”
Um, both? We’re Muslim, and yeah, my uncle actually does run a gas station outside of Austin.
But while the outside world reacts with curiosity or confusion, the heaviest feelings come from what feels like your own people.
Being an Indian Muslim comes with its own set of challenges, especially within India. Hindu nationalists who believe India is only for Hindus often see Muslims as outsiders. Prime Minister Modi has called us "infiltrators," claiming we’re draining the country’s resources and will soon outnumber Hindus. It’s not just rhetoric but the laws that are being passed to discriminate against Muslims, homes and businesses are being bulldozed, and mob lynchings are happening.
When hate comes from the very place your roots are tied to, it leads to confusion. And it doesn’t end there.
The people I'm often mistaken for, Pakistanis, also carry their own set of biases. Some want to completely distance themselves from anything Indian. Even hearing some claiming they would never marry an Indian despite eating the same, foods, sharing the same religion, and watching the same movies. They don’t claim their pre-Partition roots. You can even find videos of school kids saying they want to destroy India. A place that, less than 100 years ago, was home to some of their ancestors.
It’s extremely difficult for Indian citizens to visit Pakistan and vice versa, even when religion is shared. The border might as well be a wall built through identity.
When I see the occupation of Kashmir, I feel heartbroken. But I also feel fear that people will start to hate all Indians, not just the Hindutva ideology that’s responsible, if people will lose empathy for Muslims in India, and lump us all together. I hope they don’t. I hope they understand that a country’s government doesn’t always represent its people. And sometimes, those people are victims to the same tyranny.
So where does that leave us?
A group of people that no one seems to fully claim.
I’m still figuring it out. I feel a deep pride in my Indian roots, but I also feel disillusioned by how the government treats Muslims, people who’ve had a profound influence on the country’s culture, art, and history. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that identity is what you make of it.
The words of politicians, the erasure, the hatred, they don’t get to define me. And to every Indian Muslim reading this: claim where you're from. Speak up. Don’t let them write us out of the story.
We’re still here. And we always have been. To be a part of a land isn’t defined by a government’s ideology; to be part of a land is to know the inherited knowledge, be a part of the ecosystem, and be a caretaker for future generations.
That’s all for now; I hope your week was fantastic and that this helped you dive a little deeper beneath the surface!
Best,
Yusuf Malik