Identity Essay: Understanding My Identity

Understanding my Identity
When it is time for me to fill out any form that asks me to check my ethnicity I become confused. My confusion comes from the difficulty of not finding my ethnicity on one of the boxes and the assumption of others who sees me differently. The assumption of me being either from India or Bangladesh becomes an astonishing revelation when I say that I am not from either country. I identify myself as Guyanese Indian. I was born in Guyana by native Guyanese parents. However, my grandparents and great grandparents originated from Kolkata India. They were slaves who worked on sugar plantations in India and then transported to European colonies to continue their work.

She told me about nature being an important part in our lives more specifically the animals such as elephants and cobras played a vital role in Hinduism as elephants were a sign of luck and cobras signifies strength. However, my grandma knew more than my mother did which she became the main contributor to my understanding of my Indian heritage. My grandmother explained the caste system that she and her mother was part of the sutra where they were servants and peasants . As servants and peasants my grandmother mentioned about living in Kolkata India and working on plantation fields. The damages that European nations placed on the Indians because they needed slaves to work in the fields in order to produce raw materials that would later be traded in Europe. She explained the struggle of being transported to different colonies owned by the Europeans and working on sugar plantations in the hot weather. She mentioned about the Indian government finally legalised emigration to the countries in West Indies, which Guyana was one of them. She spoke about the importance of Arranged Marriage in the Indian tradition and how it was a ritual for the parents to pick the husband of their daughters. This as she mentioned was a sign of strength and loyalty of importance to the child love for his or her mother. In addition, she spoke about Gandhi being a natural leader which she looked up too and he tried to strengthen India

From the rich traditions of food, architecture, clothing, celebrations, popular film industry and reputation has built India and the Indian heritage a leading culture in society. India is the second largest country in the word with many diversified groups who follows different religions and speaks different languages. The Taj Mahal is one of the main significance advance Indians have made and the other various temples that they have also created. Temples are the places where Hindus go to worship their gods. As for cuisines, the Indian cuisines are found in many different kinds of food, in fact the Indians have also changed many styles of American cooking to compliment Indian style cuisines.The use of spices and herbs are typically used by Indians, which is generally how many Indians cook. The clothing that women wear are very traditional one main importance the sari which the women wears and the men Kurta which is a long shirt that crosses the knee and usually have designs. These are traditional clothes that are worn to signify the importance of the Indian culture in everyday life. Indian marriage or a Hindu ceremony is what I enjoy most about my Indian heritage. First the bride must have little kids rub dye on her skin which is done in white sari to demonstrate her purity. When this is done the next day is her marriage where she dresses in an all red sari which can only be worn in marriage. This is also a