How prevalent is ethnic/regional bias in your city?

BunnyRabbit

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Basically I am from the capital of Pak which is supposed to be a place where there is good enough representation of almost all ethnic/regional people from around the country. Growing up, I was taught to not believe in such stuff and for many years I actually thought it was a thing of past and was exaggerated and not as prevalent as it was talked about.
But since entering the professional world, I have come across people not just the relatively uneducated ones but a lot more educated ones who believe in such stuff. There often exists some sense of superiority of their own ethnic group while I have seen others complaining of being victimized by other more prevalent ones in the city.

For example, I have come across a lot of Pushtoons who blame Punjabis of taking all the jobs in the capital that they deserved. I have also heard Punjabis talking about Pashtoons making a clique and hiring their owns in a lot of organizations. On the other hand, there are Urdu speaking/Muhajirs, who I have heard talking about how they are the only true gems the country has to offer. I have heard Sindhis talking about how they don't find others sincere. I have heard Kashmiris talk about how they are different to everyone in Pakistan and better than other ethnicities. The last of all, there's region of Gilgit-Baltistan, where people talk about how they are never given their due rights (like voting, Pakistan ID nos etc) and the whole country sleeps over it.

Apart from that, I never really paid much heed to the so called cricket journalists of Pakistan who are always highlighting the region from where a certain player is playing and how much players from a certain city have historically been deprived of opportunities. But over the past few years, especially after spending time on PP and reading people's comments and them actually believing it to be a case of conspiracy or something, I wanted to discuss it. Even though a lot of them will not accept they have this bias but reading some peoples contrasting views about people from different regions, it becomes hard to ignore how the decades of media washing and segregationist sentiments have eventually prevailed in Pakistan and they are only flourishing where very little else is flourishing.

In short, all of this divide leads to less than favorable environment and not much unity among the people that belong to the same country. Apart from that, there's region of Balochistan which is very rarely covered in media even though they may be Pashtoons, the facilities and development the whole province has been given has been sad to see.

What's you take on this topic and how much of this bias have you experienced or seen it in your respective cities? Is there an element of truth in it or is it just a result of decades long segregationist sentiments eventually prevailing in this country?

I know this is a sensitive topic. Would like to hear of your thoughts and views. Kindly be gentle in your replies.
 
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If it was based on merit the Pukhtuns would run the country and it'd be for the better.

The tribal strength amongst the Pakhtuns is a very powerful force; a historical supremacy. 'Pakistan' is a concept that was great in theory but has been badly implemented, there's no unity as should be , largely due to the remnants of the sikh empire struggling to forge an islamic identity nor able to resurrect a historic one; it's arguably a nonexistent culture compared to Balochi, Sindhi etc
 
If it was based on merit the Pukhtuns would run the country and it'd be for the better.

The tribal strength amongst the Pakhtuns is a very powerful force; a historical supremacy. 'Pakistan' is a concept that was great in theory but has been badly implemented, there's no unity as should be , largely due to the remnants of the sikh empire struggling to forge an islamic identity nor able to resurrect a historic one; it's arguably a nonexistent culture compared to Balochi, Sindhi etc
But distinct cultures is a part of majority of countries.
Please elaborate on why Pakhtoons would make the top per merit?
 
Yes, in Islamabad, people from the northern areas and Sindh face biases, and the reason is the difference in culture and language. In Islamabad, people are very typical.
 
Please elaborate what sort of bias have you witnessed.
Yes, in Islamabad, people from the northern areas and Sindh face biases, and the reason is the difference in culture and language. In Islamabad, people are very typical.
 
Massively when I was growing up in Chennai, but in all fairness they were extremely nice to me and even when i was mocked for being a Punjabi my Tamil , Telugu, Malayalee friends always backed me up.

I have amazing memories of Chennai but I was growing up and kids are always more welcoming than adults, I’m certain my mother had a tougher time with culture and everything.
 
Very common. But I’m one in a billion Pakistani, Turkish, Uzbek, Mongolian, Swedish hybrid, so ofc the generic vanilla blends will have bias against the ethnic phenom that I am.
 
Please elaborate what sort of bias have you witnessed.

I was working in the private sector in Islamabad, and I witnessed bias towards people from northern areas because they were not well educated and lacked management skills. What I wanted was to groom them instead of our director always mocking them.
 
University of Pakistan do have such ethnic organizations but overall it isn't that much prevalent in Pakistan.
 
Very common. But I’m one in a billion Pakistani, Turkish, Uzbek, Mongolian, Swedish hybrid, so ofc the generic vanilla blends will have bias against the ethnic phenom that I am.
lol but aren't you based in US?
 
I was working in the private sector in Islamabad, and I witnessed bias towards people from northern areas because they were not well educated and lacked management skills. What I wanted was to groom them instead of our director always mocking them.
Hmmm. tbh I have seen the opposite as well. Majority of our people (even well educated ones) tend to believe the region they belong to is the best and others are evil, hollow, dumb, unworthy etc.
On PP cricket, you can see a lot of posters suggesting how Pashtuns get all the preferential treatment while people from Karachi get targeted.
In Islamabad (Private), I have firsthand seen Punjabi seniors only preferring to hiring Punjabis, Pashtuns hiring all the Pashtuns, some groups of Kashmiris claiming how they are still superior to everyone else. And Sindhis not even preferring to entertain any requests from people other than Sindhis.
 
I don't think there is a Pakistani Punjabi culture.
How can you say there isn't any Punjabi culture unless you have mingled with them. Like you can claim presence of something but claiming something to be absent in entirety needs some evidence.

I think every city/nearby regions to an extent has a seperate culture. The culture in South Punjab is vastly different to that in Central Punjab. There is a distinct culture among the people of Murree and its nearby areas which is vastly different to Central or Southern Punjab.
 
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Massively when I was growing up in Chennai, but in all fairness they were extremely nice to me and even when i was mocked for being a Punjabi my Tamil , Telugu, Malayalee friends always backed me up.

I have amazing memories of Chennai but I was growing up and kids are always more welcoming than adults, I’m certain my mother had a tougher time with culture and everything.
Makes sense as adults feel like the "outsiders" are competing for their livelihoods, jobs etc while kids despite being blunt, do not have such goals.

There would definitely be massive cultural differences in India considering how big it is and how many ethnicities it boasts. If I am not wrong, Southern India would probably be having 4-5 ethnic groups with different languages etc?

I have met a lot of Indian people from Punjab and for some reason, they feel very similar to Pakistani Punjabis despite having different religions etc.

I have heard about South India being entirely different from other parts of India as well. How much of that is true?
 
I don't live in India anymore, but I grew up in 90s there.

There was a strong anti Bihar and UP sentiment among Punjabis. It was not religion based. Problem was that most Punjabis can understand some Hindi but cannot speak it fluently plus these migrants were not speaking Hindi, instead they spoke regional languages like Bhojpuri. Also these people were seen as criminal minded and dirty. They lived in ghettos, multiple people in one room, watched Mithun and Govinda movies all the time lol, used mustard oil to cook. They brought Bidi, Paan, Tobacco etc.

Now I see the same thing here in Canada, what has changed now is students from Andhra, Gujarat and Punjab are living like Bhaiyyaa's here in Vancouver and Toronto. People are sick and tired of rent ad's like 'Gujarati only and must be vegetarian'.
 
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Makes sense as adults feel like the "outsiders" are competing for their livelihoods, jobs etc while kids despite being blunt, do not have such goals.

There would definitely be massive cultural differences in India considering how big it is and how many ethnicities it boasts. If I am not wrong, Southern India would probably be having 4-5 ethnic groups with different languages etc?

I have met a lot of Indian people from Punjab and for some reason, they feel very similar to Pakistani Punjabis despite having different religions etc.

I have heard about South India being entirely different from other parts of India as well. How much of that is true?
That’s true, it’s lesser now but uptil 1990s it was huge, Tamil is the oldest language, and all Southern languages are dear to their communities there, which are so different from North Indian languages or even Persian.
Their movie industries are also huge now, they don’t care about Bollywood.

Pakistanis(Karachi/Punjab) and North Indians have somewhat a similar culture.

North East is even more different culturally, ..I know even Muslims from Southern states except Hyderabad feel the difference between their culture and that of North and East’s(Bengal).
 
Here in Azad Kashmir, it’s a mixed bag. Got all sorts of people with different vibes. But yeah, sometimes there’s beef ‘cause of politics and stuff. Some folks ain’t happy with how things are goin’.

But we gotta keep it real, spread love and understanding. Talk it out, and learn about each other, that’s the key. And remember, everyone’s got their own story, so listen up.

It’s all about that diversity.
 
That’s true, it’s lesser now but uptil 1990s it was huge, Tamil is the oldest language, and all Southern languages are dear to their communities there, which are so different from North Indian languages or even Persian.
Their movie industries are also huge now, they don’t care about Bollywood.

Pakistanis(Karachi/Punjab) and North Indians have somewhat a similar culture.

North East is even more different culturally, ..I know even Muslims from Southern states except Hyderabad feel the difference between their culture and that of North and East’s(Bengal).
There is enormous difference in culture between Karachi and Punjab although not as big as that would exist among different Indian regions considering how huge it is.
 
I don't live in India anymore, but I grew up in 90s there.

There was a strong anti Bihar and UP sentiment among Punjabis. It was not religion based. Problem was that most Punjabis can understand some Hindi but cannot speak it fluently plus these migrants were not speaking Hindi, instead they spoke regional languages like Bhojpuri. Also these people were seen as criminal minded and dirty. They lived in ghettos, multiple people in one room, watched Mithun and Govinda movies all the time lol, used mustard oil to cook. They brought Bidi, Paan, Tobacco etc.

Now I see the same thing here in Canada, what has changed now is students from Andhra, Gujarat and Punjab are living like Bhaiyyaa's here in Vancouver and Toronto. People are sick and tired of rent ad's like 'Gujarati only and must be vegetarian'.
Hmmm not familiar with indian cultures that much. But i agree its not just indians who live cordially abroad but usually indians pakistanis and bengalis all live quite happily in US. Have heard about rifts occurring between indians and pakistanis and afghans in england though
 
Here in Azad Kashmir, it’s a mixed bag. Got all sorts of people with different vibes. But yeah, sometimes there’s beef ‘cause of politics and stuff. Some folks ain’t happy with how things are goin’.

But we gotta keep it real, spread love and understanding. Talk it out, and learn about each other, that’s the key. And remember, everyone’s got their own story, so listen up.

It’s all about that diversity.
I doubt there is a single city in pak where people are happy with its government lol.
But have personally heard some groups of Kashmiris disowning other ethnics of Pakistan in Islamabad openly.
 
Yet Peshwari, Sidhi and Balochi are very distinct...?.
All cultures are different and to an extent vary from city to city. There's a lot of difference between the culture of Kashmiris and Pashtuns. Pashtuns are Gilgit-Baltistan etc.
 
This is common everywhere, here in uk there is also a class system , hence why the south is always richer & best jobs are usually taken by them .

This is why Islam is against tribalism. When people describe their ethnicity or caste , I ask them (already knowing) if they are Muslim , and tell them that’s all .,
 
I don't live in India anymore, but I grew up in 90s there.

There was a strong anti Bihar and UP sentiment among Punjabis. It was not religion based. Problem was that most Punjabis can understand some Hindi but cannot speak it fluently plus these migrants were not speaking Hindi, instead they spoke regional languages like Bhojpuri. Also these people were seen as criminal minded and dirty. They lived in ghettos, multiple people in one room, watched Mithun and Govinda movies all the time lol, used mustard oil to cook. They brought Bidi, Paan, Tobacco etc.

Now I see the same thing here in Canada, what has changed now is students from Andhra, Gujarat and Punjab are living like Bhaiyyaa's here in Vancouver and Toronto. People are sick and tired of rent ad's like 'Gujarati only and must be vegetarian'.
That is still there Punjabis still can’t take Biharis, but Biharis are working on Farms in Punjab when Punjabis have become nashedi.

Also the pind culture in Canada is also from Punjabis, I’m right now in GTA and nothing says ghetto like Brampton ke ghar.

The undertones of your post against Biharis were easy to see , I have Punjabi family and I see the similar wording “Bhaiyya”.
 
Makes sense as adults feel like the "outsiders" are competing for their livelihoods, jobs etc while kids despite being blunt, do not have such goals.

There would definitely be massive cultural differences in India considering how big it is and how many ethnicities it boasts. If I am not wrong, Southern India would probably be having 4-5 ethnic groups with different languages etc?

I have met a lot of Indian people from Punjab and for some reason, they feel very similar to Pakistani Punjabis despite having different religions etc.

I have heard about South India being entirely different from other parts of India as well. How much of that is true?
It’s weird. South India has high education levels, but is also very insular, conservative & generally, racist. As a Kannadiga born & bought up in Mumbai, I was taken aback by the hatred shown for non-native speakers in a metropolis like Bangalore and faced more incidents of regionalism/racism there then anywhere in India! I will any day prefer living in true melting pot Mumbai then face that kind of toxic culture in South India.
 
This is common everywhere, here in uk there is also a class system , hence why the south is always richer & best jobs are usually taken by them .

This is why Islam is against tribalism. When people describe their ethnicity or caste , I ask them (already knowing) if they are Muslim , and tell them that’s all .,
The sad thing is it exists and exists everywhere.
 
It’s weird. South India has high education levels, but is also very insular, conservative & generally, racist. As a Kannadiga born & bought up in Mumbai, I was taken aback by the hatred shown for non-native speakers in a metropolis like Bangalore and faced more incidents of regionalism/racism there then anywhere in India! I will any day prefer living in true melting pot Mumbai then face that kind of toxic culture in South India.
Sad to hear about that. This kind of bias is present every where I guess.
 
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