I just got back from seeing Slumdog Millionaire at the Kabuki with Mariela and my mom. It’s become a Thanksgiving tradition for us to go to the movies and catch a late night show. I returned home tonight with my tummy full of turkey and my mind racing in reaction to the brilliance of Danny Boyle’s latest film.
What’s most on my mind is the namesake of lead actress Freida Pinto. When Mariela and I saw her name in the closing credits sequence we looked at each other and made faces that said “Oh Snap!” Freida Pinto sounds like it could be the name of a homegirl lampin’ at the MUNI stop on 24th and Mission. I was instantly intrigued. As the credits rolled Mariela and I contemplated the possibility of a Latina being cast as an Indian in this film. It seemed nigh-impossible but a doubt lingered thanks to Bollywood/Hollywood a (pretty awful) movie that featured an Indian woman who passes herself off as Latina.
Our conversation ended with me saying “I’mma google that shizzle as soon as I get home.” I did, sure enough, and could only definitively find out that she is in fact Indian. The origin of her name still eludes me although, admitedly, I have a shameful lack of knowledge of Indian culture. I would greatly appreciate anyone willing to drop some science on my ass about the origins of her name. Freida Pinto and the entire cast of Slumdog Millionaire gave amazing performances and I look forward to seeing more films by them.
**UPDATE**: I did some further detective work and it seems Freida’s name originates from her being Mangalorean Catholic. Very interesting indeed. If anyone has any other information on this topic please hit me up.
Peace,
Rio
Ps. Mariela and I were absolutely giddy at the sprinkling of M.I.A.’s Paper Planes thoughout the film. It pops up at least twice, including a frantic montage set aboard a train. M.I.A. also has an original song named O… Saya in the film. Slumdog Millionaire‘s soundtrack is at the top of our Christmas lists. It doesn’t come out on physical CD until December 23rd although it is available for download on itunes right now.
Graphic Art, Tortillas, Comics, and Troublemaking 
Mangalorean Catholics are actually Indian Catholics who migrated to the city of Mangalore from the State of Goa on the west coast of India. Goa was colonized by the Portuguese for around 400 years and many of its inhabitants have Portuguese last names like Fernandes, Da Silva, Pereira (similar to Brazilians). Some are very dark skinned and others are olive skinned and look mixed (mestizas). Many of the older Goans can speak Portuguese and the culture is a mix of Indian and Portuguese. Another comparison is the Phillipines with its mix of Asian and Spanish culture. Hope that helps 😉
I am goan. My surname is portuguese
Thanks Lexi, I appreciate the information. I had no idea there was such a rich history behind her name. Have you seen the film?
When Portuguese came to Goa (India), they carried out inquisitions, in which Indians residing in those areas were forcibly converted to Christianity, and all traces of Indian customs including names were removed.
This is why you will see a lot of Goans and Mangalorean Catholics having names like D’Souza and Fernandez. In fact, India’s previous Defense Minister George Fernandez was a Managlorean Catholic.
Speaking of the movie, I thought it was mostly a hype. It was an OK movie, I would say most bollywood movies are like this anyway. Nothing specially really, except the fact that it was directed by a Hollywood director.
Freida Pinto is of Goan Descent. These people were originally Indian Hindu’s who were converted by the Portugese to Christianity in a bid to spread their Portugese Empire.
Many people have the misconception that Freida is part Portugese. That, in fact, is not the case. She is of a tribe known as Konkani, who are 100% Indian. Other Mangalorean/Goan Catholics include Genelia D’souza, Leander Paes, Remo Fernandes. All of these people have Catholic/Portugese names, but are of Indian origin and ethnicity.
Hope that helps.
Wonder why a lowly Indian feels the need to spread lies about the Goans. Seems to me that you guys have some serious inferiority complexes to deal with my ‘aryan’ friend.
fuck off indian ras we goans are not indian
Thank you for sharing this post. Muito Obrigado para partilhar senhor 🙂
We Goans are NOT Indian.. I fail to comprehend why indians feel the need to claim us as their own… Insecurities on display ??? If a Frenchman were to say that he wasn’t French, his countrymen would tell him to **** off!
Makes you wonder why the insecure indianos feel the need to speak for us Goans..
VIva Goa e Portugal !!
Whats sadder than Indians trying to claim Goans as their own, is Goans pretending to be what they are not: PORTUGUESE.
At MOST, no more than 35% of Goans have no more than 10% Portuguese blood in them. And yet you claim to be more Portuguese than Indian. You guys have more in common with the people of Maharashtra than you do with those Europeans. And yet you would rather be a Portuguese wannabe. You are no different than those crazy Muslims (minority of Muslims) who deny their Indian ancestry, and show more affinity for Arabs than for their own fellow countrymen.
Inferiority complex is something that seriously inflicts you – another thing you have in common with other Indians!
DNA is what matters, not what your mind believes. And genetically speaking, you are more related to other Indians than you are to Portuguese.
Now like you said, if you don’t consider yourself Indian, eff off. You make up a minority of Goans anyway!
Oh, so you’re asking Goans to eff off from Goa? And who asked India to ‘liberate’ Goa?
As for inferiority complexes, yes, we Goans suffer from an inferiority complex – because we’re Indians today.
If Indians don’t like the fact that we’re a mixed race, you’re the one who suffers from a serious inferiority complex. Accept it and move on instead of trying to claim our blood as yours.
Freida is a Mangalorean. Both her parents are from Mangalore. But she has been brought up in Mumbai.
To answer Ras, Konkani is not a tribe. Its an ethnicity based on language.
To answer Bas, not all Indians were ‘forcibly’ converted to Catholicism.
Thats Right.
not all of course but the vast majority of indians where forced to convert and its pretty much guaranteed that freida pinto doesnt have any portuguese ancestry and is pure indian
I think the Luso-Indian community can define their history for themselves.
We don’t need the ‘expertise’ of first-world India to tell us who we are.
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She is not Portuguese. Her last name is in fact Portuguese because Portuguese settlers once settled there. She some how is of Portuguese decent though somewhere down the line that is how she got that last name!!
Why do the Indians have such a strong need to deny the Goans their Portuguese heritage?
Whats the matter you lowly Indians? Not content with messing up Goa? I wish to God you Indians didn’t have these horrible inferiority complexes.
Lowly Indians!! Dude. I don’t know about you but I know that my ancestors fought the portuguese and drove them out once and for all. They were simply put colonizers looking to make quick bucks from the land. But they were so successful that people like you still think you are portuguese. Believe me had they been still ruling us, if you are not white skinned, you would have been a second class citizen tilling farms for the whites even now. And they did try to enforce their religion through torture and other means(proof in central library, Panaji). So please take back your derogatory term bro!!
They look awful. It is wrong to promote FAT as being ok. It isn’t, and the sooner these stupid women and men stop deluding themselves the “big is be2ulifutRa1; the sooner they can get to a normal size such as 12, and potentially save themselves a lot of health problems.
I wouldn’t know for sure whether she originates from Goa – only she could tell you that. But my family’s originally from Goa. I’m very proud to be Goan.
My mother’s maiden name was Pinto. My grandmother was born in another part of India other than Goa, but always proclaimed to be Goan first. My father was born in Mumbai, but again would say he’s Goan. I was born in Poona, live in London, but would now say I’m a British Asian, originally from Goa. Goans tend to say this, if asked where they’re from, the majority will always say Goa rather than India. I think Goa has a very unique and strong identity and we’re proud of our heritage.
I too is from Goa and is extremely proud of it, and like you said when they ask where i come from, i say im from Goa instead of India.
I hope your proud to be Indian as well lol.
I’m from Goa too. Curtorim. I live in London and as alot do’; I say im from Goa instead of India; then some people say “where’s that?” and im like India. People get suprised when i tell them im catholic.
Portuguese! Not portugese. For someone who seems to believe to know so much about Portugal, it’s surprising to see you can’t spell “portuguese”…Bas.
I’m also of Goan decent – Goa has a strong identity and most people I know of Goan decent also say Goa not India. It has a Portuguese culture and the people are a mix of Portuguese and Indian as the two interbred, as well as the Portuguese spreading their culture among the people. Although Goa is in India a lot of people think of the two separately.
Super ce dessin !Je me demande juste -naivement- si tout le monde peut le comprendre, pu&qsuirqsuo;il faut connaître la distinction entre pirate et corsaire, le corsaire étant… un pirate payé par l’état pour dépouiller les pirates. Un pirate fonctionnaire, en somme.
The percentage of portugese-goan native interbred people is very small however. Majority of the Goans are descendants of native Goans, and not the Portugese. Trust me. I know ALOT of Goans. (And I know the history).
You’re correct about the fact that Goans consider themselves to be different than the rest of India. If you meet a Goan, and ask them where they are from, they will say Goa, not India.
I met a Goan lady once for the first time, and she said to me “Oh, you’re Indian, I LOVE watching your Bollywood movies”. My reply was “Bollywood is just as much as yours as it is mine”. And she just smiled. They’re very proud of their culture and own identity, which is good.
Most of the original older Goans are not Indian,more Portuguese.I’m pretty sure of that.They also have a lot of similarity and bloodlines connected with Brazil.They celebrate a carnival about a king called Momo.The cultural songs called Fados, are typically Portuguese.But people get domesticated over years and inter marry with local people.
that is incorrect if you look at the history. if the older goans were more portuguese, then why would they revolt against portuguese rule and want to join india? when india attacked the portuguese to annex goa from them, why did ordinary goans support India as opposed to Portugal? Most of the Goans are native people who were converted to christianity and are 100% pure bred Indian-Goan. Inter-breeding between Goans and Portuguese did happen but was very rare. Same is true for the rest of India interbreeding with British. Such people are called Anglo-Indians. And they only number somewhere in the thousands (compared to our billion population).
My poor misinformed Indian friend. (though it makes sense that you’re misinformed if you’re Indian)
The Goans are a different race from the Indians.
We don’t understand you Indians. If a Frenchman were to tell another Frenchman that he didn’t want to be French, the reply he’d recieve would be “good enough, now **** off”
So why do you Indians have such a low opinion of yourselves as to try and force yourselves to believe that the Goans are a part of the Indian populace? Do you Indians have such a strong inferiority complex as to NEED to do this?
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
FYI, If you read your history PROPERLY and THOROUGHLY, The “GOANS” themselves were not given a choice of whether or not they want to be liberated. It was a political stunt, the Liberation of Goa, and had nothing to do with the Goans. Even today, even TODAY – Go to Goa and ask ANY Goan who was born in Portuguese India – you’ll get a unanimous response – “Goa was better off with the Portuguese”. Get this straight – the Goans never wanted the liberation – INDIA wanted it. Besides, some Goans (Surnames like D’Cunha, D’Silva, Cardozo, Castro) will HAVE to have Portuguese ancestry, because these Surnames are of Separdic Jewish ancestry – which means they were the ones who fled the Iberian peninsula during the inquisition and settled Portuguese Goa. If that didnt make sense to you – a person of Jewish heritage would never CONVERT a pure Indian, (and give him the Surname, say “Cardozo” for eg) because a Jew wouldnt bother converting someone to Christianity to begin with, neither would a decendent of a Jew be given permission by the crown to convert people. So when you see people in Goa with Sephardic Jewish Surnames, assume that they have come from a Portuguese bloodline (and later converted to Christianity by the Goa Inquisition).
Load of rubbish. Why should the Goans want to be called Indians? We certainly did not invite the Indians in and the fact is that they invaded. Of course they are gonna say they were invited and of course there were a few traitors who sided with them . Further- of course most Goans are of mixed heritage. How can we not be. Goa was pretty much a brothel during Portuguese times and it was also the biggest slave trading port in Asia. We are descendants of the natives (Goa existed before the creation of India by the British), the Portuguese settlers and their merecenary warriors and lastly the african slaves(any one can see the african roots of some Goans). Further trade with Brazil, Macau, Timor, Angola, Mozambique, Malacca, Sri Lanka added to this potent mix of cultures and genes. It is easy to paint over our ancestry and come up with a sanitised version saying that we did not mix. Furthermore- let me remind you that rape was a tool used by all colonising forces so wake up and smell the coffee everyone.
While Goa was ruled by Portuguese, rest of India was ruled by British. Are majority of Indian people part-British? I think not. Same goes for Goans. Yes some people have Portuguese ancestry. But that cannot be said about the majority.
Hano (sounds Indian), your stupidity astounds me.
Well said. If anyone can define our culture and identity, it’s us. Not some Indian.
Rodrigo do not resort to racial slurs which you have been doing throughout this blog. Though you claim that Indians suffer from a inferiority complex, the fact is that it is you that resorts to attacking others to cover up your inferiority.
That being said, why would Indians feel inferior to Goans? If Indians have an inferiority complex, it is the European traits they feel inferior to. Goans are anything but European. On average Goans are dark skinned, just like most other Indians. Freida herself is dark skinned (and she isn’t even recognized at in India).
Now, as for your statement that Goans are a different race than Indians, then there are a few things I would like to remind you. India is a multicultural country with several races within its boundaries. India may have not existed as a country until 1947 but genetically the people of the subcontinent have been related for thousands of years. Sure, when the Portuguese came, some interbreeding may have occurred, as is the case with the British and rest of India. But you cannot deny that interbreeding was not a popular idea. Majority of Indians did not mate with the British and majority of Goans did not mate with Portuguese. This would explain why about two-thirds of the population of Goa is still Hindu. the other 33% of the population may have some Portuguese in them but the majority of them are purely native Goans who share most of their ancestry with other Indians.
Goa does have its unique identity and it must be preserved. However you cannot deny that the people have bonds with the rest of India. Considering that Goa is within India and is surrounded by India, it is bound to be more influenced by India than by Portugal, which is nowhere nearby.
Owned.
“Indian”, let me tell you something, my historically challenged friend.
Firstly for your “Dark Skinned” theory..lol. Ok do one thing, get a white woman, have kids with her, and let those kids have more kids with a brown person. Let this continue, and lets see how “white” your decedents are even 50 years down the line. We never said OUR PARENTS OUR WHITE! So why the hell will we be white!? All we said is that SOMEWHERE down the bloodline, there was a pure Portuguese Ancestor. The Portuguese came to India over 500 years ago and left more than 50 years ago. After ALL THESE years of marrying AMONG other brown people – why in GODS NAME would we have European skin!? Did you sleep through your genetics class!? And for the record, being Goan, let me tell you that Goans are NOT BORN DARK, FYI (yes a lot of them are, but most are NOT). They are born very fair, much like myself, and grow up to become dark skinned because of the unforgiving Goan Sun, the culture (beaches etc) the everday life (Goans are often exposed to the sun more than others because over 75% of the Goans prefer to travel on two-wheelers due to the vast distances between destinations) and so forth. My family and I were all born the same colour, extremely fair, but now the difference can be seen between me – who is fair and lives outside Goa, and say for instance, my cousins – who are extremely dark now and live IN Goa. Not to mention, down the line due to evolution and genetics, dark parents will have dark kids.
As for “oh but England was in India for blah blah years! Does that mean All Indians are of English decent!?” no you dolt, that is not true. Why? Because The ENGLISH and the PORTUGUESE came here for two DIFFERENT reasons!! The English came here to attain trade superiority – AND ONLY THAT, THE ENGLISH DID NOT COME HERE WITH MISSIONARIES TO CONVERT INDIANS – if that was the case, you would have seen Indian Christians with Surnames like “Harrison”, “Patterson”, “Davidson” and so forth, how many of those have you seen? ZILCH. But why did the Portuguese come here? Yes, one reason is trade, but the other KEY reason is colonization – you’ve heard of the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa, yes? Have you heard of the “English Inquisition in India”!? Cuz I sure as hell have not. So yes, the Portuguese came here to spread Christianity, (hence the PORTUGUESE, Surnames, NOT English) and simple conversion was one way, but the other was mixed marriages, this was promoted and advised by the crown, and then ofcourse there was the less than friendly “Rape” way of doing it. So yes, it was quite stupid of you to bring up the comparison between the English and the Portuguese, but anyway, some people are misinformed.
Having said that, I consider myself Indian/Goan (even though I am a citizen of Portugal!!) I love India, India is my country, I am proud of it (and you should be too, Rodrigo, just cuz you have some Portuguese blood like me somewhere down the line, doesnt mean you forget the Indian blood in your body, which is a LOT more than your Portuguese blood, the latter being negligible!) and yes I definitely have more Indian blood than the negligible Portuguese blood in me, thats obvious, but to JUST SAY that “NO ALL GOANS ARE PURE INDIANS” is being naive and ignorant, a lot of Goans are pure Indians, but a majority of us HAVE some degree of Portuguese ancestry.
Joao,
According to the Indian Government’s Census Data, of Goa’s population of 1,347,668, only 359,568 persons are Christians. That’s about 27%. About 66% are Hindus, 7% are Muslim.
I would understand if you said that the 27% that are Christian have some degree of Portuguese ancestry. It would be logical to assume that the remaining 73%, however, would not have any Portuguese ancestry. Therefore one can easily assume that most Goans **do not** have Portuguese ancestors, even if its just 1 person.
Glad to know that you are proud to be Goan AND Indian. The problem with India is that there is too much regionalism. A Tamil is proud to be Tamil, a Punjabi is proud to be Punjabi. A Goan is proud to be Goan, and so on. And everybody thinks that their community is better than other Indians.
For those that say Goa was better off under Portuguese rule…well, dare I say that the rest of India was better off under British rule. All of India is a mess and we are all responsible for it. Its not like other Indians are ruling over Goa. India is a democracy, and at the end of the day Goans have a say in what goes on in their state.
That being said, Goa is faring quite well compared to the rest of India, with high literacy rates and low poverty.
@Indian
Whoops! My bad, yes I meant Goan CATHOLICS 🙂 sorry. Yes your right it does not include the 60% of hindus and the other communities.
Let me rephrase – A majority of the 20% of Goan Catholics are of Portuguese Descent.
Yes people are proud of their own state, because they cant be proud of their country. Lets be honest here – as I said earlier, I love India but thats not saying much. There isnt much about “PRESENT DAY” India to be proud of, so what do we do? We grab on to the next best thing – our region/state! Goa is not without its flaws, oh my god I could go ON AND ON about the flaws and what pisses me off about Goa! But that would completely open Goa to verbal attacks of others, with its flaws out in the open, but as a Goan I cant do that – so we keep that in the darkness away from the public and only show what we want to show – its beaches and what not. Similarly everyone protects ones own state – hides away its dark secrets, but sometimes those secrets surface – sometimes they arent even big secrets!! In other words, we KNOW some states in India as just for shit, EVERYONE knows it, Im not going to name any or be racist cuz I dont believe in that – but facts are facts, some states is India are just terrible, and its made that way by SOME OF ITS PEOPLE and ofcourse its politicians who completely tarnish the name of something which can be great. But yet, we choose to hang on to our state rather than our country, which I think is fair – cuz our country as a whole is more f***ed up than any country, and to say “we have the power” to change it is foolish. We will never have the power to change the corruption, to make a difference, and even if we do have the power, that power comes in numbers, and to gain that kind of a following for EVERY SINGLE CROOKED act is just not feasible – we cant stop living our lives.
Take the recent case of Keanen and Reuben for instance (I trust you’ll are familiar with it). In any other just country, that calls itself “an Economic power to be reckoned with” would not let ANY man just walk in (with 13 other men) armed with swords and knives and CASUALLY KILL, IN COLD BLOOD, IN FRONT OF SEVERAL SPECTATORS, in the Financial Capital of the country – not too late at night – AND BE CONFIDENT that he will get away with it. What happened to the freedom to walk the roads safe?? What happened to our freedom? This wouldnt happen anywhere else, but it happened in Mumbai. Has anything happened about it yet? No. The accused are in custody, there are witnesses, CCTV recordings, but no nothing has happened yet – because the politicians are backing them up (to the extent of telling them that they will pay for their lawyers!) so nothing has happened. You said “we have the power to change this”, sure we do – there is a massive campaign on all the social networking sites – one of their Facebook groups have got over 1 lakh members, online petitions, petitioners out on the streets getting signatures, Churches campaigning, schools – this has been going on for over a month now, have Reuben and Keanen got their justice? Still, not yet, but with the efforts from all fronts, they JUST MAY! They MAY get their Justice eventuallys after months of protests. Good………….now what about the other unjust crimes by people who have gone scott free? There are over 10,000 of them, can we put in the same time and effort for every one of them? No. Keenan and Reuben got a bunch of people who cared enough and persistent enough to start this kind of a movement for them – RIP, and Im happy about it. But the truth is we cannot do this for every crime broken, we cannot have an Anna Hazare to stop every wrong politician – WE OURSELVES do NOT have the power to stop the corruption. India has gone to the dogs, and unless the POLITICIANS THEMSELVES see that (are care about it!), that is where India will stay. And it is the same for the corruption in every state as well.
^^ More f***ed up than any other STATE in this country ^^ (not “than any other country” pardon me)
Hi guys, I want to corret all your ninccorrections. I am 100% english and would like to clarify a few things. If you see a olive skinned african (not albino, which is a condition) in africa would you call him african or mixed race? If you saw a english man with dark skin would he be white british or Mixed race? Correct mixed race! Now indians genetically are brown skinned and slim build. Now over the years India was colonsied by the british for 200 years and Portuguese for 400 years, 97% of these europeans were men!
This men has sexual relations with local women, hence why some indians are olive skined/white skinned with light blue,green, hazel eyes! A indian mixed with a white european is more common in Northen india, such as punjab where there were sikh wars agianst the british, these people Sikh’s are well built even the women and look totally dioffrent to the typical hindu alos a Goan with olive skin looks differnt to a regular indian. These people are mixed race Goans, Sikhs. An example of what mixed race indian/british person are actresses Lara Dutta, Katrina Kaif, Norah Jones, Melenaie Shykes etc.. They look like your typical mixed race indian which is what is represented on Bollywood films. So answer yea light skinned indians have mixed race blood. Indians want to wipe there past, but you cant as it is walking arouns and on tv. Wake up Mixed race people exist in high numbers. The End Goans are not your regular Indians, and Sikhs are not your regular Indians. bye.
I disagree with you, here. I am north Indian (Punjabi, but not Sikh) and several of my relatives have fair skin and green eyes. And I can assure you that there is no British blood in our family tree.
Thing is, North Indians in general are more fair-skinned than South Indians. This does not mean North Indians have British blood in them.
The generally agreed upon explanation for this is the Aryan Invasion theory (many people disagree with it, but nevertheless…). North Indians are said to be of Aryan descent and came to India from Europe several centuries ago. Whereas South Indians are Dravidians, who were the original inhabitants of India. Mixing of the two races has led to the formation of the present Indian race, and thus one can find people who look European, people who look African, and everything in between.
It also has to do with the Caste System. You would normally find Blue Eyes and Fair Skin among people of higher Castes. This again ties back to the Aryan Invasion theory, with the higher castes migrating to India from Europe, etc.
As for Bollywood, most actors tend to be North Indian, and thus fair-skinned. Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan are two actors who have green/blue eyes, among others. Are you telling me that they have British ancestors? Other examples: Jugal Hansraj, Karisma Kapoor, Vatsal Sheth, Sneha Ullal. One thing these people have in common: High Caste.
I’d like to remind you that blue/green eyes and fair skin are also found in neighbouring countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Therefore I would rather attribute these features to the local characteristics, rather than something imported from Britain over the previous 200 years.
It makes sense that if Pakistanis and Afghanis can have blue eyes/fair skin, then North Indians can too, since the people of these 3 countries have been mingling for several centuries.
That being said, I’m not denying that the British may have interbred with the local population, but that wasn’t as common as you’d like to think. Such people are known as Anglo-Indians (mix of Indian and British). The population of Anglo-Indians is only about 150 000. Compare that to an overall population of 1.2 billion.
Umm….you just contradicted yourself throughout your comment…your first few lines say “We are Punjabi, we are fair but we do not have English blood in us”….then you go on to say “But we are decendents of Aryans. That is correct, most North Indians ARE Aryan decendents, which means you all DO have European blood in you’ll, and you’ll DO, which explains your skin colour, eye colour, hair and skin texture. Punjabis and Rajasthanis are decendents of the Huns and other Indo-European races, Sindhis are again decendents of other Eurpoean races, so yes most indians are already mixed, the North Indians were mixed long before the Goans though, and because of the climate etc. in the North, a lot of those features remained, but Goans had to adapt to their environment – evolution! The only Pure indian inhabitants are the Dravidians, but you can expect them to mixed by now aswell.
p.s. and most Indian Actresses do have VERY RECENT European blood in them – look it up. None come to mind right now, but there are – Preity Zinta, Nargis Fakhri, Katrina Kaif, loads of them..these are the only ones I can remember.
@ Joao,
Read my post again. I basically said the exact same thing you said. North Indians are Aryans, who supposedly came to India from europe. But what I’m trying to say is, my relatives did not mix with the British colonizers during their rule in India. And yet fair skin and green eyes are common in our family. Any european blood that is in our family is thousands of years old. There were no european genes added to the family gene pool in the past 300-400 years.
And I said this to refute Richard’s comment, that european traits are common among north Indians (particulary punjabis) because they mixed with the british rulers.
Also, most Bollywood actresses DO NOT have recent european ancestors. Preity Zinta is not mixed. She is purely North Indian. In the sense that any european blood she has is thousands of years old, old enough to be called Indian. Nargis Fakhri isn’t even Indian, and I would barely call her a Bollywood actress. She’s only one movie old, and is as much a Bollywood actress as Akon is a Bollywood Singer (re: Chamak Challo). Apart from Katrina Kaif, Diya Mirza and Lara Dutta, almost all other Indian actresses are purely of Indian descent. For example: Aishwarya Rai, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Sonam Kapoor, etc etc etc.
@Noma
Yes so I was trying to say the same thing, Richard was correct in his point, only the period on his time line was off. You guys ARE mixed, as is the rest of India, regardless of when it happened. You’ll may be a a mix of several races back in the day, where as Goans are a mix of only one or tops two races, slightly more recent in history.
P.S. I saw a PERSONAL INTERVIEW of Priety Zinta on TV not to long ago where she HERSELF admittedly says that there was an Englishman barely 3 or 4 generations up the line. Oh Tara Sharma as well, I know this for sure cuz she was at the Breach Candy club (Exclusively for the British, their spouses or descendants) so I casually asked the manager how she got membership there – and he confirmed her lineage. So yes, there are quite a few out there – just havent openly confirmed it.
@ Joao
I decided to google Preity Zinta to see if what you are saying is correct. I get conflicting results, but to refute what you earlier said:
Much to our surprise, in a recent interview to a news daily, Preity blasted the reports on her British ‘connection’ and said, “I don`t know where that has come from. I`m a full-on pahadi girl. Both my parents are from Himachal Pradesh. I`m a complete Rajput girl. And yet I`ve been flooded with inquiries about my `British blood`. Arrey yaar, who`s spreading these strange rumours? And they erupted so suddenly. I wonder who`s responsible.”
So I don’t know. I’ll just leave it at that. Good day.
The word Mezitos springs to mind! Look at Latin America, the majority of Indiousnous Indians mixed with spanish. But they are not called Indians or Spanish they are called Mezitos. So Answer Mixed race is what most light skin Indians should be called. Excuse my bad spelling, i rely to much on spell check, lol. Its to blame for my English as i rely on it to correct my mistakes. No death threats from Indains please, just telling it how it is!
The mistake you are making is that you are assuming that India has a homogenous population. That is not the case. There are 3 major races in India: Aryan, Dravidian, and Mongoloid (Paleo-Mongoloid to be specific). There are also Australoids, but they are less common.
Aryans are typically in the North (fair skin; sharper features; some can also have light eyes).
Australoids are scattered throughout central India (dark skin, wavy hair).
Dravidians are typically found in South India – but also to some extent in North India (dark skin).
Mongoloids are found mainly in North-East India (oriental features, look like Chinese people).
In Conclusion: India is a lot more diverse than you’d like to think.
goanis are pure indians……majority is still hindu. and ofcourse hindus didnt come from portugal. i dont know why some catholics goanis want to pretend that they are portugese. and ofcourse goa was and is part of india. and thier culture and tribe is very similar to maharashtrians. every indian culture is unique and different from each other, but it doesnt mean that they are not indians. goans have no european blood at all…………..yes, but some north indians do have european blood.
Wonder why you guys can’t swallow that Goans love their mixed heritage?
Misery loves company 😉 I think India is a fitting synonym for Misery.
Hector, you can believe whatever the hell you want to believe. Fact still remains that 80% of the Goan population is HINDU, and the GOAN HINDUS DO NOT HAVE A MIXED PORTUGUESE/INDIAN HERITAGE. The Catholics make up about 20% of the Goan population, many of whom do have a mixed heritage, because their ancestors mated with the Portuguese. But they make up only 20 % of the Goan population, and their genetic makeup is STILL CLOSER TO AN INDIAN THAN TO A PORTUGUESE. It makes me laugh when i see a black-skinned goan claim he is Portuguese, because somewhere down the line his or her great grandmother mated with a Portuguese colonizer. I’ve been to Goa, and majority of Goans don’t look any different from the people of Maharashtra. Adding a drop of white paint to a pool of black paint doesn’t make it any less black. And im not talking about you personally here, im talking about Goa as a whole.
Poor inferior indians… still trying to claim us as your own 🙂 Aren’t 1 billion of your own maggots enough?
Leave Goans to decide for themselves. If you try to push your ‘Indian’ tag onto us, don’t be surprised when we’re quick to reject it. NO ONE wants to be Indian, not even your real ‘aryan’ cousins.
LOL, I really doubt ‘Richard’ is 100% English.
Bunch of self-hating Indians (this includes Goans too, yes, you guys are Indians since Goa is IN India) on this board. Makes me embarrassed.
Goans are a mixed race. And we’re NOT proud of the Indian side of our Indian roots. Do we REALLY need to explain why ? Do you think we enjoy persecution and discrimination at the hands of an inferior race ?
goans aren’t mixed race, stop trying so hard to be european. you are indo-dravidian.goodness me, get over yourselves ! do you want a DNA table and scholastic articles of the amount of portuguese blood in goan people? I have a few. and from what I see, this portuguese ‘mix’ is a VERY small minority, no more than the mix of indians and the english. and indians don’t want self haters like you to be a part of our country anyway, it’s embarrassing. don’t know where you all are getting the vibe that indians want to embrace goa? no one cares.
If no one cares, then why are Indians so keen on replying to this thread?
If no one cares, then leave us alone – we know who we are and we are NOT indian. That’s the important part. Doesn’t matter how European we perceive ourselves to be but we are certainly not a part of a nation that hates us and persecutes us.
I love my Iberian roots and that’s my personal choice. Indians have a powerful inferiority complex else why else would they bother to comment on issues that they claim to not ‘care’ about?
Leave us alone. Go stick to your glorious aryan civilization and let people define themselves.
Believe whatever you want to believe and be whoever you want to be without putting others down. I have always had a problem with “Indian” being an ethnicity when it is in fact a nationality. People of South Asia are far too diverse to be labelled as one ethnicity or culture. As for Goans, they were annexed by India so technically they are Indian nationals, but there is nothing wrong with them identifying as being culturally distinct. As for claiming Goans as a different race, that’s a stretch in my opinion.
Why we humans do not learn to love and respect every race that exist on earth? If there is a gene-mixture recently happened in you, why deny the previous, long existing one? Roots are as important and significant, as the stem, flower, fruit…… and so on….. So, simply love whatever genetic make-up you have, and Love the country that rear you. My ancestors are Goan Hindus. Now, we are Mangaloreans, and Christians. Hence, I love Goa, I love Hindus, I love Mangalore, I love Christians, and of course, I love India, my country that gave me so much to love.
Sorry, I beg to differ. I love my Indo-Portuguese roots but India is against Christianity, the Portuguese and against my people.
I’m sorry if you’ve been brainwashed into thinking Indians care for you. Please wake up and you’ll realize that Indians have a deep-rooted hatred for the West and Christianity. May God open your eyes to this bitter truth.
“Please wake up and you’ll realize that Indians have a deep-rooted hatred for the West and Christianity.”
How did you come to such a conclusion? When has India ever displayed hatred for the West?
Bravo! Meu Goeses amigos – I’m so pleased to see so many young people speak up for themselves.
And yes, for all you Indians who have wandered onto this thread – ask yourselves – why do you need to make Goans your own? We don’t identify with India and we never will.
Goa is not India and Goans are not Indians. Are you people so insecure that you need to comment on things that don’t even remotely concern you?
I love Goa and I love Portugal. Nothing anyone says or does will change that. I’m not proud of India because I’m not Indian. In case you haven’t noticed, most Indian people themselves are not part of their own culture and heritage. Do you ever stop to wonder why? Shouldn’t you be arguing with them first before you try to ‘convince’ the Goans that they’re not who they really are. Lol.
all anti national punjabis,kashmiris,goans and assamese must be driven out of the country.indian army has the capablity to do it
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“Many Goans identify their nationality as Portuguese-Goan, which is completely correct, as almost all Goans have much Portuguese ancestry, and Portuguese surnames also. Goans are often called ‘Indians’ by many people in the modern society, however this is incorrect,” -quoted wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goans
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