Are the British people biased towards Indians when it comes to choosing between a Pakistani and an … by Robert James

I don’t disagree that quite a few people in Britain have a more positive attitude to India than Pakistan.

Watch this brief BBC news clip…

How Azad Kashmir city of Mirpur became Little England -BBC News

The British Pakistani population is not a representative cross-sectional sample of Pakistani society. 70% of British Pakistanis are from a Mirpuri background. What Britain has with a large proportion of the British Pakistani population, is a concentration from one very small area which often continues to set itself apart somewhat from the rest of Britian.

Here's a quote from a British Pakistani academic who lectures in Political Science:

Cultural conservatism… has deepened among many British Pakistanis

Cousin marriage is more common among Pakistanis than among Bangladeshis, as is the bringing over of partners from the subcontinent

- Parveen Akhtar

So, the cultural divergence appears to be deepening - and that leads to distrust. The Indian population in Britain tends to be more open to the rest of society and better integrated.

In this climate of separation, with a high proportion of spouses brought in through arranged marriage with close clan-like family ties to their partner (60% of British Pakistanis marry a Pakistani national, and 55% of British Pakistanis are married to their first cousin), what you effectively have are largely non-integrating communities where the “1st generation” is repeated over and over. There are something like 4.7 children born to every British Pakistani woman, so this is also growing fast.

A lot of British people are quite uncomfortable with this situation, and it is negatively reflected in their opinion of Pakistan as a whole.

22 years ago, this was the big news story about Britain & Pakistan:

Pakistani cricket legend & progressive politician Imran Khan marries British beauty Jemima Goldsmith. Back in the 1990s this is probably how a lot of British people thought & hoped society here would progress - a gradual integration of cultures and populations, but the reality in many parts of the country with the British Pakistani community has been very different. These are the news stories making the headlines now.

A mainstream political rally for a British Pakistani Labour candidate in Birmingham - this photo caused a political controversy for Labour.

A Muslim extremist rally in London arranged by widely hated British Pakistani Anjem Choudary.

Mohammad Sidique Khan - British Pakistani ringleader of the 7/7 London suicide bombers.

This British Pakistani man, Asad Shah, was a much liked and respected citizen of Glasgow:

Mr Shah was an Ahmadi Muslim who had released YouTube videos speaking in favour of world peace. Hours before his death, he posted the following on Facebook:

Good Friday and a very Happy Easter, especially to my beloved Christian nation... Let's follow the real footstep of beloved holy Jesus Christ and get the real success in both worlds

Then, he was brutally killed in a premeditated religiously motivated murder.

This man, Tanveer Ahmed, was jailed for the crime - he drove from Bradford to Glasgow, stabbed Mr Shah repeatedly and stamped on his head as he lay bleeding to death. He is a Pakistani born Sunni Muslim with hardline Islamic views who entered the UK on a spousal visa through an arranged marriage.

These men, all but one of whom are from a Pakistani background, were jailed for their role in the grooming and rape of as many as 1400 white British girls as young as 11 in Rotherham.

Rotherham: In the face of such evil, who is the racist now?

These are the news stories bombarding Britain today about our Pakistani population. You just simply don't find the same controversy and negativity surrounding British Indians. You could blame the media I suppose, but they could not report these things if they did not happen.

Fear of being branded a racist in a climate of political correctness prevents many British people (especially educated middle class people) saying what they actually think about this, but they obviously do not like it, and soap shoved in the mouth doesn't cleanse the mind; those thoughts will come out more subtly - a detectable preference for India over Pakistan being one of the more obvious.

The most famous British Pakistani at the moment is probably London Mayor Sadiq Khan

Mr Khan is a progressive social democrat who has received death threats from Islamic hardliners in the UK for his stance on gay rights. He is often held up as a good example of a UK Pakistani becoming integrated and playing an important part in society.

However, what most people do not realise is that Sadiq Khan isn't really very Pakistani, his family lived in Delhi, India - only moving to Pakistan in 1947 during partition, as many Indian Muslims did - his own parents moved on to Britain before Sadiq was born in 1970, so the Pakistani connection is a little tenuous.

With Mr Khan becoming mayor of one of the great cities of the world, I don’t believe that Britain is close-minded towards Muslims being part of British society, in fact for many people, the opposite is true.

Its easy to say ‘well, there's a lot of Muslims in London’, and I'd agree, but there are other examples of a more open minded attitude to Muslims than may have been the case 40 years ago. The adorable Nadiya Hussain became the winner of wildly popular TV show The Great British Bake Off in 2015, and has been taken into the nations heart. She has gone on to become popular broadcaster and writer.

She has such a radiant smile - it would be very hard to dislike her. Nadiya is a British Bangladeshi, and now something of a British icon. Its hard if not impossible to find a British icons from a Mirpuri Pakistani background.

This is Natasha Khan - better known as British singer Bat for Lashes. She is mixed race, born to an English mother, her father is famous Pakistani squash player and coach Rehmat Khan and her second cousin is Jahangir Khan, 10 times British Open champion & widely regarded as the greatest squash player of all time. Many owners of a Bat for Lashes record are probably not even aware of the Pakistani connection, and that connection is to Karachi and Peshawar.

Another famous British Pakistani Khan (no relation to Sadiq or Natasha) is boxer Amir - again, his heritage is Punjabi Rajput rather than Mirpuri.

The British Pakistanis I have been friends with over the years have all been from families with middle class urban backgrounds around Karachi or Lahore, and I think its only fair and truthful to say that many non-Mirpuri Pakistanis who migrated to the UK integrated more readily with British society than the numerically dominant Mirpuri Pakistani population.

It is probably the case that the good things British Pakistanis from these commumities do, mostly occur within their communities, and go unreported to the wider society, whilst bad things they do which step outside community boundaries such as the murder of Mr Shah and the disgusting and racist sexual abuse of white girls are widely reported.

This doesn't cast Pakistan in a great light for those who do not understand the strange quirks of Pakistani migration to the UK - and it's fair to say most white British people have not got a clue about this. I first became aware of it from a British Pakistani friend a few years ago.

The UK will be better off as a society in my view if we can find a way past where we are today with better integration, and this may lead to a more generally positive attitude to Pakistan.

Five things Americans should not do when visiting the United Kingdom

by James Ballantyne

In Britain we love it when our American friends visit. Avoid making the following mistakes, and all will go smoothly.

1. Make comparisons between the United Kingdom and the United States. Most British people will not care to hear your opinion on what is different, better or worse in the UK than in the US. For the most part, we already know. On average, Brits travel outside their country more than Americans do, so many of us have visited the US multiple times. Those that haven’t will have an idea from American films and TV. We also do not consider that the way things are done in the US is “normal” or a yardstick to compare other places to. In fact, it seems to us that the US is a global outlier when it comes to many things, good and bad. Think about this before uttering anything along the lines of the following phrases to (or within earshot of) your British hosts:

“these British homes are like cute little Hobbit houses”. Do you want to invite the reverse comparison that many American homes are gaudy oversized McMansions that are built like flimsy movie sets and as expensive to heat and cool as a five hundred year old castle?“English beer is weird. Flat and warm”. Perhaps the reason that Coors, Pabst Blue Ribbon or Bud Light are served ice cold and heavily carbonated is to mask their deeply insipid and unpleasant flavours. To successfully sell beer at 50°F without extra carbonation requires it to taste good. And in the temperate climes of the UK, we do not need our drinks to be ice cold.“English power outlets are so different”. Indeed they are. Top marks for your detective skills. Personally I think the British plug is an over-engineered dead-weight which is just waiting for you to step on it without shoes and impale your feet. But remember that the US is a global outlier with its inefficient 110v mains voltage and flimsy plugs that cause sparks to fly alarmingly every time you connect or disconnect them. Neither is very satisfactory - Brazilian plugs are the best. /geek over.

All Brits live in places like this. Or this.

2. Describe things as “quaint”. We Brits often hear visitors from the United States make observations like “villages in the Cotswolds are so quaint” or “London pubs are so quaint”. While we know that this is done with the best of intentions, it may nevertheless irritate your British hosts and make you seem a little ignorant. Why? Well let’s take a look at the definition of the word quaint from the Oxford dictionary - “Attractively unusual or old-fashioned.” Sounds like a pretty legit compliment, right? Errr.. not really. Let’s take the two parts of that definition in turn:

“Attractively unusual”. Describing something as unusual in a place where it is the norm is not very smart. Telling a British person that pubs or historic villages are unusual is like telling an American that cars or malls are unusual. The fact that “quaint” implies not just unusual but attractivelyunusual does not make up for this.“Old-fashioned”. This part is even worse. To a British ear, describing something as old-fashioned is like saying it is outdated, with the implication that it is backward. Imagine a visitor from Europe to a part of the US with a high rate of gun ownership remarking that it is so “quaint” and “old-fashioned” that people still own guns there. Imagine the reaction.

3. Equate England, Britain and the United Kingdom.

This can be forgiven as the reality is far from straightforward. But, nevertheless, as a visitor you should make the effort to realise that these are three entirely different things. Best to say that you are visiting the UK, since this is the sovereign country. Do not, under any circumstances, refer to Welsh, Scottish or Northern Irish people as “English”.

All clear now? If not, click here.

4. Pronounce place names incorrectly. Yes, it is true that many British place names are pronounced in a way that bears little relation to their spelling or the way their namesakes in the US are pronounced. Yes, this might seem strange or illogical (it’s what comes from spoken and written languages evolving somewhat separately). But please pay attention - it will improve your visit if you get the hang of it.

In the UK, Birmingham is not pronounced “bur-ming-HAM” but rather “BER-ming-um” (and, in general, “ham” in place names is almost always pronounced “um”). Leicester is not pronounced “lay-CES-tur” but rather “LES-ter”. Oxford is not pronounced “ox-FORD” but rather “OX-fud”. Glasgow is not pronounced “glaaz-GOW” but rather “GLAZ-goh” or “GLAZ-geh”. The list goes on.

This is not just a question of different accents. Pronouncing place names differently from the residents of those places could render you unintelligible, make people conclude that you are dumb or, worse, make you a target of the darker side of British humour.

How? Well, let’s imagine the following scenario: You are in Leicestershire, England and ask someone for directions to Loughborough where you are meeting a friend arriving by train. You say “Excuse me, sir. Could you tell me how to get to the railroad station in Lao-bo-ROH?”. The initial reaction is likely to be one of a blank look of incomprehension. People in that area will likely need a minute or two to realise that you are talking about “LUFF-bruh”. The fact that you referred to a British railway as a “railroad” could serve to further amuse or confuse. Once any confusion is cleared up, most Brits will help you with accurate directions. But some will conclude that you are ignorant and likely gullible (an all too common, if generally unfair, perception of American tourists in the UK, and one that you will probably not wish to encourage) and either be condescending or, worse, misdirect you for their own amusement.

5. Attempt to imitate an accent from any part of the UK. I know I just told you to try to pronounce place names the same way as locals. You should. And if you ever refer to the 1970s British comedy collective “Monty Python” be sure to pronounce it as they would (“PIE-thun” not “pie-THON”). But exercise extreme caution if you are tempted to try to imitate any UK accent in its entirety. If you succeed, go directly to Hollywood, because you will have pulled off a feat that celebrity actors routinely fail to do. But beware - if you attempt this, it is much more likely that people will laugh at you rather than with you.