Years of colonialism and the general hype of living in the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada has created three extremely problematic groups of people in the Indian community. These three groups are problematic because of the western-superiority notion ingrained in most Indians.

The first group is ‘mentally elsewhere but living in India.’ These are infamously Bollywood households and cosmopolitan areas that are full of international schools. This group focuses on raising their children so that they are not connected to their Indian culture. They are taught only English. These children do not know a word of their mother tongue because it is considered ‘tacky.’ These parents have an inferiority complex and believe that English is a social class, not just a language.

The second group of people is Indian immigrants who live in North America or Canada. These are the most problematic out of all. They are insistent on ensuring their children’s names are easy to pronounce for non-Indians. They use far-fetched Indian gods and goddesses’ names to shape them into easily pronounceable names for their community. They insist on teaching them English to ensure their child assimilates.

This fear is translated from their own confusion of where they belong and added on by their western superiority complex. However, they try to appear that they are doing everything they can to ensure their children know the Indian culture. Their best argument is that they show their children Bollywood movies. Unfortunately, Bollywood is as close to Indian culture as the color yellow is to black. Although the parents usually speak their mother tongues fluently, they insist on ensuring their children have nothing to do with their Indian culture.

The third group of people is Indians, who believe that only Indians are culturally superior. This comes as a result of resentment towards the over-western parenting and culture. Typically, this results from group 1 parenting, who believe they are superior to others if their lifestyle and culture are western (North American). This group believes that only Indian values and cultures are the best globally, and people who have been brought up elsewhere are intellectually inferior. They tend to resent both groups 1 and 2 and believe in teaching their children that only the region they live in or India is superior to all others.

These three groups, unfortunately, compose a considerable part of Indian parenting in the 21st century. These groups are causing problems in an overall sense of belonging. Their children generally grow up confused about where they belong. They also tend to have incomplete and biased knowledge of their culture, history, and the general population.