I couple of nights ago I began looking for white wedding sarees on the internet to procrastinate working on my paper. I came across this Yahoo Answers Page where the question was asked, “Where can I find a pure white wedding saree online from the USA?” I was anticipating reading the answers since I will most likely have to order my saree online. I’m skeptical of letting any relatives pick one out for me in India. As I read the comments though I was appalled by the ignorance in their answers. Two commenters insisted that wedding sarees are never white while another stated that white saris are only worn by widows. It upsets me that so many Indians or people of East Indian descent are STILL so uneducated and ignorant of the religious diversity of India.

White wedding sarees are worn by various Christian groups in India, including my own ancestry. I’m not sure when the tradition started but the longevity of this practice is irrelevant. What angers me is the assumption that anything non-Hindu is non-Indian. Hindus are not the only religious group to wear sarees and the general belief that to be Indian is to be Hindu is narrow-minded. I am really tired of having to point out that some practices can be considered distinctly Hindu while others can be seen as part of Indian culture (although that is a broad category in itself). I have had to in the past sustain questioning and ridicule by other people of East Indian descent on how I wasn’t a “real” Indian because I was not Hindu. Thankfully my Muslim friends weren’t so ignorant; possibly because they were subject to the same idiocy.

I just wonder how I should deal with this ignorance. Should I take it upon myself to use this as an opportunity for education? Or should I just brush it off since I will barely make a dent in changing such ignorance?