i just want to know if indian posters here can tell for instance an iranian from fellow indians, if so how can you tell a person is middle eastern not indian.

I'm not Indian but I can see the differences.

tell how can you see the difference

I can see them but not really explain, it's a different type, like Jews versus Italians, Peruvians versus Indonesians, something like that..

or ninja vs spartans

Middle eastern people are a lot lighter than Indians

indians are dark as fucc

what i mean is facial features how can you tell a light indian from a dark middle eastern in this case.

Not really. It depends entirely from what part of the Middle East the person is from.




No.

so how do tell if a person is middle eastern or indian in physical appearance? or is it not possible to tell them apart?

I don't usually rely on physical appearance....I look at last names.


Although, in terms of physical appearance, Middle Eastern people usually don't wear turbans or chains with OM pendants on them. That's usually a giveaway that a person in South Asian and not Middle Eastern (as most Middle Easterners outside of the Middle East don't wear turbans or necklaces with OM on them. Same goes with tattoos....if the person has an OM or a khanda tattooed on their hand or arm, they are probably South Asian (although some white women who are into Yoga will also have OM tattoos).

your circling the question the thread is not about how can you tell them apart culturally, it's how can you tell them apart physically! and if you can't tell them apart physically just say so.

I suppose @Tenjikuronin referred to physical characteristics. There is a lot of variation in physical characteristics between middle-easterners themselves.

I can't believe this you guys were constantly talking about how indians look and how arabs look, but now none of you want to talk about this stuff?

what makes you not want to talk answer this simple question? i know there is varation in all populations but you can always compare populations!

their eyebrows, jawline and nose, completely different.

well i can see the difference clearly, and i think it's just lame how some indians over estimate the diversity of india.

i ve had indian people ask me if i was indian and i don't look the smallest bit indian. i don't know how they think i m indian? i ve never seen an indian look like me. i m half iranian half british american and i m on the lighter end of iranian spectrom with a more western european look and yet they somehow think i look indian?

i m don't think indians look bad, some are good looking people, it's just kinda ridiculus that some indians think that anyone to the west of india can be indian looking, bollywood has gotten to their heads.

I guess it depends on the region of india. I"m not indian or middle-eastern but I have a lot of friends from both sides. southeastern indians look a lot different from northwestern indians obviously. I think the one's from the north are lighter and a lot more "caucasian" looking, meaning: prominant nose, strong brow, more body hair, sunken eyes, etc...those are the one's that can be mistaken for middle-easterners - or even white if they are light enough. India has a broad spectrum of skin tones and even has a caste system where lighter skin means higher caste so even they have their own issues.

Indians are a diverse bunch. Most of the Indians I come into contact with in universities are pretty dark. However, I am told that the ruling elites of India are quite light. Some Indians probably look just like Middle-Easterners, or even Mediterraneans. Northeast Indians, in the meanwhile, look somewhat like East/Southeast Asians.

There is a huge diversity in the Indian look but none of them look Middle-Eastern, well the Pathans look slightly different but that's it. Also among Indians like any other race there are exceptions to the look like Neil Nitin Mukesh who could have been Afghan-Persian. That being said, most Bollywood male actors are not lightskinned. Bollywood infact likes the males to be dusky, which also goes for the regional film industries. As far as for the actresses goes the beauty standard has always been meassured in fairer skin in India.

Do Indian people mistake you for an Indian? I don't think you look Indian at all. But yeah I guess people just take the easy way out. With me people mistake me for being of latin origins, and sometimes even baltic but then again those people lack the insight to different looks in different cultures as I have some people who manage to narrow it down to the exact area. But yeah you don't look Indan at all from what I remember, but yeah I wouldn't you where of Iranian origins either.

the highest of the highest cast in india is still not that light, and they just look like bleached indians, they still have indian features. the most western indian still can't pass as the common middle eastern they can only pass as the darker more indian looking middle easterns.

the pathan aren't ethnically related to indians they are afghanis and are related to eastrern iranian, and thus their look. the guy posted still looks indian, ofcurse he is more similar to iranians that most indians.

but even this guy doesn't look similar to me how can any indian think i look indian, even if the most irregular, most western looking indians don't look like me.

Pathans in India are still Indians.

I just said he looked sort of Afghan, not that he looked like you. People in your area must be blind then I guess. I still remember you clearly and I remember that you don't look Indian at all.

Erm..yes really. You must be one of those Indians who have that fair skin complex, if you don't want to believe that Indians are darker than Middle Easterners then go ahead but it's the truth they are a lot lighter. No I'm not saying that Indians are dark, i'm just saying Middle Easterners are lighter and that's the truth of it.

Sound like you've never seen a Middle Eastern person before. I work with Arabs from both Saudia Arabia and Oman and they are many shades darker than I am. Not that skin tone matters, but its absolutely asinine to say that Indians are darker than Middle Easterners or vice versa. There is far too much variation in skin tones throughout both South Asia and the Middle East for an absolutist statement like that to be true.

you ve taken the darkest middle easterns and your comparing them! it's quite correct to say that middle eastern people as a whole are lighter than indian people as a whole, population wide comparision and that a fact!

heck the common indian is even darker than most saudis and omanis.

Sources for your assertion?

There are other dark Middle-Easterns as well. People from Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, West Sahara and Libya are pretty dark aswell. Bedouins specifcally are some of the darkest people I have ever seen. So yeah I wouldn't go that far with the statement about Middle-Easterns being lighter than Indians.

Oh dear lord it seems liek I've stepped on some toes just by stating a fact, it is a fact that teh biggest way to distinguish between a middle eastern and an Indian is by skin colour. Why won't you just accept that fact or is it that you just like starting debates over silly things?

Ok, so there are dark Middle Easterns but that's not the point the op wanted to know how we see the difference and the difference is that Indians are darker, dark middle Eastern people are probably mistaken for some other race and not their own.

Well it's not a fact. In order for stating that as a fact you'll need to provide with sources to back up your claim. Your argument of telling a Middle-Eastern apart from an Indian simply based on skin colour isn't tenable, when both groups clearly have different facial structures to determine who belongs to which group. It would almost be as if I said that you can tell Middle-Eastern women apart from Indian women because they are hairier than Indian women.

Maybe you people need pictures help too. Mid-Eastern people were divided into several tribes and sub-tribes and also according to their area.

Palestinian Kids in Jenin



Two Iraqis with a US army



From Abu Dhabi



Yemeni

Lebanese girl



Lebanese singers

Nancy Ajram



Fairouz

Actually she's a refugee from Palestine.



George Wassouf



Palestinian guy

Toni Qattan

Middle easterns have bigger noses than south asians and lighter & probably the darkest middle easterns are mostly are ppl from arabian gulf around red sea & iranians. the most european looking ppl are from turkey israel & lebanese christians and syrian christians

Hollywood always casts indians to play middle easterns i donno why just look at freida pinto she looks no where close to being middle eastern let alone north or central indian n shes playin some palestian chick do u think we indians really give a fu-k? go to ratedesi.com and look at pakistanis and bengalis rant about how they r mixed with you arabs and crap

Syrians

What's wrong with typical Indian looks? I think typical Indian looks are not bad. Iranian are not Mid Easterners and will never be Mid Easterners.

Yep, here are some 'light skinned' Middle Easterners....











Seriously though, using skin color to distinguish South Asians and Middle Easterners is asinine.

people who say that middle easterners are "fair", dont have any idea about the middle east.

in general middle eastern people have rough features and south asians have fine features.

Human skin color is body's response to sunlight. But seriously I am disappointed by the quality of discussion here.

its strange why people think that skin colour is genetics?

its not.

a person who lives in a hot climate will eventually start getting tan and finally his genes will start producing the necessary genetic material needed for a person who lives in a sunny hot climate. if the person then decides to move to an extremely cold climate with no sunlight, the genes will work in reverse and the person will start to fair. its a slow process but that's the way it works.

unless and until there is a genetic mutation and you loose the ability to tan or fair which unfortunately happened in the case of "white" people

i guess lighter skin is appreciated in almost all cultures around the world just look at this site its mostly about light vs dark i guess havin lighter skin is havin some kinda superior social hierarchy notice the thread starters comments about skin color & some of the threads on here

by indian standards no doubt middle easterners on average, are fair. by northern european standard ofcurse middle easterners are dark.

also i wouldn't quite say that middle easterners are rough featured, they are more robust and sharper featured. indians on the other hand have more rounded features.
rough feature can only mean having rough skin and damaged tissue not facial features.

middle eastern people dont have round or sharp features.

they have robust features i guess

as for indians, this is how they look:

http://www.masalatalk.com/masalaboard/show...2177&page=2

Middle Easterners aren't the same as Indians, but India being as diverse as it is, there are people in India that can be mistaken for being middle eastern. Which is sometimes pretty common because the western side of India is pretty close to the Middle East; however, the South, Central, East and North Indian people can be pretty distinguishable for being from India, and the North East is pretty much a indo-chinese look.

This is from what I have seen though, feel free to enlighten my post if anyone feels the urge to.

the question is, how do you tell a Punjabi from a middle easterner. I've asked my indian friends this, and they tell me it's impossible.

Last name.


Although with Muslim Punjabis (mostly from Pakistan), names can be decieving. In that case, simply talk to them in Punjabi and if they understand, they aren't Middle Eastern.

no even punjabi's are easily differentiated from middle easterners. only some pakistanis can look somewhat middle eastern and that ofcurse is cause pakistanis are partly middle easterns. even in pakistan you can clearly tell who is of south asian background and who is of middle eastern origin.



i know a few pakistanis and i can tell the difference i stated.

north indians just don't look like middle easterns they maybe more similar but they don't look the same.

Pakistanis are not "partly Middle Eastern". Pakistan's demographic makeup is as follows,

1.Punjabis (44.15%)
2.Pashtuns (15.42%)
3.Sindhis (14.1%)
4.Seraikis (10.53%)
5.Muhajirs (7.57%)
6.Balochis (3.57%)


Out of those six groups, only Balochis are Middle Eastern (Pashtuns are not, as Afganistan is not part of the Middle East). Balochis make up less than 4% of the entire country's population. The other 96% are all all South Asians groups. In no way are Pakistanis remotely Middle Eastern.

why are ppl even bothering to replay this insecure paki bastared

why do pakistani and indians dislike each other???

unresolved land issues pertaining to Kashmir.

We dont its just some of these internet kids come up with pathetic excuses to complain about indians



Yup pakistan ISI is sending pakistani militants in to Kashmir to creat choas it started since the 80s when they started ethnic clensing of native hindus of that region