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Transnational Thursday for January 29, 2026

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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The names aren't "Indian". Islamic names tend to be quite similar across MENA, but I'm confident that the people named aren't, especially the ones for whom we've got pictures. Even going off priors, Indians in the UK don't work those kind of jobs.

I suppose you're trying to tell me they're Pakistani which is theoretically interesting but does not change the thrust of my post. Is there some catch-all term I can use to avoid these tedious corrections from Indian/Bengali/Pakistani/etc people? I suppose "South Asian?". Or "subcontinental," though that sounds like it might offend people. What's the preferred term to refer to this collection of peoples? If there isn't one, I'm probably just going to have to continue saying "Indian."

Both South Asian or Subcontinental work, since Bangladeshis are at least technically more likely to be in the reference class.