Five Types of Indians Who Aren’t Brown and Hindu

A look at some of the lesser-known people who call India home

In your mind’s eye — try and conjure up an image of your typical Indian person.

They probably look something like this:

Straight or wavy black hair, brown eyes, sharp-ish facial features and brown skin.

You’d think that they were likely a Ganesh or Vishnu worshipping Hindu — though you might be aware that a great many are also Muslims and Sikhs.

Now, that might describe the majority of Indians — but in a nation of 1.4 billion people with a plethora of different ethnic and religious groups, you’re going to have a lot of folks who do not fall into that bucket.

Below are five such communities of Indians that you probably didn’t know existed:

#5: The ”Middle Eastern Looking” Parsi Community

Parsis are the descendants of Persian refugees who fled that country during its conquest by the Arabs in the 7th century.

They number around 70,000 and still largely practice the Zoroastrian religion (the religion of the ancient Persian Empire).