IM A PUNJABI AND ALSO SIKH GUY................SIKH IS A RELIGION AND PUNJABI IS RACE........BENGGALI I HAVE NO *U****** IDEA . ANYWAYS THOSE CLOWNS TO THINK AND ALSO CALL US BENGGALI.....SHOULD GO AND READ A BOOK FIRST AND FIND OUT ITS LIKE CALLING A TIGER KITTY!


FOR YOUR INFO PUNJABI IS ALSO A LANGUAGE AND PUNJAB IS THE BIGGEST STATE IN INDIA.

This post has been edited by harvin6: Oct 15 2010, 09:21 AM

Bengali is a person from Bengal (north-east India + Bangladesh, IINM there is a state of West Bengal now in India).

Someone mentions earlier in this thread that there are Sikhs there too. Some of the earlier Sikh migrants into Malaya may have came from Bengal. Due to the turban and beard, they look very different from other people in Malaya. They stand out. The locals then got confused and started calling all Sikhs "Bengali", even those who came from Punjab.

I've asked him if this is just conjecture, or he heard/read it somewhere, but he didn't reply.

BTW: isn't the largest state in India Rajasthan (by area), Madhya Pradesh (until it was split recently), Uttar Pradesh (by population).

Now I wonder why Indians are called Keling. Anyone has a decent speculation.

Malays have been calling Indians (anyone from India or Indian descent) as Keling for centuries.

In the old days - India is known as "Benua Keling" (southern India to be exact)

Kamus Dewan Bahasa has full explanation:
http://prpm.dbp.gov.my/Search.aspx?k=keling

Possible reference is Kalinga.

This post has been edited by najminaruto: Oct 21 2010, 06:58 PM

Thanks Naruto,

So, it is actually Inida's old name during the Kalinga empire.

I am intrigued by the other explaination in the link you gave
"keling I - IB paku besi yg berkepala dua (utk melekatkan dua keping besi); mengeling melekatkan (menyatukan) besi dgn menggunakan keling."

if keling and benggali is nothing offensive then why some people got butthurt?

usually used to curse or degrade people. it evolved into a swear word.

Keling was never meant to degrade Indians or Indians descents...
In the old days, it was never derogatory, in fact it's the correct word for someone who is Indian. Maybe it just the change from using the word India from Keling made this happens?

Hmm, who want to debunk this mystery now?

IDK, maybe the Indians brought the "nail" technology to South East Asia. In the old days, no building here actually use nail, because there is no such invention yet...

BTW it could derived from the English word "cling" - because the nail is a two-headed nail, which "clings" together. Possible...

This post has been edited by najminaruto: Oct 22 2010, 06:47 PM

I agree. This is how people use the word from their tone of voice and context. I also wonder if this evolution into a swear word only applies in Malaysia. Since Bengal still exist today do Indians in India consider it a term meaning a guy form Bengal province. Like Kelantanese being a guy form Kelantan.
Have you any idea when Keling became know as India? I hope it is some new empire and not colonization. For that matter I am not sure where the word China came form. In chinese china is translated as middle kindom. The sound China does not even match any chinese dialect for middle kingdom.

I am replying to the pain topic of the thread

Bangladesh is an Independent Country and all the Bangladeshi people are know as Bangladeshi

The official language of Bangladesh is Bengali, the world mother language day 21st february is from Bangladeshi official language Bengali. At 1952 Bangladeshi people fought with Pakistan for the right to have Bengali as their official language and 21st February 1952 they got their deserved right.

In India there is a state named West bengal and citizens of the state speak Bengali language.

All the people around the world speaking bengali language is known as Bangali.

And I believe there should be no confusion anymore.

As a Chinese speaker I think there are a lot Chinese dialects available around the world. In China when I travel from one province to another I even sometimes dont understand the dialects.

lots of malaysians failed to realize that not all punjabis are sikh. in fact, majority of punjabis are muslims and they are residing in punjab region in pakistan. yes, punjab is divided into 2 regions thanks to religious conflict.



This post has been edited by quintessential: Nov 1 2010, 12:14 AM

That doesn't really answer the confusion/common misconcepcion raised in the first post.
yes we know that, but what caused such misconcepcion among Malaysians (mostly Chinese, hence the word "Bangkali")?

I'm a Sikh myself and often misunderstood as a Bengali. Well its two different thing. My Chinese friends are the ones misunderstood this. Well you should tell them. At times, I do feel irritated too people should really know the difference.

Bengali comes from Bangladesh and India. They speak Bengali unlike Sikh which speaks Punjabi and Hindi (If I'm not wrong)

Maybe that's what they called themselves.

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Added on November 30, 2010, 11:39 amSo can you tell Cantonese from Hokkien?



This post has been edited by wodenus: Nov 30 2010, 11:39 AM

Good question. Some people from northern China cant even tell.

Nop, i bet i can't. Unless if they speak. I might be able to recognise the tone of Contonese. Not sure bout Hokkien. But aren't that still classifies as Chinese?

another way 2 differentiate is punjabi/sikhs has a singh in their middle name..btw no religions/races love 2 be called names..

I think you did not get Wodnenus's point. During that time people do dont travel so much since transportation technology is not that advance like today. As such people are ignorant about strange races for distance land. China has so many dialects that it is not so easy for people to tell their location base on their dialect. Even today (with our information age), some still have may not be able to tell easily.

Now you are confusing me. I thought singh is a surname for those whose religion is sikhs. I am surprise that it is a surname for all punjubis.

Perhaps, I got the wrong meaning.

Yes you are tight. Singh is for those whose religion is Sikh. Even the Gurjars, Rajputs use Singh. Of course, its more commonly used by Sikh. But, not all punjabis use the name singh. Because we have punjabi-hindu and stuff like that, so no.

This post has been edited by sarvinG: Dec 1 2010, 10:09 PM

punjabi are sikhs..there is no other races in Sikhs..

Gurjars, Rajputs these are name of places...they means where they come from but there are still punjabis..and have singh as their middle name..

i don know what answer are u guys digging for..explaining 2 u guys seems impossible..