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‘Is this a cultural thing?': Foreigner's Reddit post on Indian etiquette sparks civic sense debate
A foreign tourist in Delhi has sparked a debate online after posting about what he described as a lack of public etiquette in India.
A foreign visitor currently travelling in India has sparked a discussion online after posting about what he described as a lack of public etiquette in India. In a Reddit post titled “Indian etiquette”, the traveller, who said he has spent three days in Delhi, wrote that while he has enjoyed his time in India overall, he was surprised by how often people seemed to ignore queues or personal space.
“So been in India for 3 days now, just in Delhi. Loved it so far (minus the flu i had), but one thing ive noticed that really frusturates me is the lack of etiquette. You'll be standing in a queue and Indians will just jump straight past you even though you've been waiting five minutes. Then when you call it out, they look shocked as if they didnt realise queueing was a thing,” the Redditor wrote.
The OP also cited an incident on a bus in which a fellow passenger reclined his seat so ar back that he hadd “no space”, and reacted angrily when asked to adjust. “He looked so pissed off, and now keeps turning back to glare at me and mutter in Hindi,” the post read.
The tourist asked whether this was “a cultural thing” and sought advice on how visitors should respond without appearing impolite. “Is this a cultural thing? How do folks deal with this? Indians are so friendly, wonderful people, but honestly their manners leave so much to be desired. Is there a best practice to deal with these situations? Idw to be impolite but I'm going to stand my ground as its not fair if people do this,” the user wrote.
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Social media reactions
The post has sparked a discussion online about civic behaviour in India.
“It’s major ying-yang. Most people are friendly, welcoming, will invite you to their home and feed you but the same good people are missing civic sense, empathy, respect of coexistence and personal space,” one user wrote.
“As far as the que thing goes, just stand your ground. It happens to me too. Most of the times the cashier will tell them to wait. Otherwise it's best to ignore it. I know it's frustrating. Here everyone from all backgrounds travel in buses, so don't expect etiquette with them. Problems of too much population,” explained another.
“You will meet some nice people. But india has some of the lowest per capita empathy and once you realise that everything else will make sense- not caring for queues, not caring for other passengers comfort, openly littering everywhere. People just don't care about other people who are strangers,” commented a third user.
