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Just FYI - India is not a homogenous society. It has 22 official languages, 29 states + 7 union territories, 9 officially recognized religions. So, no, there i

Just FYI - India is not a homogenous society. It has 22 official languages, 29 states + 7 union territories, 9 officially recognized religions. So, no, there is no "Indian head wobble". What the fine article describes is a distinct cultural thing amongst a very specific subset of India's population that western society has encountered so far.

shankr 8y ago
It's surprising how even the most educated western, either Europeans or Americans are unaware of this fact. So many times people would go, "he/she doesn't look very Indian".
kranner 8y ago
Ditto for “Indian accent”. There are hundreds of Indian accents.
- Balero 8y ago
  If you don't have an ear for specific accents they start to sound very similar/the same. There are hundreds of British (or Chinese, Japanese etc) accents. But unless you are familiar with them, and often the language they speak most (as you tend to change your accent for speaking a different language) they all sound unbelievably similar.
- 7Z7 8y ago
  "British accent" "Irish accent" "American accent" "Chinese accent"
LordAtlas 8y ago
The writer is an Indian and lives in Bangalore.
- rishav_sharan 8y ago
  And I agree that he is overgeneralizing. There are a lot of people that i come across who don't do this wobble. But in IT hubs (Hyd, Bng etc) it does seems to a general behavior.
leg100 8y ago
That's not to say there isn't an 'indian head wobble'. It doesn't mean everyone or even most indians wobble their heads, or that there aren't people outside india who do so too, but that there are people in india who wobble their head, and it has come to be identified with india.
carlmr 8y ago
It's common enough that you can call it Indian head wobble. Not all Americans are fat, you can still talk about the American obesity problem even if a few of the states are fitter than the European average. People talk about American accent, but a Texan, a Californian and a New Yorker (just to pick 3 of many examples) will sound very distinct. People talk about beer tasting German, but it's very distinct between Bavaria and Cologne. Not talking about the Indian head wobble is just unnecessary hair splitting. It's an interesting phenomenon which is spread widely enough in India and throughout the Indian diaspora that you can call it that.
- trrahul 8y ago
  I'm from a neighbour state Kerala and we don't have this head wobble.
  - Gigablah 8y ago
    My colleague (a Kerala native) begs to differ :)
- kranner 8y ago
  > Not talking about the Indian head wobble is just unnecessary hair splitting. It's an interesting phenomenon which is spread widely enough in India and throughout the Indian diaspora that you can call it that. I don't know if you're Indian or very familiar with India, but this really is not true. I'm from Punjab and the first time I travelled to Karnataka the head wobble was something of a culture shock to me. The way people constantly shook their heads to signal being attentive towards another person who is speaking, the way I saw an auto driver do a slow 180-degree shake to signal "yes I'm familiar with the address" while I thought he was trying to say "I've never heard of that place in my life", we have nothing similar in Punjab or its neighbouring states. Maybe it's common in the Indian diaspora, because there is a lot of cross-Indian-state intermixing outside India, but that is not the case within India itself.
  - selimthegrim 8y ago
    I have seen it in Pakistani Punjab, from an employee of the PTDC office in Lahore
vermontdevil 8y ago
Geninuely curious, where in India this is pretty common?
- helloindia 8y ago
  South India.

shankr 8y ago

It's surprising how even the most educated western, either Europeans or Americans are unaware of this fact. So many times people would go, "he/she doesn't look very Indian".

kranner 8y ago

Ditto for “Indian accent”. There are hundreds of Indian accents.

Balero 8y ago
If you don't have an ear for specific accents they start to sound very similar/the same. There are hundreds of British (or Chinese, Japanese etc) accents. But unless you are familiar with them, and often the language they speak most (as you tend to change your accent for speaking a different language) they all sound unbelievably similar.
7Z7 8y ago
"British accent" "Irish accent" "American accent" "Chinese accent"

LordAtlas 8y ago

The writer is an Indian and lives in Bangalore.

rishav_sharan 8y ago
And I agree that he is overgeneralizing. There are a lot of people that i come across who don't do this wobble. But in IT hubs (Hyd, Bng etc) it does seems to a general behavior.

leg100 8y ago

That's not to say there isn't an 'indian head wobble'. It doesn't mean everyone or even most indians wobble their heads, or that there aren't people outside india who do so too, but that there are people in india who wobble their head, and it has come to be identified with india.

carlmr 8y ago

It's common enough that you can call it Indian head wobble. Not all Americans are fat, you can still talk about the American obesity problem even if a few of the states are fitter than the European average. People talk about American accent, but a Texan, a Californian and a New Yorker (just to pick 3 of many examples) will sound very distinct. People talk about beer tasting German, but it's very distinct between Bavaria and Cologne. Not talking about the Indian head wobble is just unnecessary hair splitting. It's an interesting phenomenon which is spread widely enough in India and throughout the Indian diaspora that you can call it that.

trrahul 8y ago
I'm from a neighbour state Kerala and we don't have this head wobble.
- Gigablah 8y ago
  My colleague (a Kerala native) begs to differ :)
kranner 8y ago
> Not talking about the Indian head wobble is just unnecessary hair splitting. It's an interesting phenomenon which is spread widely enough in India and throughout the Indian diaspora that you can call it that. I don't know if you're Indian or very familiar with India, but this really is not true. I'm from Punjab and the first time I travelled to Karnataka the head wobble was something of a culture shock to me. The way people constantly shook their heads to signal being attentive towards another person who is speaking, the way I saw an auto driver do a slow 180-degree shake to signal "yes I'm familiar with the address" while I thought he was trying to say "I've never heard of that place in my life", we have nothing similar in Punjab or its neighbouring states. Maybe it's common in the Indian diaspora, because there is a lot of cross-Indian-state intermixing outside India, but that is not the case within India itself.
- selimthegrim 8y ago
  I have seen it in Pakistani Punjab, from an employee of the PTDC office in Lahore

vermontdevil 8y ago

Geninuely curious, where in India this is pretty common?

helloindia 8y ago
South India.