I live in a Texas neighborhood where perhaps 40% of the local residents are Indian, and also some Nepalis (and perhaps Pakistanis/Bangladeshis as well.)
I like national flags, and used to collect several of them. I have an India flag at my home but haven’t displayed it yet. I am thinking of putting it up for display on the patio (just to draw curiosity, and maybe be an icebreaker with the neighbors) but would like advice on whether this is dumb and I am inviting violence or trouble?
Are you of Indian origin? Do others in the neighborhood fly national flags?
IIRC India and Pakistan aren’t always on good terms, so unless you know how your neighbors feel…
No, I am not Indian. And nobody else here flies flags.
I wouldn’t put up a flag that didn’t represent myself. Who would know what you were trying to say? I sure don’t without you explaining it.
What you could do is display all of your flags, though. That would make it apparent you’re being inclusive.
Actually, I wouldn’t put any up at all. But if I did, I’d put them all up.
All of them? Even the Confederate battle flag?
In that case, I agree with @needscoffee
Where did he say he had a Confederate battle flag?
I would say no, don’t put it up. At the very least you could be accused of trivializing their flag by treating it as a decoration or collectors item.
Wait, you’re serious?
If I were Chinese or Pakistani, I’d be mad because we’re “sort of at war” with India. If I were Indian, I’d be mad that you’re flying a flag you have no right to (and if I were Swiss, I’d just shake my head and walk on by…)
Point is, you’d be angering (or at least annoying) a number of your neighbors.
…
Sometimes we need friends who’ll say “Hell of an idea. But a bad one…”
Maybe fly a U.S. flag next to another country’s flag. Fly a different foreign flag every day.
I have the flag of Dominica hanging (inside) my home because I like it. The Sisserou Parrot, rare and indigenous to the island is damn cool.
I also fly the Sint Maarten flag and the St Martin flag from our pontoon boat.
Who knows what I’m trying to say? Nobody, but I do not care.
Yes but your flags don’t carry baggage for anyone. They’re cool and relatively obscure. Very different than the OP’s situation.
I wouldn’t do it, but it’s your home and as far as I know not unlawful so do as you please.
I would be shocked if it invited violence or trouble, but there is bound to be someone who takes it as a political statement, rather than just something to “draw curiosity.”
Although it should be a harmless gesture, someone will end up pissed off.
That just seems really weird to fly a flag of a nation you don’t live in and are not from, especially when no one else is displaying the flag. It would look like you were trying to make some kind of political point.
I mean if you progressively work through various nations why not? I think if you exclusively flew the Indian flag that might raise eyebrows but fly the Indian flag then Malta, then the UK, then Brazil, then Canada and it becomes just a thing that guy down the road does.
There’s a house in our neighborhood that regularly flies a flag of a seemingly random country. I’ve meant to ask them if they’re flag collectors, because there seems to be pattern to the flags they’ve flown. No one can accuse them of playing favorites.
So, I realized I had no idea what the flag of India looked like. It’s really very pretty!
Some years ago, I did a facepainting stall at a street party, in the very multicultural city I lived in. Mostly, this was butterflies/spiderman on small children and their parents (my sign specified I had a lower age limit but no upper one). Normal kiddie stuff. Mid afternoon, one girl, maybe 12, came up to me and asked if I could do the Pakistani flag, because ‘It’s Pakistani independence day today’. I had to get it drawn on a bit of paper by a committee of her and her friends, but hey, cute kid wants their national flag on their face on a national holiday? Why not?
10 minutes later, a rather large man showed up, sat on my little chair and said ‘Pakistani flag’.
At this point, I realised that I may have made a mistake. I could’t figure out how to refuse, so sheepishly slapped on an amateurish attempt at a Pakistani flag.
5 minutes after that, an even larger man showed up.
‘Indian flag’.
I had to get him to draw it, but if I didn’t refuse the last guy, how could I refuse him…?
When I packed up shortly afterwards, the two of them were rolling on the floor punching each other down the street.
So yeah, what I guess I’m saying is, maybe don’t fly an Indian flag…